Local Observance Of John Paul II's Beatification Ceremony
ORCHARD LAKE (WWJ) - Sunday's beatification ceremony was also observed by many Metro area Catholics including about 100 people at the Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake.
For Monsignor Stanley Milewski , who was on hand in Rome when John Paul II was installed as Pope back in 1978, it has been a day of many fond memories of a man who is now one step away from Sainthood within the Catholic Church.
Services were led by Monsignor Stanley Milewski, who recalled how John Paul II first entered the Catholic Church under Nazi domination in war-torn Poland.
"The determination that he had of becoming a priest, was realized by underground studies, and ultimate ordination to the priesthood, he has just been a personification of the teachings of our Lord Jesus," says Monsignor Milewski.
John Paul's beatification, the first step on the path to possible sainthood, is the fastest in modern times.
Sunday's joyful celebration is seen by some as giving a morale boost to a church scarred by a decades-long priestly sex abuse scandal.
"He in his 27 years as pontiff, he beatified and canonized more people then did all of his predecessors, and by doing so, I think, gave encouragement to all of us," says Monsignor Milewski.
