He’s blessed!

“John Paul II is blessed!”. The exclamation of Benedict XVI, in his homily during the Papal Mass for the Beatification of the Servant of God John Paul II, celebrated in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday 1st May, was greeted with a deafening burst of applause from the piazza and from the Via della Conciliazione, packed with pilgrims from all over the world who had come to Rome for the occasion. One and a half million, the official figures would later announce, while 200,000 participated in the prayer vigil in the Circus Maximus on the evening before. From today onwards, established the Pope, reciting in Latin the formula of beatification, the 22 October will be the liturgical feast dedicated to the Blessed Wojtyla.An immense grace. “Six years ago – the Holy Father began his homily – we gathered in this Square to celebrate the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Our grief at his loss was deep, but even greater was our sense of an immense grace which embraced Rome and the whole world”. Benedict XVI dwelt on the Marian stamp that Karol Wojtyla placed on his pontificate right from the start, epitomized in his coat-of-arms with the motto “Totus tuus”: according to the beatified Pope, the mother of Jesus was “an image and model of holiness for every Christian and for the entire Church”. On the other hand the “cause” to which he dedicated his whole life is summed up in the appeal: “Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!”. “What the newly-elected Pope asked of everyone – commented Benedict XVI – he was himself the first to do: society, culture, political and economic systems he opened up to Christ, turning back with the strength of a titan – a strength which came to him from God – a tide which appeared irreversible”. Greetings to pilgrims. At the end of the celebration, during the Regina Cæli, Benedict XVI called the effort made by so many pilgrims “a sign of great love for the Blessed John Paul II”. The Pope spoke in French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Italian to greet the pilgrims and the delegations that had come from all over the world, addressing “a special welcome” to the “invalids and the elderly, to whom the new Blessed felt particularly close”.The vigil in the Circus Maximus. The beatification was preceded, on Saturday evening, by a prayer vigil in the Circus Maximus. Transmitted in over a hundred countries, it was characterized in a particular way by the participation of five Marian sanctuaries – the Lagiewniki sanctuary of Divine Mercy at Krakow (Poland), Notre Dame du Lebanon – Harissa at Beirut (Lebanon), the Sanctuary of Kawekamo at Dodoma (Tanzania), Sancta Maria de Guadalupe in Mexico and the Sanctuary of Fatima (Portugal) – from whence were recited the five “mysteries of light” of the rosary, those wished by John Paul II. Testimonies and prayers. The example and spirituality of the beatified Pope formed the connecting thread of the prayer vigil, which ended with the blessing imparted, through a video-message, by Benedict XVI. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, for 21 years director of the Vatican Press Room, testified how the Pope had weekly recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation. Prayer “for him was a need”, not “an obligation”. “Seeing him pray was to see him speak with God”. And the prayers and requests for intercession of the whole world flowed into his prayer: “He received thousands of letters from all over the world” and “nourished his prayer with the needs of others”. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, miraculously healed by the Blessed Wojtyla, told her story, seeing in John Paul II “a pastor according to the heart of God”, “close to everyone, from the weakest to the sick, to the least of the earth”. “Our emotion is great”, added Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, now Archbishop of Krakow and for 40 years at the side of Karol Wojtyla as his private secretary. Among the characteristic traits of the Pope the Cardinal mentioned silence, prayer (“praying was like breathing for John Paul II”) and authenticity (“the correspondence between what he said and what he did”). A convinced and strong faith. Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Vicar General of the Holy Father for the diocese of Rome, intervened before the recitation of the rosary, and recalled that in the life of John Paul II “we grasp above all the testimony of faith: a convinced and strong faith, fearless and uncompromising, coherent right down to his last breath, forged by suffering, exertion and illness, whose beneficent influence was diffused throughout the Church, indeed throughout the world; a witness that was accepted everywhere, during his apostolic journeys, by millions of men and women of all races and cultures”. A holiness tested in life. On Monday morning, lastly, the Mass of thanksgiving was celebrated by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, with the proper formulas for the new Blessed, in a Saint Peter’s Square that was still packed with pilgrims, especially Poles. Cardinal Bertone in particular emphasized, in his homily, that the holiness of Karol Wojtyla was “a holiness tested in life, especially in his last months, in his last weeks, in total fidelity to the mission that had been assigned to him, right down to his death”.