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To canonise the late pontiff, the Vatican must find evidence of at least two miracles since his death - miraculous acts proven to have happened after a direct appeal to John Paul through prayer.

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Asked what he thought about making John Paul II a saint, the Rev D'Alonzo [acting as the Devil's Advocate] replied that it was not for him to decide, only to "verify the truth".
Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the main advocate for the late Pope's case, said last week he had received statements from across the world, with about 100 e-mails filling his inbox every day.

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Originally posted by filthy
I rather doubt that it'll make much difference to the canonized corpse one way or another.

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Originally posted by pleco

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Originally posted by filthy
I rather doubt that it'll make much difference to the canonized corpse one way or another.

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LOL - anyone know if the late pope's corpse has started decomposing yet?

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The first problem with the notion of miracles is definition. So here's the only meaningful definition of the word "miracle" as it's used today:
mir-a-cle; n., sing. - any sort of mostly spontaneous occurrence that can be interpreted by a sufficiently motivated person as proof of some specific metaphysical belief

You may already have grasped the problem. The definition sucks. Just about anything qualifies as a miracle to someone, and there is no rigorous test for the concept.

Miracles are events in which a higher power decides to intervene in human events, usually to some beneficient purpose, as opposed to magic or witchcraft, in which a human exploits presumed loopholes in the laws of nature to create change according to their own will.

Miracles can occur spontaneously, or they can be urgently requested by groveling for favors from unseen powers, a process sometimes referred to as "prayer." To qualify as a miracle, an event must be either physically impossible, freakishly improbable or extraordinarily convenient. This can include:

Spontaneous healing of illness or grave injury
Spontaneous generation of illness or grave injury
Extreme weather or geological phenomena which have an unusually beneficial or detrimental effect on people's lives
Apparitions by major deities or their minions
Resurrection of the dead (not to be confused with reanimation of the undead
The creation of miraculous pictures or images
Particularly colorful or accurate prophecies
Speaking in languages you don't know, or speaking to multitudes, all of whom hear the words in their own language
In addition to the above miracles, which are pretty widely agreed on, you can find plenty of people who believe in somewhat less impressive miracles. These miracles can easily be explained by simple science, medicine or human error, but people believe in them anyway.

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