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The Vatican is planning to accommodate at least 300,000 people in St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding area for Pope John Paul II’s beatification Mass on Sunday, May 1, while Catholics in New York and around the world are giving thanks for the honor to the beloved pontiff.
“It will be a big day,” said Archbishop Dolan earlier this week.
The archbishop, who also remembers Pope John II in his CNY column on Page 5 of this issue, had said when the beatification was announced that the news Pope John Paul II will be declared “Blessed” by Pope Benedict XVI “is an occasion of great joy and grace.”
Cardinal Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, said “Catholics across the world will be rejoicing in the beatification of Pope John Paul II in Rome.”
He said, “It was my privilege to know this extraordinary Successor of St. Peter well, to work with him, and to be inspired by all that he was and all that he did for the Church and, indeed, for all of humankind.”
Cardinal Egan, who was an adviser to Pope John Paul II on the new Code of Canon Law in the early 1980s. The pope later made him a bishop and a cardinal and in 2000 appointed him Archbishop of New York.
At the Vatican, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, said that Pope John Paul—a towering figure in the Church and in world affairs—is being beatified not because of his impact on history or on the Catholic Church, but because of the way he lived the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love.
Cardinal Amato said the Church wanted to respond positively to many Catholics’ hopes to have Pope John Paul beatified quickly, but it also wanted to be certain that the pope, who died in 2005, is in heaven. Beatification is the Church’s acknowledgement that a dead person has gone to heaven and may intercede in others’ behalf.
Cardinal Amato said the sainthood process is one of the areas of Church life where the consensus of Church members really counts.
“From the day of his death on April 2, 2005, the people of God began proclaiming his holiness,” and hundreds, if not thousands, visit his tomb each day, Cardinal Amato said.
In advance of the beatification, the Vatican announced that the feast day of Blessed John Paul II will be marked Oct. 22 each year in Rome and in the dioceses of Poland, the late pontiff’s native country.
The Vatican also released the opening prayer for the feast day Mass:
“O God, who are rich in mercy and who willed that the Blessed John Paul II should preside as pope over your universal Church, grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching, we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ, the sole redeemer of mankind. Who lives and reigns.”
In the New York Archdiocese, Catholics will honor Pope John Paul II at Masses and other events on the May 1 beatification date, which is also Divine Mercy Sunday.
Pope John Paul II was a champion of the Divine Mercy devotion and promoted the 2000 canonization of its founder, St. Faustina Kowalska, a visionary Polish nun.
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Cardinal Egan will offer the main Sunday Mass at 10:15 a.m., where he will speak about the late pontiff.
He said he looks forward to celebrating the Mass “in union with our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and all of the faithful across the globe in gratitude to the Lord for the gift that is Blessed John Paul.”
Cardinal Egan will celebrate the Mass in place of Archbishop Dolan, who will be on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France on May 1.
Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt, the Vatican’s nuncio to the United Nations, will be the main celebrant at the noon Mass at the Church of the Holy Family in Manhattan, the parish that serves the United Nations, where he will speak about Pope John Paul, who was a strong supporter of the United Nations’ peace mission and addressed the world body on his visits to New York in 1979 and 1995.
Young people from at least 18 parishes in the archdiocese, as well as groups organized by the Office of Black Ministry and St. Joseph’s Seminary, will be traveling to Madrid, Spain, in August to attend World Youth Day, the popular celebration for Catholic young people started by Pope John Paul II which has remained an important part of his legacy.
After performing at the beatification in Rome, the Choir of the Diocese of Rome (the pope’s diocese) will make its American debut on a tour featuring sacred music specifically composed for the beatification ceremony. The choir will perform in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday, June 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Among the other New York celebrations May 1:
• A Mass of thanksgiving for the beatification will be celebrated at noon at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Manhattan;
• St. Adalbert’s parish on Staten Island will host a celebration for Divine Mercy Sunday and the beatification beginning at 2:45 p.m. with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed by a solemn sung Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m. and a Eucharistic procession inside the church;
• Holy Rosary parish in Hawthorne will hold a celebration for Divine Mercy Sunday and the beatification beginning at 1:45 p.m. Theresa Bonopartis, director of Lumina—Hope and Healing After Abortion, will be a guest speaker on the topic “Where Mercy Meets Forgiveness.” Her reflection will be followed by recitation of the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
• St. Michael’s parish in Manhattan will present a concert by the Choir of St. Michael and artists from the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in honor of Divine Mercy Sunday and the beatification;
• A one-day pilgrimage to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy at Eden Hill, Stockbridge, Mass., will depart from St. Agnes Church in Manhattan.
Also, an exhibit on the late pontiff’s life will be on display at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven through June 30, and Maryknoll’s Orbis Books is releasing an edition of his encyclicals under the title “John Paul II: The Encyclicals in Everyday Language.”
Many New Yorkers will also travel to Rome on pilgrimage tours offered for the beatification, including one organized by Pinnacle Tours and escorted by Father Jonathan Morris of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, and another led by Father Lorenzo Ato, pastor of St. Emeric’s in Manhattan and a CNY columnist.
“Millions of people love the pope, and they want to be close to the beatification,” Father Ato said. “They feel like he’s a friend, and they’ll make a sacrifice to go there.
“It’s not like the holy people from the past,” he said. “Pope John Paul II was the pope for 25 years. People grew up with him and he touched their lives.
“It’s very exciting to have people who are saints living among us—not people who belong to other ages, but people who belong to our era. It’s a gift from God,” Father Ato said.
Catholic News Service contributed to this article.
