Pope John Paul II moved a crucial step closer to sainthood on Monday during a solemn ceremony held in a crowded Roman basilica exactly two years to the day after his death.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the head of the Rome diocese and a longtime aide to John Paul, officially closed the first phase of the Polish pontiff's beatification process with a Latin rite.
A weighty dossier of 'evidence' of John Paul's holiness, gathered by the Rome diocese and the Polish diocese of Krakow from which he came, was formally handed over to the Vatican.
John Paul was "a man of prayer" who showed "extraordinary interior freedom" and who was unafraid of taking "difficult and awkward" positions, Cardinal Ruini said during the ceremony at the Basilica of St John Lateran.
His address was greeted with several minutes of applause from those present, who included Polish President Lech Walesa and Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Warsaw, who was John Paul's private secretary during his time as pontiff.
Also present was a French nun whose inexplicable recovery from Parkinson's disease, after she prayed to John Paul, is likely to be certified as the miracle which will qualify him for beatification.
Beatification is the intermediate stage on the way to being declared a saint. It means that someone can be called 'Blessed' and that the person can be venerated by Catholics in the place where he or she lived.
John Paul is still some way from beatification because his "heroic virtue" must be approved by theologians, historians and cardinals at the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Over the last two years, officials leading the campaign for beatification have gathered information on John Paul's life, collected all his writings and heard testimony from some 130 people who knew him.
IMMEDIATE SAINTHOOD URGED.
All the information, now in Vatican hands, will be condensed into a single document which will be examined by the three panels at the Congregation.
After beatification, another miracle is required before someone can be declared a saint, and officially venerated by Catholics everywhere. New reports of miracles attributed to John Paul's heavenly intervention are said to arrive in Rome every week.
During John Paul's funeral in 2005, crowds held up placards saying 'Santo Subito!', calling for the Polish pope to be declared a saint without going through the normal procedures.
This wish was expressed again recently by Cardinal Dziwisz, who said he had no doubt that Karol Wojtyla (John Paul's name before becoming pope) was a saint.
Pope Benedict has already accelerated procedures for his predecessor, waiving a rule which says the process cannot begin until at least five years have passed after the candidate's death.
John Paul's 'cause' was opened three months after his death.
But Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who is heading the beatification campaign, has said he expects there to be no more short cuts and that the process will now proceed as normal.
In actual fact, John Paul's file will be given top priority, jumping to the top of the list of prospective saints whose causes are awaiting a decision from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Vatican officials are tight-lipped about how long the process will take. In some cases it can take decades or even centuries, but, given Pope Benedict's explicit support, John Paul's cause is expected to be quick.
Cardinal Dziwisz said on Monday that there was "no hurry" and that the Vatican's vetting procedures had to be done "properly".
There has been speculation that October 16, 2008, might be chosen as a beatification date because this would be the 30th anniversary of John Paul's election as pope.
Cardinal Dziwizs declined to comment when asked about this possibility.
