Honour for Pope
THE Vatican will elevate the late Pope John Paul II one step closer to sainthood today at a beatification ceremony in Rome.
The city was yesterday festooned with posters of the popular Polish-born Pope, who died in 2005. Several hundred thousand are expected in St Peter’s Square where his successor Pope Benedict will pronounce him “blessed”.
The rush to honour him has been questioned by a minority, however, who say his theological conservatism stifled dissenters who wanted to do more to help the world’s poor.
US author James Carroll, a former priest, said: “I think the Vatican has a self-interested agenda in the saint-making process. It is an attempt to shore up its own hollow authority.”