Beatification of the Late Pope John Paul II
WHITFIELD: Before the break, I asked you how many miracles does it take to make someone a saint in the Roman Catholic Church? Well, now for the answer. One confirmed miracle means a candidate is blessed and can be beatified, but it takes two miracles to elevate someone to sainthood. So hundreds of thousands Catholics are flocking to St. Peter's square this weekend. Tomorrow they hope to witness the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II. The move will put him one step closer to sainthood. Our Jim Bittermann is in Rome.</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even before Pope John Paul I was laid to rest, the crowds were already urging sainthood now. And now six years later, the late Pope is quickly headed in that direction. John Paul was unquestionably one of the most popular Popes in modern history. His long reign, winning ways with the crowds and the media, his strong stands against communism persecution, and the way he put the church squarely on the side of the poor and oppressed are just a few of the often cited reasons for the success of his papacy. But sainthood is about more than achievements. It concerns, as the present Pope puts it, heroic virtues. Was John Paul II a holy man? In this, his supporters have no doubt. Cardinal Josef Tomko, one of the earliest and strongest advocates for the late Pope's sainthood, says his old friend is now a friend in heaven and a man of god.</s>CARDINAL JOSEF TOMKO, SAINTHOOD ADVOCATE: "Man of god," that means having contact with god, being in contact with god, a man of prayer for sure. But it is also a man which is deeply human.</s>BITTERMANN: To the church, objective measures of whether a candidate for sainthood has reached heaven and is in a position to intervene with god are the miracles performed after death. For John Paul II, Sister Marie Pierre Simon is the first certified miracle. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Parkinson's Disease, the same disease which crippled John Paul. Just weeks after his death, the nun's community began praying to John Paul, and the nun says her symptoms almost immediately disappeared. Because of that miracle, because many of us contemporaries and subordinates still run the church, and because of changes that John Paul himself made to speed up the saint-making process, the former Pope is being beatified, that is to say being declared blessed, in record time. And while 90 percent of American Catholics according to one public opinion poll believe that he deserves it, dissidents within the church do not, mainly because of the sex abuse scandals that have taken place, many of which took place during the papacy of John Paul.</s>JOHN ALLEN, VATICAN CONSULTANT: I think most people in the Vatican, frankly, would concede that on the sex abuse front some mistakes were made during the John Paul years. But what they'll tell you is that it's a mistake to focus on one or another isolated element, that what you have to look at is the whole record. And they would say the whole record of John Paul II was an overwhelmingly holy man who had a massive impact on the history of his own times and on the millions and millions and millions of people who he met.</s>BITTERMANN: At least some of those millions have already begun appearing here for the weekend's beatification mass on Sunday morning, the former Pope demonstrating from beyond the grave that he's still capable of drawing a crowd. And if some question his fast track or qualification for sainthood, it's a demonstration that in death as in life, John Paul is still capable of creating controversy. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Vatican City.</s>WHITFIELD: Other stories we're following for you right now around the world, Syria is ruthlessly enforcing a curfew in the southern city of Daraa. Witnesses tell CNN that snipers are shooting at any man that dares to venture out onto the streets, and 19 people were reportedly killed in the city on Friday. A deal to end the political unrest in Yemen is in jeopardy. A senior official tells CNN that the president, after all, won't leave the country to sign an agreement in Saudi Arabia. He is worried his adversaries will stage a coup in his absence. And the royal family released official portraits from Friday's wedding, because we know you can't get enough of it. The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will spend their first weekend as husband and wife at an undisclosed royal residence. More official royal photos of the entire wedding party, so to speak. The honeymoon, well, it's going to have to wait the Prince is returning to his official duties as a search and rescue pilot next week. Well, this is something they probably won't have a problem with, money being the number one thing that couples argue about. So what should you do? Don't criticize. This is kind of a little quiz we've got for you -- don't criticize your spouse about money in front of others, discuss your financial goals on a regular basis, coordinate your responses when your kids ask for something, or is it all of the above? We'll get the answer from our financial experts, the Dolans, after this.