Tourism at the Vatican: Catholic double canonization event on the way at the Vatican

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

It’s Sunday morning in Rome and the Vatican. 24 heads of state and more than a million Christian tourists are waiting to participate. Thousands of tourists have camped out on St.

It’s Sunday morning in Rome and the Vatican. 24 heads of state and more than a million Christian tourists are waiting to participate. Thousands of tourists have camped out on St. Peters Square in the Vatican, some for 2 nights to reserve a spot.

Authorities expect one million people that currently have already gathered in the square and along the Via della Conciliazione, which leads up to St. Peterโ€™s Basilica, for the Mass itself. Thousands of others instead will gather in about a dozen or so public squares around the city, where the Mass will be projected onto big screens.

Civil security forces are in position, city roads are closed to traffic, and the subway system is running nonstop this weekend to accommodate the influx of pilgrims.

The two banners of the two soon-to-be saints now hang on the facade of St. Peterโ€™s Basilica, and the final countdown toward the highly-anticipated canonizations has begun. With just one day to go before the canonizations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, the stream of pilgrims into Rome continues.

Thousands of journalists have swamped the city with their cameras and microphones.

At a press conference on Friday, the two cardinals who lived and worked for the future saints as their secretaries said they knew their bosses were saints because of their simple faith and goodness.

Cardinal Loris Capovilla, who served as Blessed John’s secretary for 10 years, told reporters via video link of John XXIIIโ€™s โ€œsmile, innocence and goodness.โ€

“Saints,โ€ the 98-year-old cleric said, “are those who remain children,โ€ maintaining always a youthful energy and enthusiasm as they follow the path God sets out for them.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who served as Blessed John Paul’s secretary for 39 years, told reporters John Paul โ€œprayed with his lifeโ€ and his holiness was also evident in his โ€œholy sufferingโ€ throughout his life, never complaining and offering his suffering as a prayer for the world.

As he aged and weakened, the Polish cardinal said, Pope John Paul became more intent on preparing for a holy death because he always had believed that “death โ€ฆ would be a person’s greatest moment of encounter (with) the Lord.”

The two canonization candidates share an improbable path to sainthood: they both rose from very humble beginnings to lead the Roman Catholic church.

John XXIII (1881-1963) – known as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli before he became Pope – was one of 13 children born into a family of Italian peasants, farmers from a tiny village in the country’s north, before being sent away to study for the priesthood at the age of 11.

John Paul II (1920-2005), born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, was brought up in a grimy industrial town in Poland and raised by his soldier father after his mother died when he was just eight. He spent his formative years living under first Nazis, then Communists.

On Friday, the Vatican also issued the official prayer cards for the two saints.

Currently the skies are cloudy, rain has been in the forecast, and the temperature is 18 degrees C.

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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