Question of canonization of John Paul II
His Holiness
Benedict XVI
Supreme Pontiff
Your Holiness,
On April 2, 2007 Vatican announced that the first stage of the canonization of John Paul II has
already been closed: “The quickness with which this stage was finished has no analogy in the
history of the Catholic Church.”
We ask: Is this an extraordinary saint whose holiness has no analogy in the Catholic Church?
We, however, know that one encounters here with extraordinary pressures behind which there is an
intention to strike the Church at her core and to introduce another gospel and another spirit.
Your Holiness, You are obliged before the whole Church and before God to say a clear word of
the highest shepherd not only on historic-critical theology (HCT) but also on the wrong
interpretation of Nostra aetate and of the gesture of John Paul II in Assisi. These are the key
problems which nowadays erode the fundamental truths of our faith. As long as You keep silent, it
is interpreted as Your consent. Therefore You are obliged in this extremely serious time to confess
the apostolic and Catholic faith and to give the Church a clear word. This is what is required of You
by Jesus Christ whom You visibly represent. None of the people can dispense You from this
obligation. Even if You raised the dead, it is not so needful for the Church today as Your clear and
binding word on the actual problems. Concerning Assisi, a mere explanation is not sufficient, but
what is expected of You is public repentance of a big offence and misorientation of believers caused
by John Paul II in the years 1986 and 2002.
If on the contrary You will put through the canonization of John Paul II, You will thus
condemn Yourself, You will complete the offence and disparage the supreme authority of the
Church which has been entrusted to You by the One who died on the cross on Golgotha for You
and for our salvation.
If each priest followed John Paul II (and saints surely are to be followed by us, the more so the
supreme shepherd) and meditated in his church with buddhists, hinduists, animists etc., it would
result in the self-destruction of whole Christianity! By the canonization of John Paul II the Church
will canonize even the gesture of Assisi which expresses the heresy that all religions are equally
valuable and thus equally salvific and that mission is no longer desirable! This is cunningly pursued
by those who are trying to hasten this canonization.
Therefore on our part there must be a clear confession of the Catholic and apostolic faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ as in the only and the true God and the only Saviour. Here one can fully apply the
words: “You shall have no other gods and You shall not worship them” (First Commandment of the
Decalogue). Not only the orthodox Jews but the early Christians, too, knew that in order to escape
torture, they needed to do only a gesture – a single grain of incense thrown before the idols or some
other gesture; however, they preferred to go to death (see the old man Eleazar and the seven
martyrs with their mother /2Mac 6-7/ and hundreds of thousands of Christian martyrs up to the
present days).
Your Holiness, God has given You to us as a big hope of the renewal of the Church. We know
that You have true Catholic faith but today it is necessary that You also have bravery, that You may
be a witness, a martyr, and stand up against the pressure of false popularity by the side of Christ
now abandoned and of His humbled and powerless servants who are sharing His powerlessness.
God has entrusted You with power so that You may use it for the good of the Church even at the
cost that they will physically kill You. Do not be afraid, if it should happen so, it would be a model
for the Church to follow. Martyrs’ blood is a seed of new Christians. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ as well as the Church will afterwards include You among the greatest saints, because You
live in the hardest times.
Your Holiness, we know that You were exposed to many psychological pressures from different
sides. Therefore we challenged the bishops and cardinals to express themselves on the hastened
canonization. Providing that the majority of them will be silent and will not urge You in this cause,
it will mean that they disagree with the canonization and that the further fate of this canonization
will depend merely on You and that it will take into account only the dogmatic aspect.
In Christ,
Fr. Metoděj R. Špiřík ThD. OSBM
Fr. Markian V. Hitiuk ThLic. OSBM
Fr. Cyril J. Špiřík Ing. ThD. OSBM
Fr. Eliáš A. Dohnal ThD. OSBM
Pidhirtsi 11th April 2007
Wednesday of the Easter Week
Copies:
- Bishops and Cardinals of the Catholic Church
- Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Vatican, Rome
Address: Monastery OSBM, 80660 Pidhirtsi, Brody district, Lviv region, Ukraine
www.community.org.ua