ROME (CNS): The Polish priest nominated to shepherd Pope John Paul II’s sainthood cause said it is “absolutely impossible” to make even a wild guess about how long the process will take.
“It is totally unpredictable,” Msgr Slawomir Oder told Catholic News Service.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the papal vicar of Rome, presided on June 28 over the formal opening of the diocesan phase of the process with an evening prayer service.
During the ceremony, Msgr Oder, previously a judge in the Rome diocesan tribunal, and the canon lawyers, theologians and notaries involved in the process pledged to work honestly and objectively and to maintain certain secrets about the process.
Msgr Oder must compile a huge dossier on the life, work and writings of Pope John Paul as testimony to the fact that he heroically lived the Christian virtues.
When the dossier has been completed, the diocesan phase of the cause concludes and the information is forwarded to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.
Msgr Oder also must examine claims of miraculous healings thought to have occurred through the intercession of Pope John Paul.
One miracle is needed for beatification and a second is needed for canonisation.
