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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The late Pope John Paul II moved a major step closer to sainthood on Sunday at a ceremony that drew about a million and half people, the largest crowd in Rome since his funeral six years ago.

"From now on Pope John Paul shall be called 'blessed,'" Pope Benedict, wearing white and gold robes, proclaimed in Latin, establishing that his predecessor's feast day would be October 22, the day of the inauguration of John Paul's pontificate in 1978.

To the cheers of the crowd, a tapestry showing a smiling John Paul was unveiled after Benedict read the proclamation.

St Peter's Square was packed and the crowd stretched as far back as the Tiber River, more than half a km away. The devotees, many carrying national flags and singing, moved toward the Vatican area from all directions from before dawn to get a good spot for the Mass.

Police estimated the crowd in the Vatican area at about 1.5 million people. Many camped out during the night in the square, which was bedecked with posters of the late pope and one of his most famous sayings, "Do not be afraid!"

In his homily, Benedict noted that the late Pope, whom he praised as having had "the strength of a titan" and who gave millions of people "the strength to believe," had blessed crowds thousands of times from his window overlooking the same square.

"Bless us now," Benedict said.

Many of the participants were from John Paul's native Poland. Dozens of red and white Polish flags bobbed above the crowd and a cheer went up when a group of Poles released a large banner reading "Thank You, God," held aloft by balloons.

"We were at the funeral and we just had to be here to see him beatified," said Janusc Skibinski, 40, who drove 29 hours with his family from their home near the border with Belarus.

A place of honor was reserved for Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a French nun who suffered from Parkinson's disease but whose inexplicable cure has been attributed to John Paul's intercession with God to perform a miracle, thus providing the grounds for his beatification.

After the proclamation, Normand held up a silver reliquary with a vial of blood taken from the pope in the last few days of his life in case it was needed for a transfusion.

The Vatican will have to attribute another miracle to John Paul's intercession after the beatification in order for him to be declared a saint.

The pope was beatified on the day the Church celebrates the Feast of Divine Mercy, which this year fell on May 1, coinciding with the most important workers' holiday in the communist world. The timing was ironic, given the role of the Polish pope in the fall of communism in his homeland and across eastern Europe.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, the Solidarnosc union leader who was jailed by the communists, was in the church.

DELEGATIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Some 90 official delegations from around the world, including members of five European royal families and 16 heads of state, attended the beatification.

They included Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has been widely criticized for human rights abuses in his country. Mugabe is banned from traveling to the European Union, but the Vatican -- a sovereign state -- is not a member of the bloc.

Pope John Paul II's coffin was exhumed on Friday from the crypts below St Peter's Basilica and was placed in front of the main altar. It will remain there and the basilica will remain open until all visitors who want to view it have done so.

Benedict was the first to pay respect before the coffin, which had a bible placed on it, followed by cardinals, royalty and heads of state.

It will then be moved to a new crypt under an altar in a side chapel near Michelangelo's statue of the Pieta. The marble slab that covered his first burial place will be sent to Poland.

John Paul's beatification set a new speed record for modern times, taking place six years and one month after his death.

While the overwhelming majority of Catholics welcome it, a minority are opposed, with some saying it happened too fast.

Liberals in the church say John Paul was too harsh with theological dissenters who wanted to help the poor, particularly in Latin America. Some say he should be held responsible for sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic church, because they occurred or came to light when he was in charge.

Ultra-Conservatives say he was too open toward other religions and that he allowed the liturgy to be "infected" by local cultures, such as African dancing, on his trips abroad.

Pope John Paul II beatified before huge crowd,
R, 1.5.2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/01/
us-pope-johnpaul-idUSTRE73Q2HT20110501 - broken link

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