Pope John Paul II beatified in Rome

riprese di Marco Petruzzelli
www.tvreporter.it

Pope Benedict XVI has beatified Pope John Paul II before several hundred thousand people packed into St Peter's Square and surrounding streets, moving his predecessor one step closer to sainthood.
"From now on Pope John Paul shall be called 'blessed'", Benedict proclaimed in Latin, establishing that the late pontiff's feast day would be October 22 -- the day of his inauguration in 1978.
Waving national flags and singing, the faithful momentarily banished the scandals and controversies that have rocked Catholicism since John Paul's death to celebrate an inspirational figure who, for many, was their church's greatest modern leader.
The red and white flag of his native Poland predominated, but the crowd also included Roman Catholics from as far away as Australia. Some had camped out in the area around St Peter's, others had spent the night in prayer and contemplation of the life of works of the late pope.
Alessandra Verdura, age 18, from Northamptonshire, was among some 200,000 people who joined a vigil in the Circus Maximus. At 4am, she and her father were to pray in one of eight churches in Rome staying open all night for the occasion.

"He has gone", said the Anglia Ruskin university student, who was only 12 years old when he died. "But still people feel he is with them, and that shows how much of a great pope he was."

Representatives of five royal houses, including the Duke of Gloucester, were expected for the occasion. So too were at least six heads of government and 16 heads of state, including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who flew into Rome on Saturday.

As part of an elaborate security operation, the area around St Peter's Square had been cordoned off for more than 16 hours before the first pilgrims were given access early this morning.

Beatification is the last step on the road to sainthood, though not all those who are beatified are finally canonised. Before conferring the title of "blessed", the Roman Catholic church requires evidence of at least one miracle.

John Paul, who died in 2005, is deemed to have interceded with God to bring about the inexplicable cure of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, who was dying of Parkinson's disease, the same illness that took his own life.

On Saturday, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre was among the speakers in the Circus Maximus, where images of John Paul were shown on giant screens and against a background of sacred music. The crowd also heard eulogies of the late pontiff from his former secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, and press officer, Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

The charismatic John Paul is widely credited with having hastened the collapse of communism in Europe. But some in his church have questioned the speed with which such a controversial figure has been fast-tracked toward sainthood.

John Paul is accused by victims' groups of having turned a blind eye to sex abuse by his clergyman. Some traditionalists believe he made unacceptable compromises with other religions; many progressives argue he fatally weakened the innovative legacy of the Second Vatican Council.

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