Saint John Paul II, Pope

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland, on 18 May 1920, the youngest child of Karol Wojtyła, an army non-commissioned officer, and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died in 1929; his elder brother Edmund, a physician, died in 1932; his father died in 1941. He received First Communion at nine and Confirmation at eighteen. After graduating from the gymnasium in Wadowice, he entered the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1938 to study literature and poetry, already drawn to the stage and to the Rhapsodic Theatre.

When Nazi forces closed the university in 1939, he labored from 1940 to 1944 in a quarry and then in the Solvay chemical plant to earn a living and avoid deportation. From 1942, sensing a call to the priesthood, he joined the clandestine major seminary of Kraków under Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha while continuing underground cultural work. After the war he completed seminary and theological studies and was ordained a priest in Kraków on 1 November 1946. Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome, where he earned a doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on faith in the writings of Saint John of the Cross; during vacations he ministered among Polish emigrants in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Returning to Poland in 1948, he served as curate at Niegowić and then at Saint Florian's in Kraków, and as chaplain to university students until 1951. He resumed advanced studies, presenting in 1953 a thesis on founding Christian ethics upon Max Scheler's system, and became professor of moral theology and ethics in the Kraków seminary and at the Catholic University of Lublin. On 4 July 1958 Pope Pius XII named him auxiliary bishop of Kraków (titular of Ombi); he was consecrated on 28 September 1958 in Wawel Cathedral. Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków on 13 January 1964 and created him cardinal on 26 June 1967. He took a notable part in the Second Vatican Council, especially in the drafting of Gaudium et spes, and later in synods of bishops.

Elected pope on 16 October 1978, he began his ministry as universal pastor on 22 October, taking the name John Paul II in tribute to his predecessor. The first non-Italian pope in centuries, he made 104 apostolic journeys abroad and 146 pastoral visits in Italy, and as Bishop of Rome visited hundreds of Roman parishes. He issued fourteen encyclicals and many other major documents, promulgated the Codes of Canon Law for the Latin and Eastern Churches and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and instituted World Youth Day, the Year of the Redemption, the Marian Year, the Year of the Eucharist, and the Great Jubilee of 2000. He beatified 1,338 servants of God and canonized 482 saints, created numerous cardinals, and met millions of the faithful in general audiences and worldwide pilgrimages.

On 13 May 1981 he was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt in Saint Peter's Square. Attributing his survival to the maternal hand of the Mother of God, he later forgave his attacker and, conscious of a new gift of life, intensified his pastoral labors with heroic generosity. He defended the dignity of the human person, the family, and the unborn; fostered dialogue with Judaism, Islam, and the Orthodox; and is widely credited with encouraging the peaceful end of Communist rule in Poland and beyond Europe. Weakened by illness, he died in the Apostolic Palace on 2 April 2005, the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, which he had instituted. His funeral was celebrated on 8 April; he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 1 May 2011 and canonized by Pope Francis on 27 April 2014.

May Saint John Paul II intercede for us, that we may practice courageous mercy and entrust every trial to Divine Mercy.

SOLEMN MASS AND CANONIZATION OF SAINTS JOHN XXIII AND JOHN PAUL II

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

Saint Peter’s Square Second Sunday of Easter (or of Divine Mercy), 27 April 2014

At the centre of this Sunday which concludes the Octave of Easter, and which Saint John Paul II wished to dedicate to Divine Mercy, are the glorious wounds of the risen Jesus.

He showed them at once, the first time he appeared to the Apostles on the very evening of the day after the Sabbath, the day of the Resurrection. But on that evening, as we heard, Thomas was not there; and when the others told him that they had seen the Lord, he replied that unless he saw and touched those wounds, he would not believe. Eight days later, Jesus appeared again in the upper room, in the midst of the disciples; Thomas was there too. He turned to him and invited him to touch his wounds. Then that sincere man, that man accustomed to verify things for himself, knelt before Jesus and said: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28).

