Catholic students and faculty convened in Miami Nov. 5 to venerate what is considered a “first-class relic” of Blessed John Paul II and used the occasion to reflect on the life and impact of the late pope, who along with Blessed John XXIII will be canonized April 27 at the Vatican.

A larger-than-life model of Blessed John Paul II as a younger man reaches out from the top of the exterior steps that ascend to All Saints Church, Warsaw’s largest church. At the statue’s feet one recent summer afternoon sat a bouquet of plastic red roses, and candles lit in red heart-shaped vases.

Pope Francis will host a meeting of cardinals Sept. 30 to formally approve the canonization of Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII; the date for the canonization will be announced at that time, said Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

The cardinals and archbishops who are members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes met July 2 and, according to Italian news reports, took steps to advance the sainthood causes of Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII.

By Carol Glatz Devotion to Mary “collapsed” in some parts of the United States after the Second Vatican Council even though the council fathers had upheld her critical place within the Catholic faith, said a leading American expert in Marian studies. The council’s decision to integrate a draft text on Mary into a larger dogmatic text – Lumen Gentium – rather than publish it as a separate do...

Q: In talking with friends about the beatification of Pope John Paul II, I have found a degree of scepticism including among Catholics. They say the Church has rushed through the whole process due to popular pressure. How can I answer them? Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who served as personal secretary to Blessed Pope John Paul II, prays at the new tomb of the late Polish pontiff i...

Detour in Rome: a leading Australian theologian caught the train for the beatification of Pope John Paul II but never got to her destination. It was all for the best... People pack St Peter’s Square and the Via della Conciliazione leading up to the square during the beatification of Pope John Paul II on 1 May at the Vatican. This aerial view photo was provided by the Italian Nation...

By Bridget Spinks THE newly beatified Pope John Paul II had such an impact on Balcatta’s Fr Irek Czech SDS that on 1 May, the Polish Salvatorian priest launched and consecrated the parish’s new JPII Youth Group to the new Blessed. Pope John Paul II. Photo: CNS Fr Irek said that Karol Wojtyla - who was born six years before his own father, Bernard - was like a second fa...

By Anthony Barich HUNDREDS packed out to overflowing churches across the Archdiocese as a number of Masses were offered celebrating the beatification of the “indefatigable” Pope John Paul II on 1 May. Archbishop Barry Hickey offers Mass with Perth and visiting Franciscans at Our Lady Queen of Poland Chapel in Maylands to celebrate the beatification of Pope John Paul II, with...

By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY - As Church officials keep emphasising, Pope John Paul II is being beatified not for his performance as Pope, but for how he lived the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. Pope John Paul II prays during midnight Mass at St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican early on 25 December. During his annual urbi et orbi address later in t...