Metro area — On Divine Mercy Sunday, thousands gathered at the Vatican, and hundreds at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, to mark the beatification of the man who Archbishop Allen Vigneron said “gave us a lifetime of witness to mercy.”
The celebrations of Blessed John Paul II’s beatification — which occurred May 1 at the Vatican in a ceremony led by Pope Benedict XVI — were among countless shows of jubilation worldwide.
At Detroit’s cathedral, Archbishop Allen Vigneron spoke about John Paul’s life — having seen the horrors of the Nazi regime, the Holocaust, and the Cold War — and his resulting mission that God alone could give humankind the peace it sought.
“He became a witness,” Archbishop Vigneron said to the hundreds who turned out for Mass, and to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet and venerate relics of John Paul II and St. Faustina. “He recognized that it was only God’s mercy that could heal the world into which he was born and in which he grew up.”
In the Detroit area, celebrations also took place at numerous parishes, including St. Florian Parish in Hamtramck and the campus of Orchard Lake Schools — there, people gathered overnight to watch the beatification live on television.
Outside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, in the same square where Pope John Paul II greeted millions over his years as pope, thousands of people returned to thank God for the gift of his life and for his beatification.
“We can never forget that 30 years ago, in this very square, he gave his blood for the cause of Christ,” his longtime personal secretary, Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, told an estimated 60,000 people gathered May 2 for the thanksgiving Mass, noting that Pope John Paul II was shot by a would-be assassin almost 30 years ago.
A silver reliquary containing a vial of Blessed John Paul’s blood was carried into St. Peter’s Square at the beginning of the procession of 30 cardinals and 150 bishops who concelebrated the Mass.
Pope Benedict proclaimed his predecessor blessed May 1 during a Mass that brought 1 million people to the Vatican and to video screens set up around Rome.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, presided over the thanksgiving Mass. He thanked “the Lord for having given us a pastor like him” and for “having given us a witness like him.”
He also thanked God for “having given us a pope able to give the Catholic Church not only a universal reach and a moral authority on a global level like never before,” but also one who helped Catholics be “more spiritual, more biblical and more centered on the word of God.”
“Finally, we thank the Lord for having given us a saint like him,” Cardinal Bertone said.