The wounds of Jesus are a scandal for faith, but they are also the verification of faith. For this reason, in the body of the risen Christ the wounds do not disappear, they remain, for those wounds are the enduring sign of God’s love for us, and they are indispensable for believing in God. Not for believing that God exists, but for believing that God is love, mercy, faithfulness. Saint Peter, drawing on Isaiah, writes to the Christians: “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24; cf. Is 53:5).

Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II had the courage to look at the wounds of Jesus, to touch his wounded hands and his pierced side. They did not feel ashamed of the flesh of Christ; they were not scandalized by him, by his Cross; they were not ashamed of the flesh of their brother (cf. Is 58:7), because in every suffering person they saw Jesus. They were two courageous men, filled with the parrhesia of the Holy Spirit, and they bore witness to the Church and to the world to the goodness of God, to his mercy.

They were priests and bishops and popes of the twentieth century. They lived through its tragedies, but were not overwhelmed by them. Stronger in them was God; stronger was faith in Jesus Christ, Redeemer of man and Lord of history; stronger in them was the mercy of God, which is shown in these five wounds; stronger was the maternal closeness of Mary.

In these two men, contemplatives of the wounds of Christ and witnesses of his mercy, there dwelt “a living hope” together with “an indescribable and glorious joy” (1 Pt 1:3,8). The hope and joy that the risen Christ gives his disciples, and of which nothing and no one can deprive them. The paschal hope and joy, which passed through the crucible of self-emptying, of kenosis, of closeness to sinners even to the extreme, even to the nausea of that bitter chalice. This is the hope and joy that the two holy Popes received as a gift from the risen Lord and in turn bestowed in abundance on the People of God, receiving from them in return eternal gratitude.

This hope and this joy were breathed in the first community of believers in Jerusalem, of which the Acts of the Apostles speak (cf. 2:42-47), which we heard in the second Reading. It is a community in which the essential of the Gospel is lived, that is, love, mercy, in simplicity and fraternity.

And this is the image of the Church that the Second Vatican Council held before itself. John XXIII and John Paul II collaborated with the Holy Spirit to restore and update the Church according to its original features, the features given it by the saints down the centuries. Let us not forget that it is precisely the saints who drive the Church forward and make her grow. In convening the Council, Saint John XXIII showed a delicate docility to the Holy Spirit; he let himself be led and was for the Church a shepherd, a guide guided by the Spirit. This was his great service to the Church; for this reason I like to think of him as the Pope of docility to the Holy Spirit.

In this service to the People of God, Saint John Paul II was the Pope of the family. Thus he himself once said that he would like to be remembered as the Pope of the family. I like to emphasize this while we are living a synodal journey on the family and with families, a journey that he surely accompanies and supports from Heaven.

May both these new saintly Pastors of the People of God intercede for the Church so that, during these two years of the synodal journey, she may be docile to the Holy Spirit in her pastoral service to the family. May both teach us not to be scandalized by the wounds of Christ, to enter into the mystery of divine mercy that always hopes, always forgives, because it always loves.

PAPAL CHAPEL ON THE OCCASION OF THE BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD JOHN PAUL II

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI

Atrium of the Vatican Basilica Sunday, 1 May 2011

Dear brothers and sisters!

Six years ago we gathered in this Square to celebrate the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The sorrow for the loss was deep, but even greater was the sense of an immense grace that enveloped Rome and the whole world: a grace which was like the fruit of the entire life of my beloved Predecessor, and especially of his witness in suffering. Already on that day we felt the fragrance of his holiness wafting, and the People of God manifested in many ways their veneration for him. For this reason I wished that, in due respect for the norms of the Church, his cause of beatification could proceed with reasonable speed. And now the awaited day has come; it has come quickly, because it so pleased the Lord: John Paul II is blessed!

