{"id":15250,"date":"2014-04-27T08:48:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-27T08:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=15250"},"modified":"2014-04-27T08:50:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T08:50:48","slug":"vatican-declares-popes-john-paul-ii-and-john-xxiii-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=15250","title":{"rendered":"Vatican declares Popes John Paul II and John XXIII saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Huge crowds have gathered in Vatican City to see a historic ceremony where two popes – John Paul II and John XXIII – are declared saints.<\/p>\n

A Mass co-celebrated by Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict was watched by roughly one million pilgrims and a vast TV and radio audience.<\/p>\n

Nearly 100 foreign delegations are attending, including royal dignitaries and heads of state and government.<\/p>\n

It is the first time two popes have been canonised at the same time.<\/p>\n

Correspondents say the move is being seen as an attempt to unite conservative and reformist camps within the Roman Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Pilgrims poured into Rome and special bus, train and boat services ferried many more into the city early on Sunday morning for the two-hour ceremony which started at 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT).<\/p>\n

Some had bagged places to sleep overnight as close as possible to St Peter’s Square, hoping to be among the first in when it opens to the public.<\/p>\n

Giant screens have also been erected in nearby streets and elsewhere in the city for those unable to get into the square.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been counting down the days. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said one pilgrim from Poland, John Paul II’s home country.<\/p>\n

“We’re already hoarse from singing,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

\"Many<\/a>
Thousands crowded into the streets of Vatican City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Vatican confirmed on Saturday that 87-year-old Benedict XVI – now officially titled Pope Emeritus – would make a rare public appearance alongside his successor.<\/p>\n

“He will co-celebrate, which does not mean he will go to the altar,” a Vatican spokesman said.<\/p>\n

“We will all be happy to have him there.”<\/p>\n

Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign for 600 years when he quit for health reasons a year ago.<\/p>\n

‘Fast-tracked<\/strong><\/p>\n

The process of saint-making is usually long and very costly.<\/p>\n

But John Paul II, whose 26-year reign ended in 2005, has been fast-tracked to sainthood in just nine years.<\/p>\n

Many among the huge crowds that gathered as he lay dying cried out “santo subito”, which means “sainthood now”.<\/p>\n

By contrast Italian-born John XXIII, known as the Good Pope after his 1958-63 papacy, had his promotion to full sainthood decided suddenly and very recently by Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says there was a political dimension to this.<\/p>\n

By canonising both John XXIII – the pope who set off the reform movement – and John Paul II – the pope who applied the brakes – Francis has skilfully deflected any possible criticism that he could be taking sides.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Credit: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huge crowds have gathered in Vatican City to see a historic ceremony where two popes – John Paul II and John XXIII – are declared saints. A Mass co-celebrated by Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict was watched by roughly one million pilgrims and a vast TV and radio audience. Nearly 100 foreign delegations are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-15250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}