Sainthood rites for John Paul II, John XXIII to be beamed around the world (3D in cinemas, for free)

RNS ^ | April 14, 2014 | Josephine McKenna

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY (RNS) While millions of pilgrims are expected to attend the Catholic Church’s first-ever double canonization at the end of April, the Vatican is preparing its most ambitious TV and social media campaign for the millions who don’t make it to Rome.

View down Via della Conciliazione to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Harris via Flickr

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City officials are expecting more than 5 million people to attend the ceremony when Pope Francis declares his predecessors Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII saints in St Peter’s Square on April 27.

For the first time viewers will be able to watch the historic event live in 3-D movie theaters in 20 countries across North and South America and Europe through a deal between Vatican TV and Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV network, Sony and other partners.

The Vatican’s television unit CTV will produce the event in 3-D and it will be screened in more than 600 movie theaters worldwide. Admission will be free.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said the communications technology being used offers a “great opportunity for relationship, knowledge, participation, an opportunity to live history.”

But the Vatican’s approach to this major event is more comprehensive than simply TV or 3-D cinema screens as it prepares for an influx of the world’s media and also creates a multifaceted “digital platform” in several languages.

A website — 2popesaints.org — is under construction and will be available in five languages and the Vatican is also setting up Twitter accounts, offering a smartphone app, Facebook page and a YouTube channel. Other social media sites, including Instagram and Storify, will also be used to communicate the event to young people around the world.

David Bush, marketing director of Sony Europe, described the TV deal as a “natural evolution” of the company’s long-standing partnership with CTV.

“Our wish is that it helps to bring the emotion of the event to all of those many millions of people and the world who want to physically be there,” he said. “That is the goal of technology — to try and replicate the experience of being in St. Peter’s Square.”

[NYer]

Heads up, ping!

In preparation for this historic event, EWTN has developed an week long schedule of programming, some using archival footage, of both popes. To learn more, click

LIVE coverage of HOLY MASS AND CANONIZATIONS OF BLESSED JOHN XXIII AND BLESSED JOHN PAUL II

From Vatican City, His Holiness Pope Francis canonizes his predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II.

Sunday04/27/201403:30 AM (duration 3 hr 30 mins), with rebroadcast at 7 pm.

[cloudmountain]

I always thought that sainthood had to be accompanied by TWO verified miracles. Am I wrong?
If there were two miracles, what, pray tell, were they?

[trisham]

Thanks for the notice, NYer!

[Tax-chick]

I’ll be there in spirit. Maybe Anoreth and I will get our trip to Rome when I’m 65!

[pax_et_bonum]

I always thought that sainthood had to be accompanied by TWO verified miracles. Am I wrong?
If there were two miracles, what, pray tell, were they?

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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/02/sainthood-awaits-second-miracle-certified-for-beloved-pope-john-paul-ii/

[pax_et_bonum]

This is awesome!

Thanks for posting!

[NYer]

I always thought that sainthood had to be accompanied by TWO verified miracles. Am I wrong? If there were two miracles, what, pray tell, were they?

Why John XXIII needs no miracle to become a saint

[NKP_Vet]

Two miracles have been attributed to JP2’s intercession.
One miracle has been attributed to John23rd’s intercession.
The Pope waived the second miracle requirement for him. This is not often done, but it can be, and the Pope did just that.

[stisidore]

I feel strongly that it is a mistake to canonize John XXIII. I did not know this pope because I was not around for his pontificate, but in my readings he does not come off well.

First of all, he only came to my notice when in the 80’s I stumbled upon a book about the Third Secret of Fatima. I do not recall the author of that book, or its title, but over time I questioned people who WERE around when John read the secret. He said something like. “It’s not for our time.”

So here a huge modern public miracle of the sun, the Church’s approval and the words of Our Lady were not enough for this guy. This despite loud public clamor for the contents which WERE SUPPOSED TO BE REVEALED.

Not good.

In short order, and DESPITE John’s ignoring and non-publishing of the secret in 1960, apparitions occurred at Garabandal (1961-65, neither approved nor disapproved) and Akita (1973, approved).

They both point to calamities that are about to befall a sinful mankind — as did Fatima, in regards to WWII and beyond.