I wish to extend my cordial greeting to all of you who, for this happy occasion, have gathered in such great numbers in Rome from every part of the world, to the Lord Cardinals, Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Brother Bishops and Priests, Official Delegations, Ambassadors and Authorities, consecrated persons and lay faithful, and I extend it to those who are united with us through radio and television.

This Sunday is the Second Sunday of Easter, which the blessed John Paul II entitled Divine Mercy Sunday. Therefore this date was chosen for today's Celebration, because, by a providential design, my Predecessor gave up his spirit to God precisely on the eve of this commemoration. Today, moreover, is the first day of the month of May, Mary's month; and it is also the memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker. All these elements come together to enrich our prayer, they help us who are still pilgrims in time and space; while in Heaven, the celebration among the Angels and Saints is quite different! Yet there is only one God, and one Lord Christ, who like a bridge joins earth and Heaven; and we at this moment feel closer than ever, almost participants in the heavenly Liturgy.

"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!" (Jn 20:29). In today's Gospel Jesus pronounces this beatitude: the beatitude of faith. It strikes us in a particular way, because we are gathered precisely to celebrate a Beatification, and even more so because today a Pope, a Successor of Peter, called to confirm his brothers in the faith, has been proclaimed Blessed. John Paul II is blessed because of his strong and generous, apostolic faith. And we immediately recall that other beatitude: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17). What did the heavenly Father reveal to Simon? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of this faith Simon becomes "Peter", the rock on which Jesus can build his Church. The eternal beatitude of John Paul II, which the Church has the joy of proclaiming today, lies entirely within these words of Christ: "Blessed are you, Simon" and "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!". It is the beatitude of faith, which John Paul II also received as a gift from God the Father, for the building up of the Church of Christ.

But our thoughts turn to another beatitude, which in the Gospel precedes all the others. It is that of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer. To her, who has just conceived Jesus in her womb, Saint Elizabeth says: "Blessed is she who believed in the fulfilment of what the Lord had said to her" (Lk 1:45). The beatitude of faith has its model in Mary, and we are all glad that the beatification of John Paul II takes place on the first day of the Marian month, under the maternal gaze of the One who, with her faith, sustained the faith of the Apostles, and continually sustains the faith of their successors, especially of those who are called to sit on the chair of Peter. Mary does not appear in the accounts of Christ's resurrection, but her presence is as if hidden everywhere: she is the Mother to whom Jesus has entrusted each of the disciples and the entire community. In particular, we note that the effective and maternal presence of Mary is recorded by Saint John and Saint Luke in the contexts that precede those of today's Gospel and the first Reading: in the account of Jesus' death, where Mary appears at the foot of the cross (cf. Jn 19:25); and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, which present her in the midst of the disciples gathered in prayer in the upper room (cf. Acts 1:14).

Today's second Reading also speaks to us of faith, and it is Saint Peter himself who writes, full of spiritual enthusiasm, pointing out to the newly baptized the reasons for their hope and their joy. I like to observe that in this passage, at the beginning of his First Letter, Peter does not express himself in an exhortative way, but in an indicative one; he writes, in fact: "You are filled with joy" – and he adds: "You love him, though you have not seen him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him. Therefore you exult with joy indescribable and glorious, while you attain the goal of your faith: the salvation of souls" (1Pt 1:6.8-9). Everything is in the indicative, because there is a new reality, generated by the resurrection of Christ, a reality accessible to faith. "This is the Lord's doing - says the Psalm (118:23) - it is marvellous in our eyes," the eyes of faith.

