E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Giorgio Cosulich / Getty Images
Pilgrims attend the ceremony for the beatification of Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square May 1.
By Claudio Lavanga
NBC Rome
On the day John Paul II officially joined the blessed in heaven, some of the pilgrims went through hell to see him beatified.
An estimated 1.5 million people from all over the world descended on Rome for the beatification of the late pontiff, but an unfortunate combination of bad timing, even worse planning, and uncontrollable exuberance made May 1 a day to remember
-- and not for all the right reasons.
That something was not right became clear Saturday night at about 7 p.m., when the area surrounding the media platform set-up for journalists at the end of Via della Conciliazione, the avenue leading to St. Peter's Square, started looking like a Catholic Woodstock. Pilgrims wanting to grab a first row spot ahead of Sunday's mass set up their sleeping bags in the middle of the street, blocking the whole area to traffic.
The authorities made matters worse by closing down Via della Conciliazione for security reasons, creating a bottleneck that swelled faster than the Tiber river after heavy rains. To journalists, walking back to their hotels became a personal 'Via Crucis,' as the Station of the Cross is known in Latin.
When they came back at 5 a.m., the scene was apocalyptic: Some took an hour to progress 200 meters, others gave up altogether. A few must have been tempted to drop their broadcasting gear to embark on a pilgrim to the Holy Land to redeem their sins.
The gates to St. Peter's Square opened earlier than expected, but the sheer number of pilgrims who wanted to be part of the biggest event staged by the Vatican since the funeral of John Paul II overwhelmed a police force that looked on as people tried to force their way to the front row, swearing in multitudes of different languages and dropping like flies under the strain of the crowd and the scorching May heat.
The inadequate numbers of viewing screens didn't help, forcing scores of pilgrims to break through the barriers of the media compound and watch the event from the journalists' platforms and the small television sets in the satellite trucks.
After the mass, the mess.
Thousands of pilgrims pushed their way to St. Peter's Square trying to join the queue to see and pray over John Paul's coffin. As it wasn't immediately clear where the entrance to the basilica would be, the queue started looking almost immediately like the clogged check-in area of a low-cost airline, only a lot bigger. Some were asking the police for directions, other relied on journalists, most prayed they were on the right path. One wrong turn in a crowd of that size would be enough to test anyone's faith.
Leave a Comment:
Organized religion will be the demise of mankind.
you know, people have said this for centuries and yet mankind and organized religion continue strongly
Organized religion is finally on the decline, funny how mankind rises as religion dies?
Comment # 1 deleted. Derail.
Surely there are many advancements in technology that are a testament to the abilities of mankind. A benefit technology has not proven to offer? Humanity, love, and charity, the very teachings of my Lord and Savior. When these virtues can be universally adopted there will be a rise in mankind. In the mean time, I stand in disbelief at those who criticize people who follow ANY group that teaches such virtues for the simple fact that it is a religion.
Pope John Paul II was a saint. His deeds and his words made the world a better place. We loved the man, we revere his legacy. John Paul II, rest in peace for eternity at G-d's side.
John Paul II was NO saint, and no matter how many times he's 'beatified' he will never be a saint.
There are a LOT of people in the world that will not forget how John Paul II turned a blind eye and utterly failed to effectively deal with to all the sexual abuses that happened while he led the Roman Catholic church.
"Mass" insanity.
Idolatry much?
if you consider this an idolatry, then celebrating anything such as a birthday, wedding, and even a funeral would be equivalent. one could even go as far as to say that hanging a picture of your family on the wall is an idolatry.
If they dug up someone to look at their coffin you don't think that's idolatry?
Its all crap?
FactOfTheMatter, his coffin is NOT buried. If you ever go to St. Peters Basilica, you will be able to pass by his coffin and all the coffins of all the previous Popes. They are all on display, if you want to call it as such.
Oh, and it's not idolatry, it's reverence and respect, not only for the person but for his actions while he was alive.
Disgusting...he fiddled while Rome burned...(pedophiles in the church)...This is just one reason why I am no longer a practicing catholic...I hate the hyprocrisy that is the Roman Catholic Church!
and if he were still alive, he would never call you disgusting. as Jesus clearly taught us, we are to love and accept all, even if we do consider them a sinner. so you can have your own opinion of jp2, but if you are a follower of christ, you will still love and accept him.
So sad. Maryann, you were looking for an excuse to leave this faith and you choose the sleeziest one. I know that pediphiles not only reside in the Catholic church but in every aspect of life. Your loss, not ours.
