{"id":252,"date":"2023-04-13T06:57:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T05:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walks.friday.ie\/?p=252"},"modified":"2026-11-01T01:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:45:20","slug":"beatification-ceremony-john-paul-ii-vatican-teresa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/travel-tips\/beatification-ceremony-john-paul-ii-vatican-teresa","title":{"rendered":"What Does Being “Beatified” Really Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBeatification\u201d is the step right before sainthood. By beatifying someone, the Church proclaims that the person in question is a) definitely in Heaven, and b) definitely able to plead to God on your behalf if you pray to him. (This is theoretically true for any other Christians in Heaven, too. But beatification is meant to be a rigorous process in order to prove <\/em>this is the case).<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a>

Pope John Paul II with the to-be Pope Benedict XVI<\/p><\/div>\n

Before <\/em>you can be beatified, the Church has to investigate and make sure that all of your writings show \u201cpurity of doctrine\u201d<\/strong> (i.e., nothing against the faith!) and that all of your actions were motivated by virtue. For Pope John Paul II, that meant that the Church examined the pope\u2019s thousands of pages of writing \u2014 from his bestselling books to his encyclical writings. (It\u2019s thought that he was the most prolific pope in all of Church history).<\/p>\n

If you pass that test \u2014 as Pope John Paul II did \u2014 then you can be called \u201cVenerable.\u201d But you\u2019re not beatified yet!<\/p>\n

For that <\/em>level, the Church has to prove also either that you were martyred or <\/em>that you caused a miracle after your death<\/strong>. After beatification, you\u2019re then called \u201cBlessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope John Paul II\u2019s miracle was approved by the Vatican in January. The Church says that, two months after the pope died, a French nun suffering from Parkinson\u2019s and her sisters prayed to him. She was cured. At first, there were some questions about whether the nun\u2019s diagnosis of Parkinson\u2019s had been accurate to begin with.<\/p>\n

But after \u201cscrupulous\u201d research, the Vatican wrote, Church-appointed doctors determined that it was and that there was no scientific basis for her sudden cure. On Jan. 11, a session of the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted unanimously that the nun\u2019s cure was miraculous.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pope John Paul II: one of the most-loved popes in history.<\/p><\/div>\n

If one more miracle is attributed to the pope, then he can be made a saint<\/strong>. Interestingly, though, you used to need two<\/em> miracles for beatification and four<\/em> for canonization \u2014 twice as many! Who made the change? John Paul II.<\/p>\n

In debate over whether someone should be made a saint, meanwhile, there\u2019s also a \u201cdevil\u2019s advocate\u201d who argues against the case<\/strong> and who has his own special office. But like the requirement for two miracles, John Paul II changed this, too. In 1983, he abolished the 300-year-old office. Instead, someone might be informally asked to serve as \u201cdevil\u2019s advocate\u201d during the proceedings. For Mother Teresa, this was Christopher Hitchens.<\/p>\n

For the pope himself, this position was taken on by Rev. Giuseppe D\u2019Alonzo, promoter of justice for the Diocese of Rome. But reporters commented early on that even though D\u2019Alonzo said he was neither for nor against beatification, he seemed to hint that he thought the pope deserved it.<\/p>\n

Needing more miracles and a devil\u2019s advocate office weren\u2019t the only ways that beatification and canonization used to be more rigorous processes. Before John Paul II, the Church also had to wait for fifty years until after someone died to start considering them for sainthood. <\/strong>That was seen as the necessary amount of time to let grief and excitement over the death cool.<\/p>\n

\"Karol<\/a>

The soon-to-be Blessed Pope John Paul II.<\/p><\/div>\n

John Paul II himself shortened that 50-year wait time to just five years. And yet John Paul II died on April 2, 2005. Pope Benedict opened the case for his sainthood in\u2026 June. Of the same year.<\/p>\n

In other words, even the new<\/em> process was turned topsy-turvy for the Polish pope.<\/p>\n

The precedent for not even waiting five years was set by, again, John Paul II himself, who totally waived the requirement to fast-track the canonization of Mother Teresa \u2014 the Nobel Peace Prize-winner who ministered to the poor and sick for nearly 50 years. After she died in 1997, the Church launched their investigation. The Vatican recognized a miracle five years later. That miracle was particularly controversial: An Indian woman said that a locket with Mother Teresa\u2019s picture had healed her tumor, but even the woman\u2019s own husband said that the cure came from medicine and doctors, not faith. Still, Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003. If a second miracle is found, then she, too, can be named a saint.<\/p>\n

Finally, some people have criticized Pope John Paul II\u2019s beatification for reasons beyond the haste and seeming laxness. It was under John Paul II\u2019s watch, in 2002, that the sex abuse scandals broke. The Church initially gave prosecutors a list of 80 priests who had been accused of abuse. (That was seen as paltry, since it was estimated that at least 250 church workers had probably abused children in the Boston Archdiocese alone).<\/p>\n

But when some cardinals wanted to remove any priest from the Church who had ever abused a minor, and said that the police should be told of all sex abuse claims, the Vatican \u2014 under the pope\u2019s leadership \u2014 balked. Nine years later, that ambiguity continues to haunt the church. And many of its believers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBeatification\u201d is the step right before sainthood. By beatifying someone, the Church proclaims that the person in question is a) definitely in Heaven, and b) definitely able to plead to God on your behalf if you pray to him. (This is theoretically true for any other Christians in Heaven, too. But beatification is meant to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[80,19],"ppma_author":[195],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-tips","tag-churches","tag-vatican"],"authors":[{"term_id":195,"user_id":87,"is_guest":0,"slug":"matteom","display_name":"Matteo M.","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Matteo-Marino.png","url2x":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Matteo-Marino.png"},"user_url":"","last_name":"M.","first_name":"Matteo","job_title":"","description":"When Matteo, a native of Milan, isn't savoring the rich flavors of homemade pasta or engaging in lively debates about Italian politics, you can find him exploring the hidden gems of Italian cities, unearthing the stories behind ancient ruins, and getting lost in the vibrant maze of local markets in whatever city he finds himself in. Matteo considers himself to be the go-to source for tips, tidbits and recommendations for all things Italy. When he's not working, you can find him enjoying a pisolino or a gelato."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16127,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/16127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}