In reading author Father Malachi Martin, he delineated the catastrophes that befell the Church following the Second Vatican Council; i.e., Mass attendance plummeted, confessions plummeted, priests and nuns left their vocations in droves, and Marian devotions faded drastically.

I asked a friend of mine some questions about this period, and she told me at that time in her parish here in San Diego, that the Tuesday night Novenas to Our Lady of Perpetual Help were PACKED. Until the 60’s.

Also, at another church here, one of the kids for a Confirmation project (in about 2010) presented pictures and stories of Rosary attendance for Father Peyton’s Rosary Crusades.

Now get this: In a mainstream article and photo in SAN FRANCISCO, in about the year 1960, it showed a photo of 1 MILLION people gathered on the city streets to pray a public Rosary.

More recently still, there are the warnings included in Father Gobbi’s book for the Marian Movement of Priests. Our Lady specifically states that the wickedness of mankind at the present time is greater than at the time of the flood.

At the height of the Cold War, John XXIII did not feel that the problems were serious, and did not take Our Lady’s warnings seriously either.

Quote: “We must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world was at hand.”

The foolishness of this statement was strongly illustrated by the fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis, which took the world to the brink of atomic war in October 1962, was witnessed by John XXIII, who died in 1963.

Whoops!!!

Please step back my dear NYer, and take a few other recent developments and put it all together. When Benedict resigned, lightning struck the Vatican — twice. When Benedict then left to Castel Gondolfo, it was struck by an earthquake. When Francis had two white doves of peace were released in the Vatican, they were promptly killed by a black crow and a white seagull.

So to me, April 27 will be an extremely interesting date so as to see what transpires. Taken with the dates af the Marian apparitions that I stated above, as well as the Cuban Missile Crisis, it seems to me that our God in Heaven has strongly repudiated the remarks and actions of “Good” Pope John XXIII.

God is not mocked, but I have also read that in Hell God is constantly blasphemed, along with many other good and holy things, but any such mention of His Mother is strictly forbidden.

I do not believe this bodes well for John XXIII. Ignoring the Mother of Christ and her desires is begging for trouble.

I believe Pope Francis is also making a terrible mistake.

[cloudmountain]

I looked it up.
He is a saint by ACCLAIM. I never knew that was a process for sainthood.

Live and learn.

[editor-surveyor]

There is only one process for sainthood, and that is when Yeshua sends his angels to get you at the last Trump.

[steve86]

Canonizations are not infallible, right?

[cloudmountain]

There is only one process for sainthood, and that is when Yeshua sends his angels to get you at the last Trump.

That is your point of view, of course, or don't you allow other points of view?

[pax_et_bonum]

I looked it up.
He is a saint by ACCLAIM. I never knew that was a process for sainthood.
Live and learn.

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Thanks!

Wasn’t Francis of Assisi a saint by acclaim?

Sounds familiar but not sure.

[steve86]

Party Pooper!

Actually, excellent comment covering a lot of ground.

[cloudmountain]

FROM GOOGLE: Death and Legacy of St. Francis
As he approached his death, many predicted that Francis was a saint in the making. When his health began to decline more rapidly, Francis went home. Knights were sent from Assisi to guard him, and to make sure that no one from neighbouring towns would carry him off (the body of a saint was viewed, at the time, as an extremely valuable relic that would bring, among many things, glory to the town where it rested).
Francis of Assisi died on October 3, 1226, at the age of 44, in Assisi, Italy. Today, Francis has had a lasting resonance, with millions of followers across the globe. He was canonized as a saint just two years after his death, on July 16, 1228, by his former protector, Pope Gregory IX. Today, St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint for ecologists—a title honoring his boundless love for animals and nature.

There is no mention of sainthood by "acclaim" but he was, in modern terms, a "shoe in." :o)

[pax_et_bonum]

Thank you -

A “shoe in”!

Agreed!

[NYer]

There is only one process for sainthood, and that is when Yeshua sends his angels to get you at the last Trump.

"Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Mt 18:18

[cloudmountain]

"Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Mt 18:18

Peter, Cephas, the ROCK on which Jesus build His Church.