Comment from Understand the Times:

Rome will have done well on the sale of souvenirs and other things as a result of the masses coming to Rome to celebrate the pope's beatification. He, according to Roman Catholic dogma has now become a saint. Whether or not he actually knew Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior is in question as his totus tuus was "All to Mary!"

April 29 - Pope John Paul II's body exhumed ahead of beatification

Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days

Pope John Paul II's coffin was exhumed on Friday ahead of his beatification as tens of thousands of people began arriving in Rome for one of the biggest events since his funeral in 2005.

The wooden coffin will be placed in front of the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica. After Sunday's beatification mass, it will remain in that spot and the basilica will remain open until all visitors who want to view it have done so.

It will then be moved to a new crypt under an altar in a side chapel near Michelangelo's statue of the Pieta. The marble slab that covered his first burial place will be sent to Poland.

The city is festooned with posters of the pope on buses and hanging from lamp posts as the city where he was bishop for 27 years awaits one of the largest crowds since his funeral in 2005, when millions came to pay tribute.

At least several hundred thousand people are expected at the mass in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, when John Paul's successor Pope Benedict XVI will pronounce a Latin formula declaring one of the most popular popes in history a "blessed" of the Church.

The Vatican has deemed that the otherwise inexplicable cure of a French nun, Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, who was suffering from Parkinson's disease, was due to John Paul's intercession with God to perform a miracle, thus permitting the beatification to go ahead. Another miracle will have to be attributed to John Paul's intercession after the beatification in order for him to be declared a saint.