“He helped us not to fear the truth because truth is the guarantee of liberty.”
Jennifer
Cubachi
5/1/2011
Pope Benedict XVI has beatified Pope John Paul II before more than a million Catholic faithful in St. Peter’s Square. The beloved Pope John Paul II is now one step closer to sainthood.
Pope Benedict declared Sunday that John Paul will now be called “Blessed” and that his feast day will be celebrated on Oct. 22, the anniversary of of his installation as pope in 1978.
“John Paul II is blessed because of his faith, a strong, generous and apostolic faith.”
Pope Benedict gave a beautiful dedication to Pope John Paul II, especially his battle against Marxism. More from Catholic News Agency:
“When Karol Wojtyla ascended to the throne of Peter, he brought with him a deep understanding of the difference between Marxism and Christianity, based on their respective visions of man. This was his message: man is the way of the Church, and Christ is the way of man.”
It was Blessed John Paul’s first papal visit to communist-controlled Poland in 1979 that many historians pinpoint as the beginning of the end for communism. Today in St. Peter’s Square, the Polish flag was being waived everywhere by thrilled Poles.
“He rightly reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress…
Jennifer has video at Cubachi.
