Poland erupted with excitement Monday at news from the Vatican that the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II is to formally be named a saint in 2014.
The upcoming sanctification of Karol Wojtyla was a "great day for Poland," said Jozef Klock, spokesman of the Catholic bishops conference in Poland. "The best way to prepare is to turn the words (of John Paul II) into action," he said during a press conference in Warsaw.
The former pope, who died in office in 2005, is to be proclaimed a saint alongside another 20th century pope, John XXIII, on April 27, Pope Francis announced at the Vatican.
The chosen date marks the first Sunday after Easter 2014. That Sunday is also marked by Catholics as Divine Mercy Sunday, a commemoration introduced by John Paul II.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced he would like to travel to Rome to attend the ceremony in the Vatican.
"I'm very reticent when it comes to state delegations at events of religious ceremonies," he said. "But, as a Pole, I would very much like to be in Rome that day."
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow and longtime private secretary of John Paul II, told the Polish news agency PAP that he expects "hundreds of thousands" of Polish pilgrims to travel to Rome when Wojtyla is proclaimed a saint.
Francis already had taken the decision to canonize the Polish pope after recognizing that he had performed a second miracle following his death. However, he had decided to waive the second-miracle requirement - which is usually required on the path to sainthood - for John XXIII, Italian born Angelo Roncalli.
"We all know the virtue and personality of this pope," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lmbardi, noting a "special case" for John XXIII.
Wojtyla, whose papacy under the name of John Paul II lasted from 1978 to 2005, is best remembered for his charisma and his role in helping to bring down Communist rule in Eastern Europe, starting with his home country.
John Paul II's second certified miracle was the curing of a brain aneurysm of a Costa Rican woman, the man in charge of steering the canonization process, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, told Vatican Radio. That added to a nun's healing from Parkinson's disease two months after the pontiff's death.
John Paul II's rise to sainthood has been one of the fastest in modern times. Crowds chanted "santo subito" (saint now) at his funeral, and his successor Benedict XVI immediately started the process, waiving the normal five-year wait after a candidate's death.
Earlier this year, Vatican officials had even suggested the canonization could still take place in 2013.
However, some have criticized the move, pointing to Wojtyla's failure to address sexual abuse and financial scandals within the Church hierarchy, which in recent years have blown over and tarnished its reputation.
Roncalli served from 1958 to 1963 and led the Catholic Church toward major reforms by opening the Second Vatican Council in 1962, which concluded three years later under his successor, Paul VI.
John XXIII - who is known in Italy as the "papa buono" (the good pope) - is a less controversial figure. He was beatified by John Paul II in 2000, after he was credited with the 1966 curing of an Italian nun from serious stomach bleeding and infection.
(Reporting for this story also was done in Vatican City.)
