Will Blessed Pope John Paul II Be Canonized on October 22?

April 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Workmen install a large banner in St. Peter’s Square on May 2, 2011, one day after the Beatification of the late Pope John Paul II.

The medical council charged with reviewing a possible miraculous healing attributable to Pope John Paul II has ruled it “inexplicable” and has forwarded the file to the Vatican Congregation for the Saints for further study.

According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the canonization of Karol  Wojtyla is moving forward and may happen as early as October 2013.  The proceedings have been conducted in secrecy; but Andrea Tornielli, reporting from Vatican City, reported:

In January, the postulator of the cause, Mgr. Slawomir Oder, submitted a presumed miraculous healing to the Vatican Congregation for the Saints for a preliminary opinion. As it is known, after the approval of a miracle for the proclamation of a blessed, the canonical procedures include the recognition of a second miracle that must have occurred after the beatification ceremony. 

Two doctors of the Vatican council had previously examined this new case, and both gave a favourable opinion. The dossier with the medical records and the testimonies was then officially presented to the Congregation, which immediately included the examination in its agenda. In the past few days it was discussed by a committee of seven doctors, the council (presided over by Dr. Patrick Polisca, Pope John Paul II’s cardiologist), Pope Benedict XVI’s personal physicians and now Pope Francis’s. The medical council also gave a favourable opinion, the first official go-ahead by the Vatican, by defining as inexplicable the healing attributed to the intercession of the blessed Karol Wojtyla.

According to Italy’s Panorama Magazine, the healing selected for further study was chosen from four cases which had been submitted to the Vatican.

In May 2005, Pope Benedict XVI waived the normal five-year waiting period before beatification proceedings for his predecessor could begin, citing “exceptional circumstances”.

In 2009, the Congregation for the Saints unanimously ruled that Pope John Paul had lived a life of virtue; just a month later, Pope Benedict signed a declaration ruling that he had, in fact, lived a “heroic, virtuous life”.

The first miracle attributed to the late pope—the miracle which led to John Paul’s beatification in May 2011—was the healing of Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a French nun who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease.  Sister Marie had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2001 and deteriorated rapidly, becoming incapacited within only four years to the point that she could no longer write and could barely drive.  The sisters began praying to Pope John Paul for her healing; and within only a few weeks, the Parkinson’s symptoms disappeared and doctors confirmed that she was completely healed.

At this point, specifics regarding the second healing are still confidential; but it is believed that the second miracle occurred shortly after Pope John Paul’s death.  If the Congregation for the Saints also rules that there is no natural cause for this second healing, Blessed John Paul II could be canonized as early as October.  One source has suggested that while no date has been determined at this time, it could be Sunday, October 20—the nearest Sunday to Blessed Pope John Paul’s October 22 feastday.

Filed Under: Beatification, Canonization, Miracles, Pope John Paul II, Saints Leave a Comment

C. Everett Koop: The Padre Pio Connection

February 26, 2013 By 5 Comments

You probably heard that C. Everett Koop, who served as Surgeon General under President Ronald Reagan, died on February 25 at the age of 96. 

Dr. Koop, who was Surgeon General from 1981 through 1989, was the most visible and the most influential person ever to hold that office.  During his tenure Dr. Koop raised our national awareness regarding the health dangers of cigarette smoking, and established an aggressive government policy toward AIDS.  He fought to strengthen the rights of handicapped children, campaigning to protect newborns with defects, which led to Congress passing the Baby Doe Amendment.

He was personally opposed to abortion—although he declined to report that the procedure posed a serious health hazard to the women who obtained legal abortions.  In Whatever Happened to the Human Race, which he co-authored with Francis A. Schaeffer, Koop analyzed the widespread implications and frightening loss of human rights brought on by today’s practices of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.

MEDICAL CAREER

In his medical practice, C. Everett Koop was a pediatric surgeon who achieved international recognition for successfully separating conjoined twins and for advancing the field of pediatric surgery with new lifesaving procedures.

Of particular interest is the case of critically ill Veramarie Calandra, fifth child of Harry and Vera Calandra, who operated a small grocery store in Norristown, Pa.  Veramarie was born in 1966, and suffered from a congenital kidney disease.  Dr. Koop performed several surgeries on the infant’s severe urinary tract defects at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, finally removing her bladder and warning her parents that she could not live that way, and that the child was certain to die.

INTERVENTION OF PADRE PIO

Mrs. Calandra had read of the miracles of Padre Pio, and in 1968—just a few weeks before the friar’s death—she was moved to travel with her seriously ill toddler to his monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.  Padre Pio received Vera Calandra and two of her children, including Veramarie.  He blessed them and placed his sore, wounded hands upon the children’s foreheads.

Upon the Calandras’ return home, doctors at Children’s Hospital again examined the young Veramarie and discovered, to their amazement, that a small rudimentary bladder was growing to replace the one which Dr. Koop had removed.  It was truly, they believed, a miracle.  Since Padre Pio was still alive at the time of the miracle, it cannot be counted as one of the miracles necessary for canonization; but the family is grateful nonetheless, and believes that it was Padre Pio’s prayer which restored Veramaria to full health.