Dear brothers and sisters, today there shines before our eyes, in the full spiritual light of the risen Christ, the beloved and venerated figure of John Paul II. Today his name is added to the ranks of the Saints and Blesseds whom he proclaimed during his almost 27 years of pontificate, forcefully recalling the universal vocation to the high standard of Christian life, to holiness, as affirmed by the conciliar Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church. All the members of the People of God – Bishops, priests, deacons, lay faithful, religious, nuns – are on the way to the heavenly homeland, where the Virgin Mary has preceded us, associated in a unique and perfect way with the mystery of Christ and of the Church. Karol Wojtyła, first as Auxiliary Bishop and then as Archbishop of Kraków, took part in the Second Vatican Council and knew well that dedicating the last chapter of the Document on the Church to Mary meant placing the Mother of the Redeemer as the image and model of holiness for every Christian and for the whole Church. This theological vision is the one that the blessed John Paul II discovered as a young man and then preserved and deepened throughout his life. A vision that is summed up in the biblical icon of Christ on the cross with Mary, his mother, beside him. An icon that is found in the Gospel of John (19:25-27) and is summarized in the episcopal and then papal coat of arms of Karol Wojtyła: a golden cross, an "M" in the lower right, and the motto "Totus tuus," which corresponds to the famous expression of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, in which Karol Wojtyła found a fundamental principle for his life: "Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio Te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria – I am all yours and all that is mine is yours. I take you for all my good. Give me your heart, O Mary" (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, n. 266).

In his Testament the new Blessed wrote: "When on 16 October 1978 the conclave of cardinals chose John Paul II, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, said to me: 'The task of the new pope will be to lead the Church into the Third Millennium.'" And he added: "I wish once again to express my gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of the Second Vatican Council, to which, together with the whole Church – and especially with the entire episcopate – I feel indebted. I am convinced that for a long time to come the new generations will be able to draw from the riches that this Council of the twentieth century has bestowed on us. As a bishop who took part in the conciliar event from the first to the last day, I wish to entrust this great patrimony to all those who are and will be called in the future to carry it out. For my part, I thank the eternal Shepherd who has allowed me to serve this very great cause throughout all the years of my pontificate." And what is this "cause"? It is the same one that John Paul II enunciated in his first solemn Mass in Saint Peter's Square, with the memorable words: "Do not be afraid! Open, indeed, throw wide open the doors to Christ!" What the newly elected Pope asked of everyone, he himself did first: he opened society, culture, political and economic systems to Christ, reversing with the strength of a giant – strength that came to him from God – a trend that could have seemed irreversible.

With his witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, full of human sensitivity, this outstanding son of the Polish Nation helped Christians throughout the world not to be afraid to be Christians, to belong to the Church, to proclaim the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to be afraid of the truth, for truth is the guarantee of freedom.

[With his testimony of faith, of love and of apostolic courage, accompanied by a great human charge, this exemplary son of the Polish Nation helped Christians all over the world not to be afraid to call themselves Christians, to belong to the Church, to speak of the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to be afraid of the truth, because the truth is the guarantee of freedom.]

Even more concisely: he gave us back the strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is Redemptor hominis, the Redeemer of man: the theme of his first Encyclical and the guiding thread of all the others.

Karol Wojtyła ascended to the throne of Peter bringing with him his profound reflection on the confrontation between Marxism and Christianity, centred on man. His message was this: man is the way of the Church, and Christ is the way of man. With this message, which is the great legacy of the Second Vatican Council and of its "helmsman" the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, John Paul II guided the People of God across the threshold of the Third Millennium, which precisely thanks to Christ he was able to call "the threshold of hope." Yes, through the long journey of preparation for the Great Jubilee, he gave Christianity a renewed orientation towards the future, God's future, transcendent with respect to history, yet which also impacts history. That charge of hope that had in some way been ceded to Marxism and the ideology of progress, he legitimately reclaimed for Christianity, restoring to it the authentic features of hope, to be lived in history with a spirit of "advent," in a personal and communal existence oriented to Christ, the fullness of man and the fulfilment of his expectations of justice and peace.