Agreed 3Scotts, if you are going to leave religion you should do it because it is unbelievably stupid to believe in it in the first place.
I loved him and still see him as a great man! To Maryann: Not all priests are pedohiles! Look at other religions as well.
"One more miracle before sainthood?"---God creates miracles, not mortals...The Pope is a mortal, not God...Oh, one more thing. By calling the Pope "Holy Father"...That's blasphemy, period.
father, dad, daddy, grandfather, grandad are all equivalent. by saying that calling the pope holy father is blasphemy, you are saying that calling your biological parent or your child calling you is blasphemy. think before you speak next time
God bless John Paul II in Heaven as He blessed him on earth! I am writing a doctoral dissertation on him. The sole fact that he is blessed now gives me a new hope that he will be in touch with me ... and with God about me. The world needs this work, and I need all the help that I can get, for no one is helping me, not a single peace of advice, not a single penny. But the Pope now sees things from the vantage point of Heaven, and I am confident that he will change that, if he things that the dissertation will help the world! I will be waiting for a miracle from now on!
If he is in Heaven, only God knows, but if he is, he must be very sad looking down on a world focusing on him rather then on Christ, the creator of all things. My spirit feels sad for the world as they begin to idolize a person.
Remember that this Pope is the one that bowed and kissed the Koran. The Koran being an anti-Christ book, in denying the Salvation through Jesus Christ.
In Christ Jesus alone is our Salvation.
NO ONE is going to heaven!
Revelation 5 verse 10: "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."
In reading the comments, I see a lack of understanding and actually hatred of Pope John II. this is rather ironic since he exemplified love for all and did so much to open up communication with other religions and countries. Comments about the sexual abuse are interesting too. Do people know that it is more likely that a child will be molested by their father or a teacher more than a catholic priest. Do we lable all fathers as child molesters as some people do with all priests? God does perform the miracles saints intereced for us to God as part of the communion of saints.
He defended and protected pedophile priests...I don't understand why someone would honor him as a saint
please grow-up mr pheanigues. if you know what you were talking about, as it is obvious that you don't, you would understand that he was not made a saint today, but rather a blessed.
Yes, I know...though I'm not a Catholic, This is the first step in the attempt to make him a saint...so again I say why would anyone want to honor him as a saint...lets forget for a minute about his protection of pedophile priests...lets mention the millions of deaths due to aids because of His churches fight against condom use
maybe it is a lack of morals on the people that has caused millions of deaths due to aids. the church doesn't spread aids, people do, consciously. it's not the responsibility of the church to make up for people's bad choices.
Just so we understand each other...I am a non-believer, but not a God "Hater"...I would like nothing more that to wake up with faith
There are lots of good being done, by a lot of people, across the world in God's name...I just don't think you give a man with his history the highest of honors
If a policeman refused to arrest pedophiles, and knowingly helped them relocate to new communities...and forbade his kids to use condoms in the middle of an epidemic of sexually transmitted fatal disease...He would not get cop of the year or dad of the year
THOMAS: Is it blasphemy when you call your own paternal parent, "Father" or "Dad"or "Papa" or whatever ??? Betcha Jesus called Joseph, "father", or "dad", or "papa". More likely, he used all three terms at various times. In Aramaic, of course!
He was the head of the most intolerant organization in human history, I will never respect him for that.
Welcome to advanced cognitive functioning; Proof we need spiritual guidance.
It's a shame a royal wedding goes off civily and without a hitch, and a beatification gets completely out of hand.
Where were the faithfull when it came time to clean up? It seems to me that if we revere a man that much, what about the gift of this planet that God made for us? Why can't we care for it as much as we care for this man, who was a great man-don't get me wrong. But what we, the faithfull, have done to this great gift Earth...you think God is gonna make us another home? No, he gave us this one to take care of--and we have screwed it up royally. Just look down the next time you walk down the street to see the evidence. So, make this man a saint, but clean up the mess you made in the process!
To make a saint of a man who looked the other way while thousands of children were brutalized by pedophile priests is beyond repulsive. I am proud to be a FORMER Catholic.
The Catholic version of Sainthood is foreign to the Bible. It is the creation of men to elevate another human to a position where other wo/men need to pray to them for them to intercede on their behalf before God/Jesus. There is no other way but through Jesus, and we don't need to pray to dead wo/men for them to intercede on our behalf. If we believe Jesus' words, we will be saved--no intervention of mere mortals needed.
Pope John Paul accomplished many great things, but, as a human, he also had many failings. I'm sure, the state of the priesthood and it's covering up of pedophilia is only one.
