Popes Pius XII, John Paul the Great, declared “Venerable”

Along with several others to be beatified and canonized.

Folks, according to Catholic World News:

In a series of decrees issued on December 19, the Vatican has approved miracles allowing for the canonization of five people and the beatification of five others. The Vatican also recognized the 1984 murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko by Communist intelligence officers as a martyrdom, preparing the way for his beatification.

The decrees, approved by Pope Benedict XVI during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, also proclaimed that ten other candidates for sainthood had lived lives of heroic virtue. Those decrees make the candidates eligible for beatification if a miracle is attributed to their intercession.

The two decrees commanding the greatest public attention were those recognizing the heroic virtue of Pope Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, and Pope John Paul II, who reigned from 1978 to 2005.

Read it all here.

Commentary. These are all welcome news. I recall the vile murder of Fr. Popieluszko back in the eighties by cowards intent on demoralizing the Polish resistance to communism. I celebrate his ascent to the altars.

Declaring Pope Pius XII “venerable” is going to give a whole bunch of people heartburn, but not me. Here’s a holy man whose character, honor, and record has been soiled by a crowd intent on destroying what is left of the Church’s global moral witness. Their heartburn is their business, not mine. I wish to see the Venerable Pope Pius XII raised to the altars.

Of course, the news that Pope John Paul the Great is now venerable and therefore, worthy of receiving a limited public veneration, are the most exciting to me. That’s because his life story is the one I most familiar with and the one that has affected me the most. For 25 years he was a part of my life and I could see in his smile and demeanor the fire that burned within him. To this day, sometimes I dream that I met him, got to talk to him, and see him smile at me with supernatural understanding and compassion.

Pope John Paul is responsible for many great deeds: he was instrumental in the fall of communism in eastern and central Europe, mediated in a number of conflicts, traveled extensively as a modern Apostle of Christ, defended human life, the dignity of all persons, and recognized the State of Israel, among many others. In his Theology of the Body  he re-presented the beauty of human sexuality in the light of the Gospel to a world tired of sexual exploitation and manipulation.

But the greatest achievement of Pope John Paul is that he reclaimed his place to be the ultimate interpreter of the Second Vatican Council, which had been up to that moment hijacked by academic theologians bend upon changing the Church into something unrecognizable, out of shape, a pale reflection of what she was supposed to be. These theologians were ascendant until John Paul reigned them in and put them in their place. Much work remained to be done, and much of it is being continued by his worthy successor, but it is undeniable to me that Pope John Paul the Great initiated the great renewal in Catholic life we’re seeing today.

Let us then ask for the intercession of these venerable and blessed Catholics, so that the Church continues to grow to the full stature of Jesus Christ on earth.