John Paul II showed that we live among saints, famous or not

John Paul II

WHO could forget the funeral mass of John Paul II?

It was undoubtedly the best attended funeral in history. Every head of state (except for China's and North Korea's) was represented. Crowd estimates of the faithful in St Peter's Square, in the surrounding streets and at the tele-linked sites like St John Lateran Basilica, exceeded two million. The viewing audience around the world was probably hundreds of times that many.

The atmosphere was a mixture of deep sadness for the loss of the most loved and influential pope of modern times, the man who helped bring down communism, and - oddly - a palpable sense of excitement. There was a realisation that this was a great man, a holy man; a man who was spiritually still alive. That is sainthood.

And so the crowd spontaneously invoked the ancient tradition of the church to make a saint by acclamation: "Santo subito!" The millions who saw it on television did not pick it up at first, and the commentary, particularly from the ABC's ex-priest in residence, Paul Collins, was, amusingly, incredulous when the chanting started. However, something began then that couldn't be stopped, even by the fashionable liberal lefties in the church who did not approve of John Paul's stern orthodoxy and his "old-fashioned" Marian devotion.

This was really the beginning of John Paul's fast track to sainthood, which will culminate in the formal declaration this year, probably on October 22.

He was criticised for creating so many saints (as many as there ever were before him); but it was John Paul II who changed the emphasis on what constitutes true holiness and a good example for the faithful, by canonising so many ordinary people, even married couples.

Perhaps by canonising John Paul so swiftly, Pope Francis is responding to the popular view that, miracles aside, the former pontiff's heroic virtue and his part in bringing down the evil empire, when most of us thought it would last for centuries, should have made him a saint by acclamation.

John Paul's fast track to canonisation has exposed some divisions within the church. The so-called Left of the church, the liberalisers who were very vocal just after Vatican II and are still vocal on internet sites and in alternative Catholic media, are especially critical of the lack of action on sexual abuse during John Paul's papacy, although they tend to blame his successor, Benedict XVI, for his lack of decisive action when he was a cardinal. However, even John Paul's critics concede the Polish pope had no idea of the extent of the problem until late in his papacy, and was horrified when he became aware of it.

But what really gets up the noses of John Paul's critics is that they found themselves in a strangely isolated position because their bete noir, the conservative Polish pope, was a hero among non-Catholics as well as Catholics. He was a great influence on the world stage as well as an exemplary human being. He had suffered under the Nazis and under communism, yet was unbowed in his staunch opposition to secular materialism - whether of the Left or the Right, which he saw as two sides of the same coin.

He was compassionate, yet no friend of the liberals who wanted changes to church doctrine on essential matters such as sexual morality. Nor did he want traditions, as of priestly celibacy, radically altered.

Through time his standing in world affairs, his personal popularity and even the terrible suffering of his last years disarmed many of his critics.

Francis's approach is a pre-emptive outgoing style, exemplified by his approach to sainthood, which is certainly unique and even more controversial than John Paul's. Francis has recently canonised the 800 Otranto martyrs. The inhabitants of this Italian village refused to convert to Islam and were murdered. By canonising such a large group of mostly unknown 15th-century Christians in the face of liberal secular squeamishness about multiculturalism, he has drawn obvious, shocking parallels to our own difficult times. He has underscored the vital ideological importance of Christianity to European culture.

Demonstrating that the new Pope's priorities are firmly fixed on renewal and battling the evils of cultural materialism, he has also beatified a priest who stood up to the Sicilian mafia and another contemporary of John Paul, Jerzy Popieluszko, the Solidarity priest who was murdered by agents of the Polish communist intelligence agency.

John Paul II gave us an example to show us that we live among saints, whether they become famous or not; and above all that sanctity is not exceptional to our nature but urged on by it. Karol Wojtyla was born an ordinary man, but he was also born in a pivotal time and place in history and he rose to his greatness, he acted on his call. All through his life he had to make terrible and difficult choices - but he made them. And in the end, as the world sat watching, we witnessed the biggest miracle of all: his transcendental heroism in his own suffering and death. Santo subito, indeed.