Reports reaching the desk of CEOAFRICA News from the Vatican City indicates that Pope Francis have cleared his penultimate predecessor, John Paul II for sainthood, approving miracles attributed to the late pontiff.
The first miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II was the healing of a French Nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, who recovered from Parkinson’s disease after praying for the late pontiff’s intercession, a healing confirmed six months after the pope’s death in 2005.
The second miracle, which was credited to the intercession of John Paul II was said to have occurred on May 1, 2011(The night of his beatification ceremony in St. Peter’s Square), and it is the healing of a Costa Rican woman.
Seventy-eight former popes have been canonized, the last being Pope Pius X, who served as head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1903 to 1914. He was canonized in 1954.
Meanwhile, the Vatican has approved the canonization of Pope John XXIII, who was pontiff from 1958 to 1963 and called the Second Vatican Council, with the beatification of Bishop Álvaro del Portillo, the late prelate of Opus Dei, who died in 1994. The bishop succeeded St Josemaría Escrivá as head of Opus Dei.
Born Karol Józef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland. He was ordained in 1946, became the Bishop of Ombi in 1958, and became the Archbishop of Krakow in 1964. He was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1967, and in 1978 became the first non-Italian pope in more than 400 years. He was a vocal advocate for human rights and used his influence to effect political change. He died in 2005 at the age of 84.
Pope John Paul II became Blessed on 1st of May, 2011 at a beatification ceremony presided over by the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter Square, Rome.
The Holy See spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, said the canonisations would most likely take place by the end of the year.
