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St. Peter's Square - May 1, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI, center, kneels in prayer in front of the casket of late Pope John Paul II, laid out in state at the Altar of the Confession inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the end of a solemn celebration in St. Peter's Square where he was beatified, Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand (L) and Sister Tobiana (C) greet Pope Benedict XVI during the beatification mass of the late Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican May 1, 2011.The late Pope John Paul moved a major step closer to sainthood on Sunday at a joyous ceremony that drew more than a million people, the largest crowd in Rome since his funeral six years ago. French nun Normand suffered from Parkinson's disease but her inexplicable cure has been attributed to John Paul's intercession with God to perform a miracle, thus providing the grounds for his beatification.

A tapestry of Pope John Paul II is displayed during his beatification mass led by Pope Benedict XVI in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican May 1, 2011.

If you missed this morning's live transmission, EWTN will replay it at 8 pm EST.

Additional images from this morning's beatification

Two nuns kiss the casket of John Paul II inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Sunday, May 1, 2011.

Cardinals wait to pay their homage in front of the casket of late Pope John Paul II, laid out in state at the Altar of the Confession inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the end of a solemn celebration in St. Peter's Square where he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI, Sunday, May 1, 2011

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Sister Tobiana kneels in front of Pope Benedict XVI as she hands him the glass reliquary containing the blood of late Pope John Paul II while Sister Marie Simon-Pierre stands at left during the beatification ceremony of John Paul II, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, May 1, 2011

THE HOMILY OF THE MASS OF BEATIFICATION OF JOHN PAUL II

by Benedict XVI

Dear brothers and sisters, [...] today is the Second Sunday of Easter, which Blessed John Paul II entitled Divine Mercy Sunday. The date was chosen for today’s celebration because, in God’s providence, my predecessor died on the vigil of this feast. [...]

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn 20:29). In today’s Gospel Jesus proclaims this beatitude: the beatitude of faith. For us, it is particularly striking because we are gathered to celebrate a beatification, but even more so because today the one proclaimed blessed is a Pope, a Successor of Peter, one who was called to confirm his brethren in the faith. John Paul II is blessed because of his faith, a strong, generous and apostolic faith. We think at once of another beatitude: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Mt 16:17). What did our heavenly Father reveal to Simon? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of this faith, Simon becomes Peter, the rock on which Jesus can build his Church.

The eternal beatitude of John Paul II, which today the Church rejoices to proclaim, is wholly contained in these sayings of Jesus: “Blessed are you, Simon” and “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe!” It is the beatitude of faith, which John Paul II also received as a gift from God the Father for the building up of Christ’s Church.

Our thoughts turn to yet another beatitude, one which appears in the Gospel before all others. It is the beatitude of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary, who had just conceived Jesus, was told by Saint Elizabeth: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk 1:45). The beatitude of faith has its model in Mary, and all of us rejoice that the beatification of John Paul II takes place on this first day of the month of Mary, beneath the maternal gaze of the one who by her faith sustained the faith of the Apostles and constantly sustains the faith of their successors, especially those called to occupy the Chair of Peter.

Mary does not appear in the accounts of Christ’s resurrection, yet hers is, as it were, a continual, hidden presence: she is the Mother to whom Jesus entrusted each of his disciples and the entire community. In particular we can see how Saint John and Saint Luke record the powerful, maternal presence of Mary in the passages preceding those read in today’s Gospel and first reading. In the account of Jesus’ death, Mary appears at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:25), and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles she is seen in the midst of the disciples gathered in prayer in the Upper Room (Acts 1:14). [...]

Dear brothers and sisters, [...] in his Testament, the new Blessed wrote: “When, on 16 October 1978, the Conclave of Cardinals chose John Paul II, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, said to me: ‘The task of the new Pope will be to lead the Church into the Third Millennium’”. And the Pope added: “I would like once again to express my gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of the Second Vatican Council, to which, together with the whole Church – and especially with the whole episcopate – I feel indebted. I am convinced that it will long be granted to the new generations to draw from the treasures that this Council of the twentieth century has lavished upon us. As a Bishop who took part in the Council from the first to the last day, I desire to entrust this great patrimony to all who are and will be called in the future to put it into practice. For my part, I thank the Eternal Shepherd, who has enabled me to serve this very great cause in the course of all the years of my Pontificate”.

And what is this “cause”? It is the same one that John Paul II presented during his first solemn Mass in Saint Peter’s Square in the unforgettable words: “Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!” What the newly-elected Pope asked of everyone, he was himself the first to do: society, culture, political and economic systems he opened up to Christ, turning back with the strength of a titan – a strength which came to him from God – a tide which appeared irreversible.

By his witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma, this exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the world not to be afraid to be called Christian, to belong to the Church, to speak of the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to fear the truth, because truth is the guarantee of liberty.

To put it even more succinctly: he gave us the strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is "Redemptor hominis," the Redeemer of man. This was the theme of his first encyclical, and the thread which runs though all the others.

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. With this message, which is the great legacy of the Second Vatican Council and of its “helmsman”, the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, John Paul II led the People of God across the threshold of the Third Millennium, which thanks to Christ he was able to call “the threshold of hope”.

Throughout the long journey of preparation for the great Jubilee he directed Christianity once again to the future, the future of God, which transcends history while nonetheless directly affecting it. He rightly reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress. He restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope, to be lived in history in an “Advent” spirit, in a personal and communitarian existence directed to Christ, the fullness of humanity and the fulfillment of all our longings for justice and peace. [...]

Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed! Continue, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. Amen.

Not to be a party pooper...

...and I love what JP2 did to the Communists...

...but I want someone to get to the bottom of JP2’s involvement with protecting Cardinal Bernard Law from prosecution, before I we rush him to into recognized Saint status.

**Some 1.5 million pilgrims **

I think that upstages the royal wedding — so to speak!