The Sunday Mail
Mabasa Sasa in Rome, Italy
President Robert Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe yesterday arrived here for today’s beatification of Pope Paul VI by Pope Francis at a double mass at The Vatican.
A devout and lifelong Catholic, President Mugabe will join an expected nine other world leaders and tens of thousands of other believers for this penultimate step in Paul VI’s ascension to sainthood at a ceremony before the towering dome of St Peter’s Basilica.
Indications are that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who worked with Paul VI decades ago and who was to briefly head the church, will also attend.
President Mugabe and Amai Mugabe were met at Fiumicino International Airport by senior Zimbabwean diplomats and Vatican representative Monsignor Simone.
Earlier this year, President Mugabe and Amai Mugabe were at The Vatican for the canonisation of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII.
Today’s beatification mass, which will see Paul VI henceforth prefixed as “the Blessed”, has been a long time in coming for the pope who at the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s reaffirmed the Holy See’s opposition to all forms of birth control, despite also ushering in modernising reforms that saw church services being conducted in languages other than the traditional Latin. His 15-year reign as head of the world’s largest Christian denomination was overshadowed by both his predecessor and successor — St John XXIII and St John Paul II, respectively — but since then, there has been growing recognition of his importance to the Catholic Church’s recent history.
Further, today’s ceremony will involve a mass to mark the last day of the third Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, a major assembly that has seen Catholic leaders engage in fiery debate about the place of homosexuals in the church, with some saying they have “talents” that can be harnessed for the congregation’s growth at a time mass attendances are falling and fewer people are entering the priesthood.
“Holding the mass at the end of the synod is in recognition of the late pope who established the Synod of Bishops in September 1965 to encourage unity and consultation on church doctrine between the bishops and the pope,” an official told The Sunday Mail.
“He is regarded by many as a champion of the family institution that was advocated through his 1968 encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’. The late pope’s teachings on the sanctity of procreation and married life are relevant to the work of the Extraordinary Synod.” Normally, the church verifies two miracles and considers an individual’s lifelong commitment to cardinal and biblical virtues before setting a person on the path to sainthood.
Beatification is the third stage in the four-step process towards canonisation. In Paul VI’s case, the rite of passage started in 1993 when he was honoured as Servant of God, with the next stage coming in 2012 when the church elevated him to Venerable. In May this year, Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to Paul VI (healing of an unborn child), setting the stage for his elevation today to “Blessed” — one step away from sainthood.
For this to happen, the church would need to approve another miracle, though previously some of these requirements have been waived.
Paul VI was born in 1896 and reigned as pontiff from 1963 until his death in 1978.
He is one of a few church leaders who have risen to pope without having been a cardinal. He turned down that appointment though he did serve as Archbishop of Milan, Italy’s biggest diocese.
Paul VI was the first pope to visit Africa, and also sought to improve Catholic ties with the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant denominations.
