Beatification
Videos
Beatification is an act by which the Catholic Church formally recognizes that a deceased member of the faithful is believed to have entered Heaven and is capable of interceding on behalf of individual
Pope John Paul I (1912–1978), beatified on 4 September 2022 by Pope Francis. He is the most recent pontiff to be beatified.
Pictured is Pope John Paul II. He beatified more people than all his predecessors had during the previous 400 years, and was himself beatified in 2011.
Pope John Paul II
Videos
Pope John Paul II was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century,
Beatification
…saints is administered flexibly at the liturgical level, in a way that beatification, being local and permissive by nature, allows even more readily. Pope John Paul II (r. 1978–2005) markedly changed the previous Catholic practice of beatification. He proclaimed more saints and blessed than all his predecessors together…
John Paul II in 1988
The wedding portrait of John Paul II's parents, Emilia and Karol Wojtyła Sr.
Wojtyła on the day of his first communion
Wojtyła (second from right) in a Baudienst forced labour work crew during the occupation of Poland (1939–1945), c. 1941