The cause of course, is his cause for canonization.
Here's a nice feature piece from earlier this week:
Charting a Path to Sainthood – washingtonpost.com
Blesseds and saints aren't metaphors in Catholic doctrine. They are held up as real examples of people who successfully imitated Jesus in their lives (or deaths, in the case of martyrs), and are well known among Catholics for their holiness.
From the start, this has not been a typical investigation. On the day of John Paul's funeral in 2005, Catholics in St. Peter's Square shouted out "Santo subito!" — "Sainthood now!" In the face of strong public enthusiasm, his successor, Benedict XVI, waived the usual five-year wait before formal considerations could begin. Since then, the advocacy has only stepped up to get John Paul quickly through a process that can take centuries.
Taking part in the investigation is a small army of consultants, archivists, translators of John Paul's writings, and oncologists and psychologists who examine the medical evidence for reported miracles.
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The lead investigator, Monsignor Slawomir Oder of Poland, announced earlier this year that a 2,000-page report about John Paul's life and virtues had been completed by officials at the Rome Diocese (the first phase of such a study is handled by the diocese where the potential saint died) and sent to the Vatican's 34-member Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
The report makes a case for John Paul to be beatified. This requires proof of one miracle (usually of the medical kind) after the candidate's death. Church officials say privately that Oder has attributed the 2005 healing of a French nun who had Parkinson's disease to prayers she addressed to John Paul's soul.
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