Has Tony Blair been invited? Wasn’t it Mr Brown who actually invited Pope Benedict XVI to the UK on the first ever state visit by a pope (before Her Majesty even got a look-in)?
Not because (unlike the most recent beatification of Cardinal Newman) the corpse of the late Pope has barely begun to rot (though that is doubtless true). What about his long support for Austrian Cardinal Hans-Hermann Groer? Why did he resist any investigation into the role of women in the Roman Catholic Church? Bernard Fellay, of the Society of Saint Pius X recently incommunicated by Pope Benedict XVI, sees Pope John Paul II as a sort of Antichrist for instigating and participating in multi-faith prayer conferences, particularly in Assisi in 1986. The cult of John Paul the Great has gained an unstoppable momentum. The Roman Catholic Church is not ‘making’ John Paul II ‘blessed’: in Roman Catholic theology, they are affirming what has already occurred in heaven. By all accounts, he led a holy and virtuous if not heroic life, and he seemed to radiate the pastoral love of Christ. But why ‘Santo Subito’?
There would have been no harm in delaying this process in accordance with Church tradition. The chronological 'pause’ was purposeful, to permit perspective, objectivity, reason and reflection. I'm also looking forward to the Beatification of Pope John Paul II, to reporting on all the exciting events in Rome, and to meeting other bloggers from around the world. I also look forward to meeting many British Catholic bloggers at the planning meeting for the proposed Guild of Catholic bloggers on 7 May, after my return from Rome.
During Holy Week, my main concern was that I lack love and compassion when I blog. St Paul famously said that all our work will have been in vain if its beginning and ending is not grounded in love. I must love, and my love must be real. We need the Church, and should never think ourselves above that need. Catholic blogs can be instruments of the Holy Spirit, too - who uses them to call the Church to renewal and reform. At the present time, some very brave men and women use their blogs to call some of our bishops and leaders to account, especially when their actions seem to undermine or weaken the Church's tradition, truth or unity. I honestly believe that a Guild of Catholic Bloggers would help those of us who blog grow closer to each other in love. A Guild of Catholic Bloggers could also arrange for spiritual retreats and conferences, or workshops designed to get the most out of blogging. seems Pharisaical in their treatment of Christ's Bride and the Church's ministers is in danger of falling away from grace.
I also wish I could sometimes attend Masses specifically geared towards those who blog as Catholics - if only to pray with them, to worship God with them, and to listen to a homily that might speak to me as a Catholic blogger. It is for all these reasons that I think a Guild of Catholic Bloggers is necessary. VATICAN CITY (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims jammed St. Peter's Square and the streets around it early Sunday for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, a joyful celebration aimed at giving a morale boost to a church scarred by the priestly sex abuse scandal.
The scene at dawn around the Vatican was reminiscent of John Paul's final days in 2005, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims staged around-the-clock vigils underneath his studio window. Thousands of pilgrims, many of them from John Paul's native Poland, spent the night in sleeping bags on bridges and in piazzas around town, and then packed St. Peter's as soon as the barricades opened.
The Mass, to be celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, begins at 0800 GMT (4 a.m. Eastern), the fastest beatification in modern times.
Benedict put John Paul on the fast-track for possible sainthood when he dispensed with the traditional five-year waiting period and allowed the beatification process to begin weeks after his April 2, 2005
death. Benedict was responding to chants of "Santo Subito" or "Sainthood Immediately" which erupted during John Paul's funeral.
The event featured testimony of the French nun whose inexplicable cure from Parkinson's disease was deemed miraculous by the Vatican, the miracle needed for John Paul to be beatified.
After the vigil officially ended, many pilgrims spent the night moving around the center visiting eight churches that stayed open all night, a "white night" of prayer in honor of the late pope.
"He died a saint," Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's longtime secretary, told the crowd.
The beatification is taking place despite a steady drumbeat of criticism about the record-fast speed with which John Paul is being honored, and continued outrage about the clerical abuse scandal: Many of the crimes and cover-ups of priests who raped children occurred on John Paul's 27-year watch.
At the very least, she said, the church had learned as a result of the scandal, "that a person's dignity, especially a child's, is more important than the church's image."
Video montages shown during the vigil showed various scenes of John Paul's lengthy pontificate, his teachings about marriage and justice. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, the French nun cured of Parkinson's, said that at the time she couldn't bear to watch John Paul's condition worsen because she knew his slow decline would be her fate.
