Perhaps ‘Saint John Paul the Great?'

On the fast track
There are two main steps to sainthood. The first is called beatification. It requires death by martyrdom, or an unexplained phenomenon attributed to God, in response to prayers to a specific dead person, asking them to ask God to intervene on earth.

The church calls these miracles, and it’s important to note that it’s not the saint who performs the miracle, but God, because only God has the omnipotence to do so. The saint is merely “interceding” on behalf of the person, (who is praying or being prayed for,) to ask for a miracle.

Most of the church-accepted miracles tend to be inexplicable medical cures, because they are the most verifiable with scientific criteria. There are other kinds, such as “miraculous” rescues from natural disasters, but those are much harder to prove with empirical methods, so the church can’t do much about them.

Thousands of testimonials from people claiming to have been cured after praying to John Paul have been pouring in to the headquarters of the Polish “promoter of the cause” for sainthood. Many of these may be what the church concedes are “special graces,” but not miracles. 

Perhaps a sign of ‘God’s creativity’
There is one case that is being treated as the “big one.”  It regards a young French nun who suffered from a serious and precocious form of Parkinson’s disease.  She states that together with her fellow nuns in France, she prayed to John Paul for nine days. At the end of the nine days she was completely cured of all symptoms.

Philip Pullella, Chief Vatican Correspondent for Reuters wire service, says that those involved in the case are calling this a sign of “God’s creativity.” 

“If it is proven to be a miracle and we are told so far that there is no other explanation for it, then it’s truly amazing that it would be a miracle of this sort,” Pullella said. “Because it wasn’t someone who is inexplicably cured of cancer, or something else, but precisely the disease that we saw racked John Paul for the last decade of his life. “

This “event,” as the Vatican calls it while it is still under scrutiny, could lead to John Paul’s beatification as early as next year if the medical panel of the department of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints certifies that was indeed, a miracle.

Even doubters might be given pause by the first miracle being a cure of the disease that the pope publicly suffered from, which ironically the Vatican would never officially acknowledge.

If this event brings about beatification he will become Blessed John Paul II.  To become Saint John Paul will require another miracle, and there are thousands of “blessed” on the shelves of the Vatican’s “saints department,” waiting for a second miracle that never comes.

‘Vox populi’ ringing loud and clear
But somehow that doesn’t feel like it will be the case for the John Paul, judging by the multitude of testimonials posted on the official web site dedicated to his sainthood.

The "vox populi," voice of the people, is ringing loud and clear in the digital town square that now joins the world on the internet. 

Everything about John Paul and his pontificate was super-sized, as he broke every previous papal record with his efforts in life. It’s only natural then that he should continue to go to great lengths, even in death.

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