virtues of Pope John Paul II, as part of a process the Vatican says is necessary to declare the former pontiff a saint, BosNewsLife monitored Sunday, November 6.
Not everyone within the Christian world agrees with the tribunal in the late pontiff’s homeland,
and evangelical Christians argue that the Bible suggests that anyone accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is ‘a saint’ in God’s eyes. Some scholars also claim the Scripture talks of ‘saints’ when speaking about those believing in Christ.
The Sainthood Tribunal held its first session this weekend in the Polish town of Krakow on the feast of Saint Charles Borromeo, the name day of the Pontiff, who was born Karol Wojtyla. Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, formerly John Paul II’s personal secretary led Friday’s Mass in Wawel Cathedral, which preceded the inauguration of the tribunal.
MASSIVE CEREMONY
Thousands attended the ceremony, which was similar to one held June 27 in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, where the diocesan phase of the Pope’s beatification was officially opened, the Catholic new agency Zenit observed.
Pope Benedict XVI waived the customary five-year waiting period to start the process, following Catholic calls to name John Paul II a saint as soon as possible.
But Church leaders have reportedly suggested that the procedure will take time and is unlikely to be completed before Pope Benedict’s scheduled trip to Poland next year in June. Five Church officials were sworn in to be part of the Sainthood Tribunal in Krakow, the city where Pope John Paul II spent half of his life.
‘SAINT LIST’
The process of an individual being declared a saint in the Roman Catholic Church began in the 900s, when the church in Rome demanded that all saints throughout her jurisdiction be added to its official list, church experts say. Before that time, the name "saint" was applied more informally, as the plural form was often used in Scripture to designate the faithful.
Pope John Paul II, who died in April this year, markedly changed previous Catholic practice regarding beatification. By October 2004, he beatified 1,340 people, more than the sum of all of his predecessors since Pope Sixtus V, who established a beatification procedure similar to that used today, according to church experts.
The tribunal for the Polish born pontiff comes as Poland’s Law and Justice Party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a devout Catholic, struggles to form a government following recent elections. He has pledged to fight for Catholic values in the new European Union nation. Pope John Paul II often welcomed the end of Communism, when Christians were persecuted, but warned of Western consumerism in Poland. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Poland).
