On the same day in history that Osama Bin Laden was finally killed, 1.5 million people flooded St. Peter’s Basilica for the Catholic Church’s beatification of yet another, far more influential and significant man: Pope John Paul II. For those (like me) not of the Catholic persuasion, beatification means the official certification that it is worthy of belief that a Catholic was saved and has entered heaven. There is one final step before a person may be added officially to the list of saints, called canonization. This is the fastest beatification of anyone in history. He was instrumental in the fall of communism, and is widely believed to have been one of the most significant popes in history, only the fourth to be referred to regularly by the title “the Great” and the first since Nicholas (858-867AD)
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