History to be made in double sainthoods

TWO giants of Roman Catholicism in the 20th century will become saints on Sunday at an unprecedented twin canonisation that has aroused both joy and controversy in the 1.2 billion-member Church.

Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the modernising Second Vatican Council, and Pope John Paul II, who reigned for nearly 27 years and whose trips around the world made him the most visible pope in history, will be declared saints by Pope Francis.

While John died half-a-century ago, crit- ics say the canonisation of John Paul, who died in 2005, is too hasty. They also believe the Polish-born pope was slow to act on the sexual abuse crisis in the church.

Nevertheless, more than a million people are expected to flock to Rome – many of them to the Vatican – for the ceremony.

At the ceremony, Francis will raise two of his predecessors to what the Catholic church calls “the glory of the altars“.

The church will declare the popes who left an indelible mark on Catholicism led lives of holiness and are worthy of imita- tion by the faithful. Church investigators have credited them with interceding with God after their death to perform medically inexplicable miracle cures of sick people who prayed to them.

While the late Polish pope is hailed for his role in helping to bring about the fall of communism, critics have pressed the Vatican over what John Paul knew about sexual abuse by Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of a disgraced Catholic religious order, the Legionaries of Christ.

Maciel lived a double life for years as a paedophile, womaniser and drug addict while running the rich, conservative order he founded and being held up by the pope and his aides as an example of an outstanding religious leader.

John Paul’s defenders have said that while aides might have known the allegations were true, they kept much information from him.

For John XXIII, Pope Francis has bent the rules deciding that only one miracle, instead of the customary two, was needed to make him a saint. – Reuters