Finally, I would also like to thank God for the personal experience he granted me of collaborating for a long time with the blessed Pope John Paul II. Even before, I had had the opportunity to know him and to esteem him, but from 1982, when he called me to Rome as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for 23 years I was able to be close to him and to venerate his person more and more. My service was sustained by his spiritual depth, by the richness of his insights. The example of his prayer always struck and edified me: he immersed himself in the encounter with God, even amid the many duties of his ministry. And then his witness in suffering: the Lord gradually stripped him of everything, but he remained always a "rock," as Christ wanted him to be. His profound humility, rooted in intimate union with Christ, enabled him to continue guiding the Church and to give the world an even more eloquent message precisely at the time when his physical strength was failing him. In this way he extraordinarily fulfilled the vocation of every priest and bishop: to become one with that Jesus whom he receives and offers daily in the Church.

Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed! Continue – we pray – to sustain from Heaven the faith of the People of God. So many times you blessed us in this Square from the Palace! Today we pray you: Holy Father, bless us! Amen.

COMPENDIUM

OF THE LIFE, VIRTUES AND MIRACLES

as well as the Acts

in the CAUSE OF CANONIZATION

OF THE BLESSED

JOHN PAUL II

(Karol Wojtyła)

Supreme Pontiff

(1920-2005)

______________________

FROM THE ARCHIVES

OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS

The Cardinal Fathers, the Patriarchs, the Archbishops, the Bishops and all those who will take part in the next Consistory will find in this Compendium the biographical profile of the Blessed John Paul II, Supreme Pontiff, as well as the main stages of the Cause of beatification and canonization and the Apostolic Letter of his beatification.

LIFE AND WORKS

1. Biographical notes

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice (Poland), on 18 May 1920. He was the second of two sons of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska. At the age of nine he received First Communion and at eighteen the sacrament of Confirmation. After completing his studies at the secondary school, moved by his love for literature and poetry, he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow in the faculty of letters.

When the Nazi occupation forces closed the University in 1939, the young Karol worked in a quarry and then in a chemical factory in order to earn a living and avoid deportation to Germany.

From 1942, feeling called to the priesthood, he attended the formation courses of the clandestine major seminary of Krakow. At the same time, he was one of the promoters of the "Rhapsodic Theatre", which was also clandestine.

After the war, he continued his studies at the major seminary of Krakow, which had been reopened, and at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Krakow on 1 November 1946. He was subsequently sent to Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in theology.

In 1948 he returned to Poland and was first a curate in the parish of Niegowić, near Krakow, and then in that of Saint Florian, in the city. He was chaplain to university students until 1951, when he resumed his philosophical and theological studies at the Catholic University of Lublin. Later, he became professor of Moral Theology and Ethics at the major seminary of Krakow and at the Faculty of Theology of Lublin.

On 4 July 1958, Pope Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow and titular Bishop of Ombi. He received episcopal ordination on 28 September of the same year in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow. On 13 January 1964 he was appointed Archbishop of Krakow by Pope Paul VI, who created him a Cardinal three years later, on 26 June 1967.

With great commitment and enthusiasm he took part in the Second Vatican Council, contributing to the elaboration of the constitution Gaudium et spes. Cardinal Wojtyła also participated in some assemblies of the Synod of Bishops prior to his Pontificate.

He was elected Pope on 16 October 1978 and on 22 October of that year his ministry as Universal Pastor of the Church began.

His Pontificate was precious and intense: pastoral and apostolic journeys in Italy and throughout the world, pastoral initiatives of great resonance among the faithful, such as the Holy Year of Redemption, the Marian Year, the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and the Year of the Eucharist, the publication of important documents of his Magisterium. He drew close to the new generations by instituting the celebration of World Youth Day. In 1981 he suffered a serious assassination attempt in Saint Peter's Square.

To the very end he was a teacher of truth and an example of acceptance of the Lord's will and of holy life. After a long illness that did not prevent him from carrying out his ministry, he died in Rome, in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, on Saturday 2 April 2005, the eve of Sunday in Albis or of Divine Mercy, a Solemnity he himself had instituted, surrounded by a very widespread and solid reputation for holiness. On 8 April the solemn funeral took place in Saint Peter's Square and he was buried in the Vatican Grottoes.

