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Francis to Canonize John XXIII and John Paul II on Same Day Francis to Canonize John XXIII and John Paul II on Same Day
(about 3 hours later)
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Monday set a date next year to declare the sainthood of two of his most influential predecessors on the same day in what was taken as a gesture designed to promote unity within the Roman Catholic Church. VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said Monday he would canonize two of his most influential predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, on the same day next spring, a highly unusual move that was taken as a gesture designed to promote unity within the Roman Catholic Church.
The two popes — John Paul II and John XXIII — will be canonized on April 27, Francis said during a meeting with cardinals at the Vatican. Some Vatican analysts said the decision to canonize two popes simultaneously was highly unusual, if not unparalleled. The two popes, who have disparate followings among reformers and conservatives within the church, will be declared saints on April 27, Francis said during a meeting with cardinals at the Vatican. Each achieved considerable international stature: John Paul II for encouraging the fall of communism in his native Poland and across Eastern Europe, and John XXIII for assembling the liberalizing Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962 to 1965.
The pope announced in July that he would canonize the two men but did not set a date. Initially, there were indications that the two men, who have disparate followings among reformers and conservatives within the church, would be canonized later this year. “To celebrate them together is a sign of appreciation of the holiness of two popes who paid witness to our time,” the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said during a news conference on Monday.
Both pontiffs achieved considerable international stature: John Paul II for encouraging the fall of communism in his native Poland and across Eastern Europe, and John XXIII for assembling the liberalizing Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The pope announced in July that he would canonize the two men but did not set a date, and there were initial indications that he would act this year. Father Lombardi said April 27, the first Sunday after Easter, would be “a good date for pilgrims who might already be in Rome.”
Unusually, Francis approved the canonization of John XXIII without a second miracle normally attributed to successful candidates for sainthood. The date is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. John Paul II promoted the devotion to the Feast of the Divine Mercy and was beatified — a step toward canonization — on that day in 2011, Father Lombardi noted.
The process leading to the canonization of John Paul II began almost immediately after his death in 2005. In a preliminary step, he was beatified in May 2011 after a Vatican committee credited him with interceding to cure a French nun, Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, of Parkinson’s disease. John Paul II suffered from the same disease. Candidates for sainthood usually have two miracles attributed to them. But Francis approved the canonization of John XXIII with only one — the curing of an ailing woman — which Father Lombardi said in July was a result of eagerness to honor “the great pope of the Second Vatican Council.”
The second miracle attributed to John Paul II was said to be the healing of a woman who prayed to the pope on the day of his beatification. On Monday, he said the canonization should be seen “in the context of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, and the universally heartfelt fame that surrounds John XXIII.” He said that while John was the council’s initiator, John Paul was “its great implementer.”
In July, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis was eager to canonize John XXIII. “Despite the absence of a second miracle, it was the pope’s will that the sainthood of the great pope of the Second Vatican Council be recognized,” he said. He added that Francis described John Paul II as a “great visionary, the new St. Paul,” during an impromptu news conference on the papal plane returning from World Youth Day in Brazil in July.
At John Paul II’s beatification ceremony, which drew one and a half million people to Rome, Benedict lauded John Paul II as a central figure in the history of the 20th century and a hero of the church. A Vatican committee credited John Paul II with interceding to cure a French nun, Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, of Parkinson’s, the disease he died from in 2005.
“He was witness to the tragic age of big ideologies, totalitarian regimes, and from their passing John Paul II embraced the harsh suffering, marked by tension and contradictions, of the transition of the modern age toward a new phase of history, showing constant concern that the human person be its protagonist,” Pope Benedict XVI, who was Francis’ immediate predecessor and is now known as the pope emeritus, said at the time. His second designated miracle was the healing of a woman who prayed to him on the day of his beatification.
At that ceremony, which drew 1.5 million people to Rome, Benedict XVI, now retired, lauded John Paul II as a central figure in the history of the 20th century and a hero of the church.
“He was witness to the tragic age of big ideologies, totalitarian regimes,” Benedict said, “and from their passing John Paul II embraced the harsh suffering, marked by tension and contradictions, of the transition of the modern age toward a new phase of history, showing constant concern that the human person be its protagonist.”
On Monday, Father Lombardi said that Benedict might join Francis in the canonization ceremony.
“There is no reason — either doctrinal or institutional — that he couldn’t participate in the public ceremony,” Father Lombardi said, responding to news reports from Poland that the retired pope would be present.
Benedict stepped down in February and has been living in self-imposed isolation in a monastery inside the Vatican walls.

Elisabetta Povoledo reported from Vatican City and Alan Cowell from London.

Elisabetta Povoledo reported from Vatican City and Alan Cowell from London.