(ANSA) - Hopes that sainthood procedures for the late pope, John Paul II, could be speeded up by having him declared a martyr have been dashed.
The head of the Vatican saints department said on Wednesday that it was "very difficult" to define the Polish pontiff as a martyr because he did not choose death as an alternative to renouncing his faith.
This was the strict meaning of martyrdom, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins said, adding: "I have no doubt that if he had been asked to do this he would have done so, but that isn't what happened."
Under the Vatican's complex saint-making procedures, Christian martyrs are exempted from a rule which says every candidate for canonisation must perform two certified 'miracles'.
The business of examining possible miracles and getting them approved often takes years. One miracle is required for beatification, the half-way stage to sainthood, and a second one for full canonisation.
In June 2005 a Rome-based Catholic association presented Italy's highest-ranking cardinal with a petition asking that John Paul should be declared a martyr of the Catholic Church. It said that although the Polish pontiff did not die as a result of an assassination attempt in 1981, he still used
the experience to offer a "great testimony" of faith.
His death, on April 2 this year, was like the "seal" on his martyrdom, it added.
The procedures expected to lead to John Paul II's beatification began on June 28 with a solemn ceremony in Rome's cathedral, the Basilica of St John Lateran. Cardinal Saraiva Martins said it was impossible to say how long the first phase of 'diocesan' procedures, which involves interviewing witnesses and collecting documents, would take.
The work has begun early for John Paul because his successor, Benedict XVI, waived a rule which normally allows the work to begin only five years after death. A beatification generally takes several years and sometimes decades. The fastest on record was that of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who was declared 'blessed' in 2003, six years after her death.