2. The virtues

Faith

The Blessed John Paul II was a "man of prayer". In him the desire for perfection manifested itself so strongly as to keep his spirit always awake through ceaseless prayer and meditative listening to the word of God. The centre of his life was the Eucharist.

His profound faith was expressed in his confidence in divine help in the critical events of life, as well as in his total abandonment to the maternal help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These interior attitudes manifested themselves with particular strength in moments of darkness, as, for example, after the 1981 assassination attempt or during the severe trial of the progression of the illness.

His visits to the Roman parishes, his numerous apostolic journeys and the teachings contained in his homilies, in the Encyclicals and in the catecheses during the Wednesday audiences made it clear, behind the certainty of doctrine, a personal life of faith and zeal for the salvation of souls and the desire to make Christ known to the whole world, the Only Savior of man and his Redeemer.

Hope

His radical and almost connatural devotion to the Holy Spirit predisposed him to a vision of the world marked by unshakeable supernatural hope. It was this that drove him to desire with all his being the Kingdom of heaven and eternal life, placing his trust in the promises of Christ, trusting in God's mercy and relying on the help of grace.

In his numerous moral sufferings and during his physical illness he came to proclaim the precious salvific value of human suffering united to the mystery of Christ's Cross.

He supported the longing for freedom of peoples oppressed by various regimes and totalitarianisms, affirming the inviolable dignity of every human being.

He promoted and invigorated ecumenical dialogue, seeking unity and peace in the living hope of a future full communion with our separated brethren.

An extraordinary sign of his hope was the trust he placed in young people, the hope of the Church of tomorrow.

Charity

He was always animated by a great fire of love. His inclination toward the Above, nourished by love for the Eucharist and by prayer, as well as the constant search for the heart of man to persuade him to sincerely love the Lord, were the true motivations on which every one of his actions was centered.

His charity toward the Lord was expressed, besides in his constant and tender dialogue with Him, also in his ardent desire to please Him by facilitating the path to heaven for other people. Active charity was the primary instrument of his evangelizing action. He did not neglect the exercise of any of the works of mercy. He gave food and clothing to the needy, he took care of the homeless, he was concerned about the fate of his elderly relative, he shared the pain of the suffering, he gave them money from his own property, he visited the sick and prisoners. Nevertheless, he instructed, advised, consoled the lost of heart, offered his own forgiveness to the would-be assassin and to those who had offended him, patiently bore with people hostile to him. He related to everyone with respect, avoiding every kind of slander, rather creating communion and friendship around himself.

Fortitude

The first motto "Do not be afraid! Open, indeed, throw wide open the doors to Christ!", pronounced during the celebration opening his papal ministry, marked the program of his long Pontificate, remaining alive in the hearts of the faithful even after his death.

There were numerous trials permitted by God throughout his life to forge "like gold" the resistance and temper of his servant. His difficult childhood, marked by three bereavements, and his entry into the seminary precisely at the time when the war had imposed its closure, strengthened

"ITER" OF THE CAUSE

a) In view of the beatification

Having ascertained the very widespread and solid reputation of holiness, demonstrated also by the influx on the days of the funerals of enormous crowds of the faithful and people of good will from other religions as well, and the continuous devout pilgrimage to his tomb in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI decided to dispense from the five-year waiting period for the beginning of the Diocesan Inquiry, so that the Opening Session could be held on 28 June 2005. The juridical validity of the process was recognised by a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of 4 May 2007.

The Theological Consultors, gathered in the Peculiar Congress of 13 May 2009, gave a favourable opinion regarding the heroism of his virtues and so judged the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops, gathered in the Ordinary Session of 16 November 2009.

The same Pontiff, Benedict XVI, authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the relative decree on 19 December 2009.

