.- The Vatican’s Office of Liturgical Celebrations has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a Mass in remembrance of Servant of God Pope John Paul II on April 2, the third anniversary of his death.
His death occurred on April 2, 2005 at 9:37 p.m. Rome time, due to sepsis and irreversible cardiopulmonary collapse, compounded by Parkinson. He was nearly 85 years old.
On May 13, 2005, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar for the city of Rome, formally opened the cause of beatification of John Paul II after Pope Benedict XVI waived the five-year waiting period which the Church law normally requires before beginning the process.
Last year on April 2, 2007, the diocesan phase of the cause of beatification was concluded, as all of the testimony on the life of the late Pontiff had been gathered together. At that time it was revealed that a French nun, Sister Marie Simon Pierre, attributed her miraculous healing of Parkinson’s Disease to the intercession of Pope John Paul II.
