May 1 beatification set for Pope John Paul II after miracle approved
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI approved a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II’s intercession, clearing the way for the late pope’s beatification on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday.
            Pope Benedict’s action Jan. 14 followed more than five years of investigation into the life and writings of the Polish pontiff, who died in April 2005 after more than 26 years as pope.
            The Vatican said it took special care with verification of the miracle, the spontaneous cure of a French nun from Parkinson’s disease — the same illness that afflicted Pope John Paul in his final years. Three separate Vatican panels approved the miracle, including medical and theological experts, before Pope Benedict signed the official decree.
            The Vatican said it would begin looking at logistical arrangements for the massive crowds expected for the beatification liturgy, which will be celebrated by Pope Benedict at the Vatican. Divine Mercy Sunday had special significance for Pope John Paul, who made it a church-wide feast day to be celebrated a week after Easter. The pope died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.
            With beatification, Pope John Paul will be declared “blessed” and thus worthy of restricted liturgical honor. Another miracle is needed for canonization, by which the church declares a person to be a saint and worthy of universal veneration.
            Father Lombardi said the Vatican was preparing to move Pope John Paul’s body from the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica to the Chapel of St. Sebastian in the basilica’s upper level at the time of beatification. The chapel, on the right hand side of the church just after Michelangelo’s Pieta, is easily accessible and spacious, an important factor given the steady stream of pilgrims who come to see the pope’s tomb.
            When the pope died in 2005, and as Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre’s condition began to worsen, all the members of the Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood in France and in Senegal began praying to Pope John Paul to intervene with God to heal her.
            By June 2, two months after the pope died, she was struggling to write, to walk and to function normally. But she said she went to bed that night and woke up very early the next morning feeling completely different.
            “I was sure I was healed,” she said. Not long afterward, she had recovered enough to return to work in Paris at a maternity hospital run by her order.

Three key steps in the journey to sainthood
In official Church procedures there are three steps to sainthood:
 1 – Venerable: Venerable is the title given to a deceased person recognized formally by the pope as having lived heroic virtues.

2 – Blessed: To be beatified and recognized as a Blessed, one miracle acquired through the candidate’s intercession is required in addition to recognition of heroic virtue or martyrdom.

3 – Saint: Canonization requires a second miracle after beatification, though a pope may waive these requirements. (A miracle is not required prior to a martyr’s beatification, but one is required before canonization.)