In view of the beatification a healing was presented, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God. The Medical Board on 21 October 2010 considered it scientifically inexplicable and the Theological Consultors, gathered in the Peculiar Congress of 14 December 2010, gave a favourable opinion, attributing such healing to his intercession. The Cardinal Fathers and Bishops in the Ordinary Session of 11 January 2011 judged it a true miracle. Finally, Pope Benedict XVI authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the relative Decree on 14 January 2011.

The solemn rite of beatification, on the parvis of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter on 1 May 2011, was presided over by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, with a huge participation of the faithful.

b) In view of the canonisation

Among the testimonies received after the beatification, the case was identified of the healing of a Latin-American woman, in whom a "fusiform cerebral aneurysm" had been diagnosed. Following prayers offered through the intercession of John Paul II, on the very day of his beatification, the aneurysm disappeared completely. The diocesan inquiry was conducted from 20 November to 2 December 2012. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognised its validity by decree of 12 February 2013. The Medical Board of the Dicastery, in the meeting of 28 February 2013, expressed unanimously a favourable opinion regarding the scientific inexplicability of the healing.

The case was examined with a unanimously positive outcome by the Theological Consultors on 10 April 2013, and by the Cardinals and Bishops on 2 July 2013.

His Holiness Francis, on 5 July 2013, authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree super miraculo.

LITTERAE APOSTOLICAE

de peracta beatificatione

BENEDICTUS pp. XVI

ad perpetuam rei memoriam

"Venit hora, ut glorificetur Filius hominis. Amen, amen dico vobis: Nisi granum frumenti cadens in terram mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet; si autem mortuum fuerit, multum fructum affert" (Io 12, 23-24).

The example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who spread the Father's love in the world and finally offered himself for the salvation of the people, was also followed by the Venerable Servant of God John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła), who carried the light of the Gospel everywhere and showed the maternal solicitude of the Church for the people of our time. This Supreme Pontiff devoted himself to the Church and to the world with such great magnanimity and spirit of oblation that he was judged a saint in life and in death, and already on the occasion of the funeral rite an immense multitude visited him in death, out of gratitude and veneration.

He himself was born in the city of Wadowice in Poland on 18 May 1920, the second son of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska. At the age of nine he received First Communion, and at the age of eighteen he was confirmed with the sacrament of Chrism. After completing his secondary school studies, he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. But when the university was closed by the occupying regime in 1939, the young Karol worked in a quarry and then in a chemical factory to earn his living and at the same time to avoid deportation to Germany. From 1942, when he felt a vocation to the priesthood, he attended classes at the clandestine Major Seminary of Kraków, which was directed by the Archbishop himself, His Eminence Adam Stefan Cardinal Sapieha of the Holy Roman Church. At the same time, together with others, he promoted the clandestine "Rhapsodic Theatre". After the war, in Kraków he continued his theological studies at the Major Seminary and at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University. On 1 November 1946 he was ordained a priest. He was then sent to Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in theology. Upon returning to Poland, he was first sent as an assistant parish priest to the locality of Niegowić near Kraków, and then transferred to the parish of Saint Florian in Kraków, where he exercised pastoral care for the university students. Continuing his philosophical and theological studies, he completed his courses at the Catholic University of Lublin and was subsequently appointed professor of moral theology and ethics at the Faculty of Theology of that university as well as at the Major Seminary of Kraków. On 4 July 1958 the Supreme Pontiff Pius XII appointed him titular Bishop of Ombi and Auxiliary of Kraków. He received episcopal consecration on 28 September of the same year in the cathedral church of Kraków by the imposition of hands of the Most Reverend Lord Eugeniusz Baziak, then Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków. He was designated as his own Successor in that See on 13 January 1964 by the Servant of God Paul VI, who three years later co-opted him into the College of Cardinals on 26 June. He took part in the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, giving solid cooperation especially in the drafting of the Pastoral Constitution "Gaudium et spes". He was elected Supreme Pontiff on 16 October 1978, taking the name John Paul, and on the 22nd of the same month he began his ministry for the universal Church.

