A view of the crowd in Saint Peter's Square during the beatification mass for Pope John Paul II led by Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, may 1, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Stefano RellandiniBy Philip Pullella and Catherine HornbyVATICAN CITY | Sun 1 May 2011, 6: 51 am EDT
Vatican City (Reuters)-the late Pope John Paul moved during a joyful ceremony that more than a million people, the largest crowd since his funeral in Rome six years ago, pulled off a major step closer to sainthood on Sunday.
"From now on Pope John Paul is called ' blessed '", Pope Benedict, wear brilliant white and gold robes, solemnly proclaimed in Latin, establishing that its predecessor would feast day October 22, the day of the inauguration of John Paul's history-making pontificate in 1978.
The cheers of the crowd was a carpet with a smiling John Paul revealed seconds after Benedict read the proclamation.
St Peter's Square was jam-packed and the crowd stretched as far back as the Tiber River, more than half a kilometre (550 meters) away. The crowd of followers, many with national flags and singing songs, had moved to the Vatican area from all directions, from before dawn to get a place good for the mass.
Police estimated the crowd at more than one million people. Many camped during the night on the square, which was decorated with posters of the late Pope and one of his most famous statements, "don't be afraid!"
In his sermon, Benedict noted that the late Pope, whom he praised as "the strength of a titan" have had and who gave millions of people "the power to believe" thousands of times, crowds had blessed from his window overlooking the same square.
"Bless us now," said Benedict.
Many of the participants were from John Paul's native Poland. Dozens of red and white Polish flags above the crowd and a cheer bobbed did when a group of Poland a large banner read released "thank you, God", which balloons.
"We were at the funeral and we had to be here to see beatified him," said Janusc Skibinski, 40, who drove 29 hours with his family from their home near the border with Belarus.
A place of honor was reserved for Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, French nun who suffered from Parkinson's disease but whose inexplicable cure is attributed to John Paul's speech to God to perform a miracle, giving the grounds for his beatification.
After the proclamation, Normand ceased to be a silver reliquary with a vial of blood taken from the Pope in the last few days of his life in case it was needed for a transfusion.
The Vatican will have to write another wonder John Paul's intercession after the beatification in order for him to be declared a Saint.
The Pope was beatified on the day the church celebrates the feast of divine mercy, which this year fell on May 1, coinciding with the main workers accommodation in the Communist world. The timing was ironic, given the role of the Polish Pope in the fall of communism in his homeland and in Eastern Europe.
DELEGATIONS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
Some 90 official delegations from around the world, including members of five European royal families and 16 heads of State, attended the beatification.
They included the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has been widely criticized for human rights violations in his country. Mugabe is banned from traveling to the European Union, but the Vatican--a sovereign State--is not a member of the block.
Pope John Paul on Friday, the coffin was excavated from the crypts below St Peter's Basilica and will be posted for the main altar. It will continue and the Basilica remains open until all visitors who want to view have done.
It will then be moved to a new crypt under an altar in a side chapel in the vicinity of Michelangelo's statue of the Pietà . The marble slab which covered his first Cemetery will be sent to Poland.
John Paul's beatification has set a new speed record for modern times, rather than six years and one month after his death on 2 April 2005.
While the overwhelming majority of Catholics welcome, there are a minority, with some saying that it happened too fast.
Liberals in the Church say that John Paul with theological dissidents who wanted to help the poor, particularly in Latin America was too harsh. Some say he is ultimately responsible for sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church, because they occurred or came to light when he was responsible.
Ultra-Conservatives say he was too open to other religions and that he is the liturgy "infected" by local cultures, such as the African dances, on his travels abroad are allowed.
(Edit by Mark Trevelyan)
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