Silence descended on St Peter’s Square in Rome six years ago on the night Pope John Paul II died as thousands of pilgrims gathered in prayer and called for the pontiff’s immediate canonisation as a saint.
Images of makeshift placards hoisted by the pilgrims with the words ‘Santo Subito’ were transmitted all over the world in what turned out to be an emotional end to the 26-year reign of a Pope who captured the hearts and minds of people around the world. Today, the popular outcry will come to the first stage of fruition as thousands of pilgrims in St Peter’s Square and millions of others around the world watch Pope Benedict XVI beatify Pope John Paul II in what is the last step before sainthood.
It will be a moment of jubilation and one which Gozo Bishop Mario Grech hopes will also serve as a moment of reflection.
“There is a risk that the event will be meaningless if it stops at the level of emotions and I hope people use it to reflect on Karol Wojtyla. He was a man who met Jesus Christ and had the gift of communicating the message with everyone, even those who had doubts,” Mgr Grech said.
The major tour operators in Malta have not organised tours for today’s event since the Vatican made no seating arrangements – in order to allow as many pilgrims as possible to attend.
However, many Maltese have travelled to Rome of their own accord to be present for the ceremony. Marie Therese Micallef, 64, who travelled with her siblings, is expecting a spiritual experience.
“Pope John Paul II was a saint. He was humble and always sought to experience the suffering of others. He was also an inspiration in the last part of his life when, despite his health problems, he continued working. I hope this event will help me become a better woman,” she told The Sunday Times from her hotel room in Rome.
Her sentiments were reflected by Charles Buttigieg, the former Curia public relations officer, who was heavily involved in the organisation of Pope John Paul II’s two visits to Malta in 1990 and 2001.
He described the Pope as an extraordinary figure and spiritual leader, who sought to take Christ’s Gospel to every corner of the world.
“He knew how to be immediate and spontaneous in front of huge crowds, especially in his determination to defend human rights and speak out against terrible things such as violence. I believe his best monumental document was his own entire life,” Mr Buttigieg said.
Pope John Paul II’s legacy is also political. Coming from Poland, he is credited with being a protagonist in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.
It is this legacy that inspired Nationalist Party general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, who is also in Rome for the beatification process.
Describing Pope John Paul as a great leader who contributed to the democratic development of Europe, Dr Borg Olivier said the pontificate coincided with his foray into politics with the PN’s youth movement in the 1980s.
“Pope John Paul II’s determination, his message of courage and hope and his perseverance were important values for me as a Christian politician. However, his life also had a number of spiritually defining moments, such as when he forgave the man who tried to kill him,” Dr Borg Olivier said. Today’s event is as historic for Catholics as the moment in 1978 when Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope, to everybody’s surprise.
“Do not be afraid. Open, or rather, open wide the doors to Christ,” the new Pope had told Catholics 33 years ago. These words will reverberate in St Peter’s Square today as pilgrims are reminded of his commitment to spreading God’s message.
Indeed, he was the most travelled pope in history, with 104 journeys outside Italy. He beatified 1,338 personalities, canonised another 482, ordained 231 cardinals and presided over 15 Bishops’ Synods.
He also wrote 14 encyclicals, 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 45 apostolic letters and five books during his pontificate.
For Frank Zammit, an avid Vatican observer and right-hand man to EU Commissioner John Dalli, these achievements were not only breathtaking but showed the Pope’s tireless commitment to the cause of the Church.
“The Polish pontiff must be credited with God’s return in the public sphere from where religion had long been evicted in Western Europe,” Mr Zammit said.
It was possibly Pope John Paul’s charismatic outreach to millions around the world that prompted the popular outcry six years ago for the Church to let go of its protocol, which stipulated that any cause for sainthood could only start five years after the person’s death.
Those prayers were answered a month after the Pope’s death when in May 2005, just three weeks after his election, Pope Benedict XVI applied a derogation by which the beatification process could start before the mandatory lapse of five years.
The move to speed up the process of sainthood may have raised eyebrows in conservative quarters but according to Mr Zammit a precedent was set some years before, when Pope John Paul II had applied a similar derogation for the immediate start of Mother Teresa’s beatification process.
The miracle that led to beatification
On January 14, Pope Benedict XVI authorised the head of the Congregation of the Causes for Saints to issue the decree that attributed a miracle to the divine intercession of Pope John Paul II.
The miracle concerned the healing, which was unexplainable by science, of a French nun affected by Parkinson’s who had prayed to be cured.
This led to the beatification of the Pope, which will be held today. A second miracle would then have to be attributed to John Paul II before he can be canonised.
The beatification process started in 2005 and 114 witnesses were heard.
These included: 35 cardinals; 20 archbishops and bishops; 11 priests; five friars; three nuns; 36 lay Catholics; three non-Catholics; and one Jew.
Four volumes of documentation containing thousands of pages were drawn up as stories of miraculous interventions poured in from around the world.
Frank Zammit contributed to the information.