Monday, January 17, 2011

John Paul II First Pope to be Beatified by Successor

I've done some research and it seems Pope John Paul II will be the first pope beatified by his successor. In this case, Benedict XVI.

In total, there have been 78 canonized popes, and 9 currently considered Blessed. When JPII is beatified in May, 88 out of 264 (dead) popes will have been beatified or canonized, exactly one third.

This may seem like a lot, but we must keep in mind the fact that canonizations being done exclusively by the pope only started in 993. Since then, only 4 popes have been canonized and 10 have been beatified from a total of 128. In other words, 10.9%.

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