The state of the Vatican left by those supposedly there to honor/beatify him is disgraceful. If you were there, you should be ashamed. The confessionals should be full for the foreseeable future following this event. However, if the people believed Jesus' words, they wouldn't need to confess to mere mortals... at least not before they confessed to Christ himself. Only God can grant forgiveness for sins.
I'm not a Catholic, but I am a believer in Christ. John Paul II was human. He did a lot of good, and I won't judge you for your admiration of him. He also made some mistakes (again, human). So do the rest of us.
I am a Christian because of Christ, not because anything the Pope, the priests, or anyone from any other religion, organization, etc. did or did not do, should or should not have done, and so on. Don't leave your faith because of the sins of human beings, whether they were part of the Church or not. Don't join it because of the good things people have done. Look to what God has done through Christ.
The simple fact that every aspect of your faith has been created by men of course causes you no concern, after all its faith isn't it.
Pope John Paul was neither all good nor all bad. He was more tolerant in some ways than previous popes, but one would have to lived in a vacuum not to be aware of his protection of pedophilic priests. My understanding of the requirements for being a saint is that the latter would prevent that.
However, it's all a myth anyway. Read the bible and know there is no "god."
Is it possible for a conservative to become a saint???
Perhaps. Matthew's gospel says that "in God all things are possible."
I do not know what politics are involved in selecting someone for "sainthood," but I certainly don't think it should condone the sexual molestation of literally thousands of children.
HILARIOUS!! LOL!!!
After reading all comments I have to wonder, are people blaming John Paul II for pedophiles and their actions? Really? You do realize that pedophiles have existed probably since the beginning of times, in churches, mosques, temples, etc, right? Blaming a person for what others did is preposterous.
Did he handled it appropriately? According to the Church's view, he did. According to the rest of the world, no. Has the Catholic Church ever been in such a position, with pedophile accusations almost on a daily basis? I doubt it. They reacted with the tolerance the Church is known for. For better or worst, they were reacting as fast as they could and within their means. The Church is NOT perfect, so don't expect a perfect situation. As for the "condoning" of sexual molestation, those are only allegations. You can't really tell me that he himself signed off the documents that moved proven pedophile priests from one place to another? There were too many cases coming out and following all of them up was probably the job of who knows how many other people under him, maybe not even directly under his supervision. And no, not all priest are pedophiles and such generalization should stop.
As for the use of contraception, condoms, etc., the Church teaches celibacy until marriage for those that are single and they rather use the "rythm" for contraception for married couples. So, why would they go out and approve the use of them if their teachings are different? Just because the world decided to go wild, doesn't mean that the Church has to go behind them and baby them. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. If you sleep with someone that is NOT your husband or wife, everything from illness to pregancy can happen and those are your consecuences. If you don't want to worry about an illness or an unwanted pregnancy, you know what you need to do, right? DON'T HAVE SEX!
Love is NOT sex and sex does NOT equals love. Having a society that keeps saying that to have love you need to have sex is awful. And yes, I've done it and it is empty because is not love, is just an act to pleasure yourself. It's time to go back and teach our children the value of respecting yourself and others. We have to teach our children that to be respected, we need to respect ourselves first. If we teach them the basics, they'll grow up to be better people than we are.
So, an elderly nun (no doubt a JP II devotee) says she prayed to JP 2 to cure her illness, and she got better. The Vatican tribunal declares it a miracle - one down, one to go. If only they could discover another miracle, JP 2 would achieve sainthood. Does it not seem entirely arbitrary how all this goes down? A group of men in robes get together and vote on a miracle so an ex-Pope can become something supernatural? The Catholics have their ceremonies - I'll give them that. I don't blame JP 2 for the pedophile priests on his watch - but he certainly could have responded like a follower of Christ, instead of the political move of "reassignment", the children be damned. As for what the Pope and all religions leaders stand for, I am reminded of a saying, "Prayer: The art of doing nothing but still think you are helping."
faith begins in you and why are people worshiping a pope man? god and jesus are the only ones that should be worshiped people.
I remember as a Roman Catholic, We always had to have some beads to pray with, statues to pray to, holy water to dip our hands into, medals of saints to put around our necks, rings to kiss and now they have dead bodies to look at. Always something material to look at rather than a simple faith in God.
Roman Catholics need to focus on Christ, talk to Him personally, Read the Bible for themselves, and remember that His sacrifice is to cover our sins once and for all, not every Sunday.
In Christ alone is our salvation.
If that many people were at a Muslim ceremony, at least 1,000 would have been trampled to death