John Paul II frequently visited various parts of Italy and, as Bishop of Rome, visited almost all of the 332 parishes of the City. Likewise, there were very many of his apostolic journeys throughout the world, a sign of the constant pastoral solicitude of the blessed Successor of Peter for all the Churches. Among the documents of his higher Magisterium are counted various Encyclical Letters, Apostolic Exhortations, Constitutions and Letters. A faithful interpreter of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, he exalted the importance of the universal vocation to holiness, performing numerous rites of beatification and canonization in various parts of the world. He strengthened ecclesial communion and collegiality by convoking the assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

On 13 May 1981, during a general audience in Saint Peter's Square, he was gravely wounded. Saved by the maternal hand of the Mother of God, to whom he entrusted his entire ministry, he forgave his aggressor and after a long illness, conscious of having received a new life, he intensified his pastoral duties with heroic activity. Among other things, he manifested the solicitude of a pastor by erecting many new dioceses, by promulgating the Code of Canon Law, the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, by inaugurating the Year of Redemption, the Marian Year and the Year of the Eucharist as well as the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, in which his love for the Church and his fidelity to the Cross shone in a singular way. He met new generations, instituting the celebration of World Youth Days. He drew the strength to carry out all these great apostolic works from continuous prayer, especially from eucharistic adoration, and from filial love for the Mother of God, whose veneration he fervently fostered among the people of God. Burdened with merits, he died in Rome, in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City, on Saturday 2 April 2005, on the eve of the Sunday in Albis or of Divine Mercy, a solemnity which he himself had instituted.

Given the very widespread and solidly established reputation for holiness that he enjoyed already during his lifetime and that was immediately exalted after his death, with throngs of the faithful making continuous pilgrimages to his body and then to his tomb, We dispensed from the five years to be awaited after death for the opening of the Diocesan Inquiry, so that on 28 June 2005, on the eve of the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the aforementioned Inquiry was opened in the Lateran Basilica. Its juridical validity was recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints through a Decree given on 4 May 2007. The theological Consultors, gathered in a special Congress on 13 May 2009, rendered a favorable judgment on the virtues of the Servant of God exercised in a heroic manner. The same judgment was given by the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops present at the Ordinary Session on 16 November of the same year. Therefore We granted the Congregation for the Causes of Saints the faculty to issue the Decree on the heroic virtues on 19 December 2009.

For the cause of beatification a certain miraculous healing was presented, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God, which the medical Consultors judged scientifically inexplicable. The Theological Consultors in a special Congress on 14 December 2010 gave a favorable judgment. The Cardinal Fathers and Bishops in the Ordinary Session on 11 January 2011 judged this miraculous healing to have been divinely wrought. Therefore We granted the Congregation for the Causes of Saints the faculty to issue the Decree on the miracle on the 14th day of the same month.

Today, therefore, presiding with great joy over the rite of beatification in St. Peter's Square in front of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter on 1 May, on the Solemnity of Divine Mercy Sunday, with an immense multitude of people from almost every people, language and nation in attendance, We pronounce the following formula by which the Venerable Servant of God John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła) is enrolled among the Blessed:

We, fulfilling the wishes of Our Brother Augustine Cardinal Vallini, Our Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, as well as of many other Brothers in the Episcopate and of many of the Christian faithful, after consulting the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by Our Apostolic authority grant that the Venerable Servant of God John Paul II, Pope, be from now on called Blessed and that his feast be celebrated each year on the twenty-second day of October in the places and according to the norms established by law. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

What We have decreed, We wish to have valid both now and in the future, anything to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, under the Fisherman's ring, on 1 May, in the year 2011, the seventh of Our Pontificate.

By command of the Supreme Pontiff

+ Tarcisio Card. Bertone

In place of the seal

In the Secretariat of State, n. 1.368