Is the Second Miracle to Be Confirmed for the Canonization of Blessed John Paul II?

We had a saint in our midst. A man so filled with Jesus Christ that, like the Apostle Paul, he no longer lived but "Christ lived in him." (Galatians 2) The sentiment of the faithful expressed on the day on which his body was processed through the streets of Rome, "Santo Subito" still echoes as the Church proceeds with the cause of his canonization.There is little doubt we will soon affirm what the multiplying miracles attributed to his continued intercession only confirm, Blessed John Paul II is a Saint. 

P>VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - Reports out of Rome indicate that the verification of the second miracle for Blessed John Paul II's Cause to advance may be near. The Vatican Insider, in an article written by  Giacomo Galeazzi entitled "John Paul II will soon be a saint", it was reported "Salesian Cardinal, Angelo Amato is working on an evaluation of the second miracle attributed to John Paul II." The final step to canonization is an attested second miracle.

On May 1, 2011 Blessed John Paul II was raised to the Altar and declared a Blessed. Along with millions, I watched in great joy. I remembered the day when he died as though it were yesterday.  The Faithful throughout the entire world gathered on his death and cried out "Santo Subito". The cry continues and deepens.  

The Bishops of the United States will soon join other Nations approving the Oct. 22d Memorial of Blessed John Paul II on the Liturgical Calendar of the United States when they meet in November. The date was chosen by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to memorialize Pope John Paul's inauguration on October 22, 1978.

His magisterium (teaching office) began what has clearly become under his successor and friend, Pope Benedict XVI, a new missionary age of the Catholic Church. Blessed John Paul II tirelessly called all men and women to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. He reminded us that it is only in Jesus Christ can we discover the purpose and fulfillment of human life.

He proclaimed that human existence is an invitation to communion with God and with one another. He told an age bent of "self fulfillment" that true human fulfillment can only come from the gift of self - in love of God and one another. He called us to live a unity of life, wherein the implications of the Christian faith inform the entirety of life with no contradiction or separation.

He confronted, exposed and opposed the "culture of death", wherein the human person is treated as an instrument to be used rather than an unrepeatable gift to be received. He proposed a different way, a new "culture of life" where every human person, at every age and stage, is recognized as having an inviolable dignity and right to life, freedom and love.

He charted a path to authentic peace by proclaiming to the nations that we are all our brothers' keeper and owe an obligation in solidarity to one another and, most especially, to the poor in all of their manifestations. He wrote of authentic freedom as a freedom "for" and not just a freedom "from", a freedom that must be bounded by truth and lived in accordance with the truth and our obligation to do what is right.

He exposed what he called in his Encyclical "The Gospel of Life" the "counterfeit notion of freedom" as a raw power over others. He countered a false notion of the autonomy of the individual and a "freedom" to do whatever one wants. He affirmed the clear teaching of the Gospel and the Tradition that the path to human flourishing is the way of communion and that freedom only grows when one chooses what is good and what is true.

He proclaimed a new humanism, a Christian humanism, reaffirming that we were created in the Image of God and therefore made for communion with Him and one another. He insisted that only by applying the treasury of the social teaching of the Catholic Church - in our relationships with one another, in our families, in our societies, our nations and in the global community - authentic justice and freedom can actually be achieved.

Entrusted for twenty six years with the Chair of Peter, Pope John Paul II was a prophetic Pope. From his first encyclical letter entitled "The Redeemer of Man" to his last, the "Church of the Eucharist", he proclaimed that the truth is, as he wrote in his Encyclical Letter on the Moral Life, a "splendor".

He called for reconciliation among separated Christians in his encyclical letter "May They Be One" and proposed a bold model for full communion with the Church. The proposals in that encyclical are now being implemented under Pope Benedict XVI - as is evident in the historic erection of Ordinariates for Anglicans who seek full communion as Catholics.

With deep love for the "Light of the East" he called Eastern and Western Christianity to rediscover their dependence upon one another so the entire Body of Christ might once again breathe with "two lungs" and present the whole Jesus Christ to a world that needs to be liberated. Again, his successor is putting the building blocks in place to promote such a healing between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

In January the Holy See released the "Decree for the Beatification of the Servant of God John Paul II" and Pope Benedict XVI announced: " The date chosen (May 1) is very significant because it will, in fact, be the second Sunday of Easter which he himself dedicated to Divine Mercy and on the eve of which his earthly life came to an end. Those who knew him, those who respected and loved him cannot but share in the Church's joy at this event." In the last ten centuries of Church history no Pope has beatified his predecessor.

The choice of the Feast of Divine Mercy, May 1, 2011 for the beatification was intentional. Pope John Paul II had a deep devotion to his fellow Pole Sr. Faustina Kowalska and to the Divine Mercy devotion identified with her. In August 2002, in Lagiewniki, Poland where Sr. Faustina lived and died, John Paul II entrusted the entire world "to Divine Mercy, to the unlimited trust in God the Merciful."

The Decree of Beatification noted, "Since the beginning of his pontificate, in 1978, John Paul II often spoke in his homilies of the mercy of God. This became the theme of his second encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, in 1980. He was aware that modern culture and its language do not have a place for mercy, treating it as something strange; they try to inscribe everything in the categories of justice and law. But this does not suffice, for it is not what the reality of God is about."

There is no doubt that we had a saint in our midst. A man so filled with Jesus Christ that, like the Apostle Paul, he no longer lived but "Christ lived in him." (Galatians 2) The sentiment of the faithful expressed on the day on which his body was processed through the streets of Rome, "Santo Subito" still echoes as the Church proceeds with the cause of his canonization.

In an interview with the ZENIT news service, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the postulator for the cause, was asked whether other miracles were revealed during the process. He replied "There were so many graces and also alleged miracles. Some were examined more in-depth, because this is the practice. Before carrying out a study on a miracle, a prior study is done which in some way guarantees the process itself. In some cases we did further studies and the preliminary statements were good, but we did not continue to study them because the study on the miracle that had been chose was already under way."

He was asked a follow up question "Can you tell us in what countries these miracles happened?" Monsignor Oder replied "They were verified in France, in the United States, in Germany and in Italy." The postulator expressed what impressed him most about the inquiry into the life and ministry of the late Pope, "The aspect that amazed me, which also happens to be the most important aspect of his life, was the discovery that the source and origin of his extraordinary activity, of his generosity in acting, of the depth of his thought, was his relationship with Christ.

"What came to light was certainly a mystic. A mystic in the sense that he was a man who lived in the presence of God, who let himself be guided by the Holy Spirit, who was in constant dialogue with the Lord, who built his whole life around the question [asked to Peter]: "Do you love me?" His life was the answer to this essential question posed by the Lord. I think this aspect is the greatest treasure of the process."

There is little doubt we will soon affirm what the multiplying miracles attributed to his continued intercession only confirm, Blessed John Paul II is a Saint. 

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