Veramarie did recover to live a normal life.  Her mother Vera, after promising God that she would spread the word about the pious friar if her daughter were to live, established the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania.

According to the Centre’s website, the National Centre for Padre Pio has been recognized by the Holy See for its spiritual work.  Mr. and Mrs. Calandra had many audiences with Pope John Paul II, and were invited to attend many masses in his private chapel.  In 1987, Mrs. Calandra received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award, an honor bestowed by the Pope for outstanding work with the Catholic Church.  On May 2, 1999, during the Beatification Ceremony of Padre Pio in Rome, Italy, Mrs. Calandra was given the great privilege of representing the United States of America and was asked to read the first reading of the Solemn Mass.

Filed Under: Miracles, Saints Tagged With: , 5 Comments

“The Lourdes of Germany”: Our Lady of Altötting and the World Day of the Sick

January 31, 2013 By 1 Comment

In southeastern Germany, in the region of Bavaria, there stands an octagonal chapel which dates back to A.D. 660.  The chapel, constructed of native stone, is home to a small limewood statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, darkened by age, by the smoke of thousands of candles which have burned there, and by a fire which nearly destroyed it in A.D. 990.  The chapel is known to native Germans as the Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting or the Chapel of Grace (in German, Gnadenkappelle).

For over 500 years, the shrine—which is served by the Capuchin friars—has been a popular pilgrimage site for devout Germans.  In 1489, a grieving mother brought the body of her young son, who had been drowned, and laid him before the Blessed Mother, and prayed for a miracle.  The boy returned to life.  Since then, many miracles and cures have been attributed to Our Lady of Altötting, and the shrine has been dubbed the “Lourdes of Germany.”

The porch surrounding the shrine is filled with votive offerings left by devout pilgrims and with small, silver urns bearing the remains of German noblemen, who arranged to have their hearts placed here after death.

In November 1980, Pope John Paul II visited the shrine—accompanied by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was born in a nearby town.  On September 11, 2006, Ratzinger, newly elected as Pope Benedict XVI, returned to the shrine to donate the episcopal ring he had worn while Archbishop of Munich.  That ring is now a part of the scepter held by the Blessed Virgin.

Plenary Indulgence for the World Day of the Sick

On February 7-11, 2013, the shrine will be the site for the celebration of the 21st World Day of the Sick.  In a decree published January 28 and signed by Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro and Bishop Krzysztof Nykiel, respectively penitentiary major and regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Pope Benedict XVI grants a Plenary Indulgence to the faithful who participate in this World Day of the Sick.

According to the decree:

Persons following the example of the Good Samaritan, who “with a spirit of faith and a merciful soul, put themselves at the service of their brothers and sisters who are suffering or who, if sick, endure the pains and hardships of life … bearing witness to the faith through the path of the Gospel of suffering” will obtain the Plenary Indulgence, once a day and under the usual conditions (sacramental Confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Holy Father), applicable also to the souls of deceased faithful:

A) each time from 7–11 February, in the Marian Shrine of Altotting or at any other place decided by the ecclesiastical authorities, that they participate in a ceremony held to beseech God to grant the goals of the World Day of the Sick, praying the Our Father, the Creed, and an invocation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Faithful in public hospitals or any private house who, like the Good Samaritan, charitably assist the ill and who, because of such service, cannot attend the aforementioned celebrations, will obtain the same gift of Plenary Indulgence if, for at least a few hours on that day, they generously provide their charitable assistance to the sick as if they were tending to Christ the Lord Himself and pray the Our Father, the Creed, and an invocation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, with their soul removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of carrying out as soon as possible that which is necessary to obtain the plenary indulgence.

The faithful who because of illness, advance age, or other similar reasons cannot take part in the aforementioned celebrations will obtain the Plenary Indulgence if, with their soul removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of carrying out as soon as possible the usual conditions, spiritually participating in the sacred events of the determined days, particularly through liturgical celebrations and the Supreme Pontiff’s message broadcast by television or radio, they pray for all the sick and offer their physical and spiritual suffering to God through the Virgin Mary, ‘Salus Infirmorum’ (Health of the Sick).

B) Partial Indulgence will be conceded to all the faithful who, between the indicated days, with a contrite heart raise devout prayers to the merciful Lord beseeching assistance for the sick in spirit during this Year of Faith.

Cardinal Monteiro de Castro said that the special indulgences were authorized by Pope Benedict XVI during this Year of Faith “so that the faithful, truly repentant and moved by charity and the example of the good Samaritan, with a spirit of faith and a merciful soul, would place themselves at the service of their suffering brothers and sisters.”

The Pope also hoped that Catholics who are sick would endure “the pains and sufferings of life, raising their hearts to God with humble trust and offering witness to the faith.”

Filed Under: Catholic, Indulgences, Mary, Miracles, Pope Benedict XVI, Prayer Tagged With: 1 Comment
« Older Posts