Pope waves 5year waiting period

[Gidan]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7838982/

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said Friday he had begun the process for the sainthood of Pope John Paul II, overriding the usual five-year waiting period following the death of a possible candidate.

There is a portion near the end of the artical that has me very curious.

Vatican procedures in place for some 500 years require one miracle for someone to be beatified and a second to be canonized.

Following the late pope’s death, Italian newspapers were rife with reports of alleged miracles attributed to John Paul.

But the reports stemmed from inexplicable cures that occurred while John Paul was still alive, while according to Vatican rules a miracle has to have occurred after John Paul’s death for it to be considered in the saint-making process.

So the question is, how do you attribute a mirical to somone who is dead? Not only that but how do you attribute it to a specific dead person? Does anyone have any idea on the procdeures that are followed when doing this?

[Diabolik]

We should get a pool going. I call first dibs on 12:30pm PST to 1:30PM PST.

[Tikker]

sainthood has become more like a hall of fame than anything else

[veeneedefeesh]

And we would like to welcome our newest hall of famer Wide Reiceiver for the Saints Pope John Paul Jr

[Phlegm]

And we would like to welcome our newest hall of famer Wide Reiceiver for the Saints Pope John Paul Jr

Can't wait for his acceptance speech. Bet it will be great.

[Martrae]

You have to be praying for that person to intercede with God in order for an miracle to be attributed to them. All miracles come from God but this means that person has the ear of God and therefore eligible for Sainthood.

[Tossica]

[Martrae]

I didn't say I believed it...was just explaining the process as they see it.

[Phlegm]

So what miracles had been attribute to Pope John Paul II?

[Gidan]

That is what they are in the process of looking for now. There are alot of people claiming miacles associated with him, though he was alive when the suposid miracles occured.

[Tikker]

I dunno

You would think that if he'd performed miracles in the past, you would have heard about them

[Ironfang]

Yep, always wonder why they suddenly become miracles only after said person died.

Sorta like the saint that killed all the snakes in Ireland, especially when there never were any...

[Lueyen]

Sorta like the saint that killed all the snakes in Ireland, especially when there never were any...

Yes LEGEND also has it that he converted Ireland single handedly. Legend is far different from factual matters investigated by the Roman Catholic Church, which to my understanding are very thorough. However the requirement of miracles for canonization would not have applied to St. Patrick (whom you are referring to), because at the time the qualifications were much looser, many of the early saints were canonized (canonize being official recognition by the church of sainthood) simply based on martyrdom. His canonization was based not on the legends, but on the actual events of his life, and his work in Ireland.