More Than A Million Witness Beatification of Pope John Paul II in Vatican

May 2, 2011 Thousands of red and white Polish national flags were waived above the crowd of some one million Catholic faithful from all over the world who gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican City on May 1 to witness the beatification ceremony of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II celebrated by his successor Pope Benedict XVI. Some 90 official delegations from around the world, including members of five European royal families and 16 heads of state, including Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski and Poland's Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, attended this historic event. During the beatification service Pope Benedict read a Latin formula proclaiming John Paul II "blessed and establishing that his predecessor's feast day would be October 22, the anniversary of his installation as pope in 1978. The beatification only became possible after the Vatican confirmed after years of research a miracle attributed to John Paul's intercession - the healing of a French nun, Marie Simon-Pierre Normand from Parkinson's disease. The Vatican will have to attribute another miracle to John Paul's intercession after the beatification in order for him to be declared a saint. After the proclamation a tapestry showing a smiling John Paul was unveiled from a balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. Normand held up a silver reliquary with a vial of blood taken from the pope in the last few days of his life in case it was needed for a transfusion. In his homily, Benedict noted that the late Pope, whom he praised as having had "the strength of a titan" and who gave millions of people "the strength to believe", had blessed crowds thousands of times from his window overlooking the same square. "He rightly reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress. He restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope, to be lived in history in an 'Advent' spirit, in a personal and communitarian existence directed to Christ, the fullness of humanity and the fulfillment of all our longings for justice and peace," Pope Benedict said. For a few days ahead of the ceremony hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were flocking into Rome. Up to 200,000 people attended all-night prayer vigil on Saturday evening in the Circus Maximus in Rome. Some churches held their doors open all night to give faithful a space to pray. Pope John Paul's coffin was exhumed on Friday from the crypts below St Peter's Basilica and placed in front of the main altar. It will remain there and the basilica will stay open until all visitors who want to view it have done so. To mark the occasion in Poland, John Paul II's homeland, a number of events took place across the country, with thousands of Poles attending ceremonies. Millions of people, were watching the beatification Mass live on their televisions at home or outdoors on specially erected large TV screens. In Warsaw, thousands gathered in Pilsudski Square to watch the proceedings in Vatican. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attended the church service in the southern town of Wadowice, the birthplace of John Paul II while in nearby Krakow, over 120,000 crowded in the Temple of Divine Mercy in the city's Lagiewniki district. A collage portrait of John Paul II, made up of over 100,000 photos sent in from around the world, was also unveiled at the Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw's district of Wilanow. Source: The Warsaw Voice