This weekend, the news around the world was the canonization of two popes, the Italian John XXIII (real name, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, known as "the good Pope") and the Polish John Paul II (real name, Karol Wojtyla, known as “the Pilgrim Pope”). Beyond the opinions for and against that this appointment has generated at different levels, those who followed the broadcast of the ceremony in real time witnessed a ritual that seems taken from another era. We live in a time when all religious or spiritual beliefs, at least in the Western world, have been pushed into the background by more mundane cults such as those lavished by the masses on money, power, fame and luxury. In this context, the appearance of two modern saints may sound like a repositioning strategy for a religion discredited by multiple scandals that have little or nothing divine. However, in these times of information and images spread in real time - the "government of the imago" as semiologists say - the world was able to observe the choreographic ceremony associated with the canonization , previously only available in Old Chronicles. But how does the process of canonization in the Catholic Church work? ? Here we tell you:
The canonization It is a process of the Catholic Church intended to give a deceased person the status of a Saint. As a result of this process, the canonized person is included in the already existing list of Saints. The canonization it does not grant divine status, what it recognizes is that, at the time of death, this person was a saint. In ancient times, people did not require this process to be considered Saints, since it was the will of the people that determined this appointment.
In the middle of the third century, Cyprian of Carthage, the Roman clergyman and writer, decided to make recommendations so that the title of Saint should not be given to people who did not deserve it Really. Among his recommendations was, for example, a thorough investigation of the circumstances of the person's martyrdom and an inquiry into his character and strength of faith.
At the end of the 10th century, the first recorded canonical processes took place. The first Saint recognized through the process of canonization It was Ulrich of Augsburg and the first woman declared a Saint was Wiborada. From 1234, the process of canonization it was reserved solely for the papacy.
Finally, in the second half of the 16th century, Pope Sixtus V handed over the celebration of the process to the Sacred Congregation of Rites. In 1969, this responsibility was placed in the hands of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Today, the process has changed and the conditions imposed by the church are more rigorous.
Currently, before entering the canonization process , the candidate for Saint, must meet five conditions (in addition to having died within the five-year period before starting the process):
- The initial stage:application to the cause
- Declaration of the person as a servant of God
- Declaration of the candidate as Venerable
- The beatification of the candidate (requires a miracle)
- The canonization of the person (requires authentication from another miracle)
After having fulfilled the five conditions required to start the final process of canonization , there are two ways to obtain the final declaration of the person in his/her state of Saint. The first is the path of heroic virtues and the second is the path of martyrdom. Through the path of martyrdom, a miracle performed by the candidate must be verified and if the path of heroic virtues is chosen, the candidate must prove two miracles.
John XXIII and John Paul II have been canonized in April this year by Pope Francis. John XXIII was the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church between 1958 and 1963 and was beatified by John Paul II on September 3, 2000. A year earlier, John Paul II himself issued the decree that accepted the heroic virtues of John XXIII.
Through this step, John XIII was declared venerable. On July 5, 2013, Pope Francis put his signature on the decree that authorized the canonization of John XXIII . On September 30 of last year, Pope Francis announced the canonization ofJohn XXIII for April 27, 2014 in a celebration in which he would be canonized together with John Paul II .
The process of canonization of John Paul II It has been extremely fast but, in the same way, it has followed all the steps required by the church. The process had 2005 as its starting year, the same year of the death of the Polish Supreme Pontiff, who exercised the papacy since 1978 (Benedict XVI exceptionally modified the norm so that it was not necessary to have died five years before the start of the canonization process ). John Paul II he was proclaimed blessed in 2011, in an act that had not been performed by the Catholic Church since the Middle Ages.
In 2006 the selected miracle was made public in order to certify the beatification of John Paul II (he cured a French nun of Parkinson's disease). In December 2009, Benedict XVI declared VenerableJohn Paul II . In July 2013 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the second miracle (the healing of a woman from Costa Rica who suffered from an incurable brain injury). Finally, on February 6, 2014, Pope Francis announced that, after being canonized in April of the same year, John Paul II he would also be declared the patron saint of the World Youth Day.