Pope Francis Canonise 2 Popes, Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII to be Saints at Vatican's St. Peter's Square

The portraits of the two popes  canonised as saints,  Pope John Paul II (R) and Pope John XXIII (L ) Pope Francis officially declared ...

The portraits of the two popes  canonised as saints,
 Pope John Paul II (R) and Pope John XXIII (L)

Pope Francis officially declared the two 20th-Century popes to be saints at a Mass conducted on Sunday 27,April 2014,  before hundreds of thousands of people at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square,.

In the presence of Pope Benedict XVI  he highly praised  in public  that Saint John XXIII  and Saint John Paul II were "men of courage.".

Pope Francis swings a censer during the canonisation mass

Francis recited the saint-making formula in Latin, saying that after deliberating, consulting and praying for divine assistance "we declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be saints and we enroll them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole church."

The crowd roared when Pope Francis read the formal proclamation of sainthood for Saint John XXIII, an Italian pontiff who reigned from 1958 to  1963.  and called him  the moderniser of  Second Vatican Council. 

Costa Rican Floribeth Mora, who claims she was cured of a serious brain condition by a miracle attributed to late Pope John Paul II, hands the relic of John Paul II to Pope Francis during the canonisation mass

Adding that John Paul II, was the Pole that reigned for nearly 27 years, played a leading role on the world stage.

"They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them," Francis said of the newest saints. "For them, God was more powerful; faith was more powerful — faith in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man and the Lord of history."

Pope Francis described Saint John XXIII as "the pope of openness to the Spirit" and Saint John Paul II as "the pope of the family." Francis stressed their faith, saying they were filled with the Holy Spirit and "bore witness before the Church and the world to God's goodness and mercy."

The two new saints "teach us to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of divine mercy," he concluded.
St. Peter's Square was dotted with red and white flags in honor of Saint John Paul II's Polish homeland.

The event drew scores of global leaders as well as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose decision to step down last year put Francis at the helm of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

Benedict was sitting off to the side with other cardinals in St Peter's Square during the rite at the start of Sunday's Mass. He and Francis briefly greeted one another after Francis arrived.

General view of the crowd gathered for the 
canonisation mass of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II

St. Peter's Square was packed for the event, and big-screen TVs were set up in squares — piazzas — around the city so thousands more could witness the spectacle on a chilly, gray day in the ancient city.

Benedict had promised to remain "hidden from the world" after resigning last year, but Francis has coaxed him out of retirement and urged him to take part in the public life of the church. He sat with a group of cardinals next to the altar.

Pope John Paul II, the second-longest serving pope in history, led the church from 1978 until his death in 2005. A native of Poland, he was the first non-Italian since Pope Adrian VI, who died in 1523. Polish pilgrims carrying the red and white flags of John Paul's homeland were visible everywhere in the square.

"Four popes in one ceremony is a fantastic thing to see and to be at, because it is history being written in our sight," marveled one of the visiting Poles, David Halfar. "It is wonderful to be a part in this and to live all of this."

John Paul's support for Poland's Solidarity movement is credited with ending communism in his native land. He worked to improve relations with other religions, including Jews. He also was among the most traveled of popes, visiting more than 120 countries during his rule.

"John Paul was our pope," said Therese Andjoua, 49, a nurse who traveled from Libreville, Gabon, with some 300 other pilgrims to attend. "In 1982 he came to Gabon and when he arrived he kissed the ground and told us to 'Get up, go forward and be not afraid,' " she recalled as she rested against a pallet of water bottles. "When we heard he was going to be canonized, we got up."

Pope John led the church from 1958 until his death in 1963. He is best known for ordering the Second Vatican Council, a liberalizing effort that actually completed its work two years after John was felled by cancer.

 He is credited with efforts to modernize the church that included allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages instead of traditional Latin. Like John Paul, he also pressed for closer ties to other religions: This Council in 1965 issued a landmark document that called for Jewish-Catholic dialogue and rejected the ancient Christian stigma against Jews as killers of Jesus.



Pope Francis proclaims his predecessors, John XXIII and John Paul II, saints in front of more than half a million pilgrims. Vanessa Johnston reports.

But with this great and historical event yet there are some CRITICS:

Francis' own huge popularity has added extra appeal to the unprecedented ceremony to raise two former leaders of the church to sainthood on the same day. But while both were widely revered, there has also been criticism that John Paul II, who only died nine years ago, has been canonised too quickly.

Groups representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests also say he did not do enough to root out a scandal that emerged towards the end of his pontificate and which has hung over the church ever since.

On Friday, people claiming to be victims of sex abuse held a candle-lit vigil at the Vatican in protest at the canonisation, holding up pictures of children alleged to have been abused by priests.

In an open letter published on the website of the survivor’s network SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), a number of victims highlighted the “great harm” committed as “he [John Paul II] turned a blind eye to “clergy sexual crimes and cover ups".

“At worst, he perpetuated and approved them,” the statement said. “For him to now be given the highest honor in the church rubs even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of thousands of struggling victims and millions of betrayed Catholics and victims.”

Earlier this month, Pope Francis issued an apology for the scandal, asking for forgiveness for the "evil" damage done to children who were targeted by members of the clergy.

But the controversy did nothing to put off the rivers of Catholics who have been arriving in Rome over the past few days.

Around one million Catholics are reported to have turned out to celebrate the occasion across Rome, while pilgrims hoping to get into the Vatican itself  had waited for more than 12 hours before police opened up the square at 5.30am this morning.

Alongside Francis at the mass were around 850 cardinals and 700 priests, helping to distribute communion to the vast crowd.

"For years Pope John Paul II took the Church to the ends of the earth and today the ends of the earth have come back here," said Father Tom Rosica, head of Canada's Salt and Light Catholic television network.

"Four popes in one ceremony is a fantastic thing to see and to be at, because it is history being written in our sight," said one of the visiting Poles, David Halfar. "It is wonderful to be a part in this and to live all of this," he said.

"It is a great joy, an immense joy, because there is happiness everywhere and this is not an empty happiness," said Guillemette Chevalier, from France.

"Here we have found the joy of being together in the Church around two extraordinary men ... who give meaning to our lives. It is true happiness," she said.

Source:USA today