Late Pope John Paul II to get sainthood, Vatican says

CNN ^ | Hada Messia

[Morgana]

Rome (CNN) -- The Roman Catholic Church will declare the late Pope John Paul II a saint, the Vatican announced Friday.

Pope Francis signed the decree Friday morning, the Vatican said. John Paul was pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, and was in a way the first rock star pontiff, drawing vast crowds as he crisscrossed the globe.

At his funeral, thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square and chanted "Santo subito" -- Sainthood now! The Polish-born pope was fast-tracked to beatification and became "the blessed" John Paul II barely six years after his death, the fastest beatification in centuries.

[SoCalTransplant]

Honest Question for my Catholic friends here...has/does/can the church ever “Saint” anyone who is not Catholic?

Just would love to see St. Ronaldus Magnus or St. Thatcher of Iron go in along with JP2.

Seriously though, in a world where so many “religious leaders” range from charlatans to milquetoast, great to see honor given to JP2, who even I a lowly protestant see as a good man who loved God and used that Love as motivation to do great things on earth....or as we say sometimes, did not have his head in the clouds so much that he was not of any earthly good.

[ourworldawry]

This is no different than “someone else we know”, getting an incredibly undeserved NPP.

[ebb tide]

When John Paul made the first visit by a pope to Brazil, in 1980, nearly 90 percent of the population considered itself Catholic; by the 2010 census, that had fallen to under two-thirds, with the number of Brazilians calling themselves Protestants rising to 22 percent from 6 percent during the same period.

The situation here in Rio underscores the growing challenge to the Catholic church. According to census data, the growth of evangelical Protestantism, secularism and African-Brazilian faiths like candomblé has been so pronounced that Catholics no longer constitute a majority of the population in Rio de Janeiro State.

Well done, JP II! Look how you have decimated the Catholic Church in Latin America, under thirty years of your watch.

Pope, in an Angered Brazil, to Focus on Social Justice

[wideawake]

You can't be foolish enough to think that cultural shift was John Paul II's fault.

[ebb tide]

"Foolish", you say?

[wideawake]

A contextless photograph as rejoinder? I’m clearly dealing with a deep thinker.

[HiTech RedNeck]

amazing the intrigues of men, of personalities. ah, the church has progressed from its biblical ideals.

[wideawake]

That was sufficiently vague.

[HiTech RedNeck]

funny how the roman catholics are always alleging the existence of 18 jillion variants of the scripture to their protestant and orthodox brethren (ignoring the reality of how it actually plays out), then forever among the roman catholics the intrigue is what pope and what person and what prelate and what cardinal said this or that or when and how. when you presume to be able to build your own uber-bible it soon expands to unmanageable proportions!

[ebb tide]

Google “From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy; 25 Years of Pontificate”. Read it all; and then get back to me.

Otherwise, you’re the shallow thinker.

[wideawake]

Gossip and backbiting are common human phenomena, hardly limited to Catholics.

There is no "uber-Bible."

There is a Bible and there is an authentic interpretation thereof.

The rest is private judgment and chatter.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

build your own uber-bible it soon expands to unmanageable proportions!

The Catechism of the Cathoic Church is 825 pages long. That's long, but not unimaginable. We are talking about the teachings of Christ's Church on earth.

Then again, the Catechism doesn't exhaust all of our knowledge about our faith. How could it?

The faith is simple enough for a child to grasp (the Golden Rule), and deep enough to drown an elephant (St. Thomas Aquinas).

[wideawake]

I'm well acquainted with the constant stream of self-serving blather emanating from the SSPX.

Do you know who St. John Bosco was?

[Sirius Lee]

John Paul is no saint as he found out when he faced his Maker.

Are you a necromancer?

[Mrs. Don-o]

During his childhood, he had a al ot of contact with his hometown Wadowice's large Jewish community. School soccer games were often organized between teams of Jews and Catholics, and the future Pope often played on the Jewish side. His Jewish friends from student days called him Lolek.

I want to call him St. Lolek the Mensch.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Pooh.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Nobody says a person "becomes" a saint upon canonization. Saints are the family, he community, the people of God, both here and hereafter. In this world, and in the next one.

Canonization just means a formal recognition of that fact, always in consideration of a life which was not sinless, but marked by heroic virtue, and sometimes, martyrdom.

There are a whole heck of a lot more holy people in heaven, than there are canonized saints. I think everybody knows that.

[Mrs. Don-o]

You are not the judge.

Thanks be to God.

What a presumptuous post.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Bless you PaleobBob!

May you be blessed here and hereafter!

[ebb tide]

You obviously did not read the statement that I had recommended to you.

Yes, I know who St John Bosco is (not “was””, for your information). I also know who the devil’s advocate “was”, but is no longer thanks to you’re target of adulation.