Pope Francis canonized John Paul II alongside John XXIII, pope from 1958 to 1963, on Divine Mercy Sunday 2014. Thousands of pilgrims from around the world filled St. Peter’s Square for the ceremony.
Oder said that the Polish pope’s cult had burgeoned immediately after his death on April 2, 2005, and was visible at his funeral on April 8.
“The funeral itself was an extraordinary event, unique in the history of humanity. From that day on, pilgrimages were constantly flowing to the grave of John Paul II, asking for necessary graces through his intercession,” he recalled.
Oder is also postulator of the beatification cause of St. John Paul II’s parents, Karol and Emilia.
“This is a beautiful example of the sanctity of the family, which is, in a way, the soil on which the sanctity of the next generation is born and matures,” he said.
He suggested that the Polish pope’s older brother Edmund Wojtyła could also be a suitable candidate for beatification.
Edmund was a medical doctor who died in 1932 at the age of 26, after contracting scarlet fever from a patient.
“The message of his life and death fits, as it were, into the context of the time of the pandemic in which we are living,” Oder said.
He continued: “Without prejudging anything, but looking also at Edmund’s life, one might think that it is, in a way, an example of the kind of heroism that we need today.”
