Vatican City, May 2, 2011 / 08:30 am
“Today we thank the Lord for giving us a shepherd like Pope John Paul II.”
With these words Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone set the tone of the May 2 Mass of Thanksgiving for the beatification of Pope John Paul II. The Vatican’s secretary of state was the chief celebrant and homilist at the service in St. Peters Square.
“He was a man of faith, a man of God, whose life with God was a continuous prayer, a constant prayer, which embraced with love every single person on the planet, each created in the image and likeness of God, and so worthy of respect.”
The ceremony began with a procession led by a vial of Blessed John Paul’s blood. It was taken from the late pontiff while he was undergoing medical tests shortly before his death in 2005. It is Catholicism’s belief in the resurrection of the body at the end of time that makes such physical artifacts, known as relics, of importance to the Catholic faithful.