VATICAN: A council of senior Catholic clergy began examining the case for the beatification of Pope John Paul II yesterday in the southern Polish city of Krakow where he served as archbishop before being called to the Vatican.
The tribunal was sworn in during Mass at the historic Wawel Cathedral, where Karol Wojtyla was ordained priest in 1946, before beginning its first session of investigation into the life and work of a pontiff who died in April, at the age of 84.
More than 100 people are expected to be questioned about their experience of John Paul, who became a national hero for Poles after becoming pope in 1978 and inspiring the pro-democracy Solidarity movement that challenged communist rule.
The tribunal, which meets behind closed doors, will hear from some elderly Poles who cannot travel to Italy where the main Vatican investigation will study reports of miracles claimed to have been brought about by John Paul's posthumous intervention.
John Paul's death prompted calls across Poland for his immediate canonisation, but Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the country's primate, warned that the process would not be finished before the planned visit of Pope Benedict in June next year.
"It takes a long time to show all the richness of the life and work" of a candidate for beatification, Cardinal Glemp said.
Nevertheless, John Paul's eventual sainthood is seen as inevitable, a fact apparently accepted even by Fr Piotr Majer, the council's "promoter of justice", who is charged with querying the candidate's suitability for canonisation.
Pope Benedict paved the way for the swift opening of the beatification process by waiving the customary five-year waiting period following the pontiff's death.
The court's first session was expected to include a meeting with the postulator - the official chief advocate of the beatification - Polish priest Fr Slawomir Oder, who has created a website to chart the process: www.JohnPaulIIBeatification.org
Future sessions are expected to ask questions of Archbishop Franciszek Macharski, a close friend of the late pontiff; Stanislaw Smolenski, a seminarian considered to be his spiritual father; and the new Archbishop of Krakow, Dr Stanislaw Dzwisz, who for decades was John Paul's personal secretary and close confidante.
