photo - PAP

At exactly 21.37 Saturday night, trumpets will sound in Pilsudski square in Warsaw and then a minutes silence will be observed in memory of John Paul II, who died at that time six years ago in the Vatican.

This year’s anniversary has added poignancy coming a month before the beatification ceremony in Rome on 1 May, marking a major step towards the canonisation of the Polish Pope.

Parts of the homily John Paul II gave on his first historic pilgrimage to Poland as Pope will be played.

At St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow this evening a special "Santo Subito" concert will be given under the patronage of long-time aid to JP II, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who will also celebrate a special mass in memory of the late pontiff.

Personal memorabilia of Pope John Paul II and films describing the most important moments of the Polish Pope’s life  will be on show at the Mobile Museum of John Paul II, which starts off from Krakow, Saturday.

The museum is an 18 meter long caravan with special exhibition show cases and screens for the presentation of  films presenting the life of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in his home town of Wadowice, in Krakow and in Rome.

“The Pilgrim Pope sets out on yet another trip around Poland”, said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz , during the a presentation of the mobile museum.

The idea of the museum comes from Father Zygmunt Kosowski from the St. Stanislaus publishers and has been put into life by the Pope John Paul II Centre.

The celebrations in Warsaw and Krakow are just some of the events taking part all over the country.

A Christian life

Yesterday, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes in the Vatican said that JP II was being beatified, not for what he did as a world and historical figure but how he lived a Christian life of faith and virtue.

He said that although the canonisation process has been fast-tracked - it usually starts ten years after death - it is still in keeping with a process put in place by the Polish Pontiff himself.

"Clearly his cause was put on the fast track, but the process was done carefully and meticulously, following the rules Pope John Paul himself issued in 1983," Cardinal Amato told the Catholic News Service.

"From the day of his death on April 2, 2005, the people of God began proclaiming his holiness," the cardinal said, pointing to the popular pressure to make the Polish Pope a saint and the scores of biographies which have been written about him since his death six years ago. (pg/ab)