AP Features, March 30th, 2007
At Pope John Paul II's funeral nearly two years ago, people held up signs calling for "Santo Subito" _ meaning "Sainthood Now" _ but things don't work that fast in the Roman Catholic Church.
There are long and detailed regulations for saint making, a process that can take hundreds of years, even if John Paul put one of his favorites on the fast track.
Norms established by John Paul in 1983 set a five year waiting period after a person's death before he or she can come under official scrutiny as a possible candidate for sainthood.
But John Paul waived this for Mother Teresa, beatifying the Nobel Peace Prize-winning nun only six years after her death, and Pope Benedict XVI waived it for John Paul. Benedict made the surprise announcement in Latin, while addressing priests from the diocese of Rome, less than two months after John Paul's death, that the process for beatification could begin immediately.
The process for beatification originates in the place where the candidate worked or died, so the dioceses of Rome and Krakow, Poland, have been gathering information on the "life and heroic virtues" of Karol Wojtyla, going through personal papers and written and oral testimony, and searching for a possible miracle, another prerequisite for beatification.
Once such a presumed miracle, which has to occur after the candidate's death, is identified, it is examined by medical experts to determine whether there are medical explanations for the cure.
In a ceremony in Rome on Monday, the first phase of John Paul's process will be declared officially closed, with the acts and documentation passed on to the Congregation for the Cause of Saints.
If a panel of theologians and then a group of cardinals and bishops give their approval, the case will then be sent to the pope.
Beatification entitles the person to be called blessed and to be the object of public veneration. This veneration, however, is limited to the diocese where the candidate grew up or worked, not to veneration by the universal church, which is reserved to saints.
At the current pace in John Paul's case, experts expect to see beatification within the next couple of years. But just like he waived the five-year-wait, Benedict could surprise again. As supreme legislator of the Church, he could dispense with the whole process and canonize John Paul.
But if the process takes its normal course, after beatification another miracle will be required for sainthood.
