Note on the Beatification of John Paul II
Note on the Beatification of John Paul II
Congregation for the Causes of Saints
On 14 January [2011], during the Audience granted to Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Supreme Pontiff authorized this Dicastery to promulgate the Decree on the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla). This Procedure concludes the process that precedes the Rite of Beatification. The celebration will take place in the Vatican on 1 May, Divine Mercy Sunday.
It is well known that the Cause, with the Pontiff's dispensation, began before the end of the five-year period which the Norms in force stipulate must pass following the death of a Servant of God. This provision was solicited by the renown for holiness enjoyed by Pope John Paul II during his life, at his death and after his death. Moreover, the common canonical measures concerning Causes of Beatification and canonization were fully observed.
Therefore the principal Diocesan Investigation of Rome and the Rogatorial Investigations in various dioceses on his life, on his virtues, on his fame for holiness and on his miracles were celebrated between June 2005 and April 2007.
The juridical validity of these canonical processes was recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints with a Decree on 4 May 2007. In June 2009, after examining the relative Positio, nine of the Dicastery's theological Consultors expressed their positive judgement on the heroic nature of the virtues of the Servant of God. The following November, complying with the usual procedure, the Positio was then submitted for judgement to the Cardinals and Bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who expressed a positive verdict.
On 19 December 2009 the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the Decree concerning the heroicity of his virtues.
With a view to the Beatification of the Venerable Servant of God, the Postulation of the Cause presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints for examination the recovery from Parkinson's disease of Sr Marie Simon Pierre Normand, a religious of the Institut des Petites Soeurs des Maternités Catholiques.
As is customary, the voluminous Acts of the regularly instituted canonical Investigation, together with detailed medical and legal reports, were submitted for scientific examination to the Medical Consultors of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints on 21 October
2010.
Having studied the testimonies of the process and the entire documentation with their habitual scrupulousness, the Experts of the Congregation expressed their favourable opinion on the scientifically inexplicable nature of the healing. The Theological Consultors, having examined the conclusions reached by medical experts, proceeded to a theological evaluation of the case on 14 December 2010 and unanimously recognized the uniqueness, the antecedence and the unanimity of the invocation addressed to the Servant of God John Paul II, whose intercession was effective for the purpose of the miraculous healing.
Finally, the Ordinary Session of the Cardinals and Bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints was held on 11 January 2010. They expressed a unanimously affirmative judgement, claiming that the healing of Sr Marie Pierre Simon was miraculous since it was brought about by God in a scientifically inexplicable way subsequent to the intercession of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, invoked with trust by the healed religious herself and by many other members of the faithful.
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
19 January 2011, page 8
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