VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News
By Barbie Latza Nadeau
The Daily Beast
VATICAN CITY — Around 800,000 people braved stormy skies and dense crowds today in St. Peter’s Square and at piazzas throughout Rome where giant screens were erected to watch Pope Francis create two new saints for the Catholic Church. Many millions more around the world tuned in to watch the grand event, which was broadcast in 3-D for the first time in Vatican history.
The ceremony, mostly in Latin, lasted nearly two hours, but the saint making was done within the first 15 minutes when Pope Francis announced the elevation of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II to raucous applause in the packed square. …
The popemobile steered clear of a handful of people who opposed the canonization of John Paul II and held up pictures of children abused by priests during his reign, but that was a small pocket of protests in a largely celebratory feel-good Catholic party. The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests known as ++SNAP++ [[ http://www.snapnetwork.org/ ]] wrote an open letter to victims ahead of the ceremony: “Our hearts ache for each of you who were abused during and after John Paul II’s long tenure as Pope. We know these days are difficult, even painful, for many of you, given the awful suffering so many still experience, suffering that is often made worse as the Catholic hierarchy praises wrongdoers instead of punishing them.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.