@Les Crispi It's remarkable you should say that....That was my thought exactly. The way Pope John Paul II lived his final illness, broken and reduced to a shadow of his former self, humiliated to the utmost degree for all the world to see, and yet not retreating from that public spectacle of suffering was nothing short of heroic.
I have always thought that it was an incredible oblation on the cross; he didn't run from it or retire from before the eyes of the world to hide his pitiful condition out of pride, embarrassment or self love.
There were some fatal failures during his Papacy, many that caused great confusion among Catholics, and many failures to exercise his authority as he ought to have.
Some say this is proof his virtue was
not heroic as it should have been for a Pope on such occasions, which is one of the first conditions for canonization:
Heroic Virtue, i.e. heroism in practicing the virtues of one's vocation, as God will give the grace if the soul corresponds.
Canonization, therefore, is about heroic virtue, intended to be a spiritual model of sanctity and supernatural virtue for the Universal Church. Miracles are the means which God uses to confirm for the Church that the individual practiced heroic virtue...which I believe JP II ultimately did in the evening of his life.
CANONIZATION"Declaration by the Pope that a deceased person is raised to the full honors of the altar, i.e., a saint after previously having been beatified. Two miracles credited to the beatus (feminine: beata) are usually required before canonization to attest the heroic virtue of the saint."I truly believe his last years were the kiln in which his soul was forged in heroic virtue, as I believe he lived it in union with Christ, and I believe his piety and love for the Church were genuine, as certainly his love for Our Lady was as well.
In a way, it's like Saint Peter who denied Our Lord 3 times, and then went to his own crucifixion without fear or resistance, even asking to be crucified upside down.