BOGOTA, Columbia (Catholic Online) - El Tiempo News Agency of Columbia first reported the story in their popular daily newspaper. It was picked up by the Catholic News Agency and distributed globally. Marco Fidel Rojas, the former Mayor of the town of Huila claims to have been healed of Parkinson's disease through the prayerful intercession of "his friend up there", Blessed John Paul II. 

The inspiring account calls to mind another Parkinson's sufferer, a French Nun named Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, who was miraculously cured through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II. her confirmed miracle  assisted in the decision to beatify the much beloved late Pope who himself suffered from the debilitating disease during his later years.  On May 1, 2011 Blessed John Paul II was raised to the Altar and declared a Blessed. Along with millions, I watched in great joy.

I remember the day when he died as though it were yesterday.  The Faithful throughout the entire world gathered upon his death and cried out "Santo Subito". The cry continues and deepens as his teaching Magisterium is unpacked, his example inspires millions and his continuing intercession from heaven works miracles.  

The Bishops of the United States approved the Oct. 22d Memorial of Blessed John Paul II on the Liturgical Calendar of the United States when they meet in November of 2011. The date was chosen by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to memorialize his inauguration on October 22, 1978.

John Paul's magisterium (teaching office) laid the foundation for what has become under his successor and friend, Pope Benedict XVI, a new missionary age of the Catholic Church. Blessed John Paul II tirelessly called all men and women to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. He always reminded us that it is only in Jesus Christ can we discover the purpose and fulfillment of human life.

He proclaimed that human existence is an invitation to communion with God and with one another. He told an age bent of "self fulfillment" that true human fulfillment can only come from the gift of self. He called us to live a unity of life, wherein the implications of the Christian faith inform the entirety of life with no contradiction or separation.

He confronted what he labeled the "culture of death", wherein the human person is treated as an instrument to be used rather than an unrepeatable gift to be received. He proposed a new "culture of life" where every human person, at every age and stage, is recognized as having an inviolable dignity and right to life, freedom and love.

He defended true freedom from its myriad of modern counterfeits, insisting  that freedom is only found in choosing what is true and good and always requires us to do what is right. His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, continues the task by decrying the Dictatorship of Relativism and anarchic freedom".   

He proclaimed a new humanism, a Christian humanism, reaffirming that we were created in the Image of God and therefore made for communion with Him and one another. He insisted that only by applying the treasury of the social teaching of the Catholic Church - in our relationships with one another, in our families, in our societies, our nations and in the global community - authentic justice and freedom can actually be achieved.

Entrusted for twenty six years with the Chair of Peter, Blessed John Paul II was a prophetic Pope. From his first encyclical letter entitled "The Redeemer of Man" to his last, the "Church of the Eucharist", he proclaimed that the truth is, as he wrote in his Encyclical Letter on the Moral Life, a "splendor".

He called for reconciliation among separated Christians in his encyclical letter "May They Be One" and proposed a bold model for full communion with the Church. The proposals in that encyclical are now being implemented under Pope Benedict XVI - as is evident in the historic erection of Ordinariates for Anglicans who seek full communion as Catholics.

With deep love for the "Light of the East" he called Eastern and Western Christianity to rediscover their dependence upon one another so the entire Body of Christ might once again breathe with "two lungs" and present the whole Jesus Christ to a world that needs to be liberated. Again, his successor is putting the building blocks in place to promote such a healing between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

In January the Holy See released the "Decree for the Beatification of the Servant of God John Paul II" and Pope Benedict XVI announced: " The date chosen (May 1) is very significant because it will, in fact, be the second Sunday of Easter which he himself dedicated to Divine Mercy and on the eve of which his earthly life came to an end. Those who knew him, those who respected and loved him cannot but share in the Church's joy at this event." In the last ten ...