Archbishop Cupich to Bless 'Heroic' Statue of St. Pope John Paul II

• Shrine of St. Pope John Paul II at Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, IL.

Chicago, IL, May 23, 2016 -- A heroic statue of St. John Paul II will be blessed on May 30 -- Memorial Day -- by Archbishop Blase Cupich at Resurrection Cemetery in Justice.

The 20-foot-tall bronze statue is placed on a 6-foot-10-inch tall block of American black granite. The shrine is located directly behind the cemetery’s office at 7201 W. Archer Ave., Justice.

Born Karol Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, the son of a Polish farmer, Wojtyla secretly studied for the priesthood in a clandestine seminary during the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II.

As Bishop Wojtyla, he was appointed to the Second Vatican Council by Pope John XXIII where he is said to have played a significant role.

He was nominated in 1964 as Archbishop of Krakow by Pope Paul VI, and was elevated to cardinal in 1967.

Much of the future pope’s time as a priest, bishop and cardinal was spent during communist oppression of Poland and throughout Eastern Europe, where he publicly expressed and practiced his faith in a culture of atheism. Many Poles credit him with sparking the end of communism in Poland.

He was elected Pontiff on Oct. 16, 1979, assuming the name of his predecessor, John Paul I, who died just 33 days after becoming pope.

Pope John Paul II had a deep and personal connection to Resurrection Cemetery, which was opened in 1904 to serve the Polish Catholic Community in the southwest section of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

In 1969 and again in 1976, before he became pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla visited Resurrection Cemetery, according to background compiled by Roman Szabelski. Because of Pope John Paul II’s strong ties to Chicago’s Polish Community, the Archdiocese, in 1983, erected a small community mausoleum honoring him with scenes from the pope’s famed visit to Chicago in 1979.

Three miracles are attributed to John Paul II’s meteoric rise to sainthood. Less than three months after his death, a French nun claimed she was healed of Parkinson’s disease after praying to the late pontiff for his intervention.

In 2009, a 9-year-old Polish boy said to be dying of kidney cancer and unable to walk was visiting John Paul II’s tomb with his parents. Upon leaving St. Peter's Basilica, the boy began walking normally.

Given just days to live due to a brain aneurysm, a Costa Rican woman said she began praying to the pontiff while clutching a magazine bearing his portrait.

“When I woke up the next morning … I felt a deep sense of healing,” she recounted for ABC News in 2011. ”I heard his voice say to me, 'Get up and don’t be afraid,' I went to my husband in the kitchen and told him I was cured. I realized little by little the illness had been taken away."

The woman claims that a “slew of doctors” declared her to be cured. Although some Catholics question the validity of the miracles, Pope Benedict beatified Pope John Paul II in 2011, sealing his path his to sainthood.

Pope John Paul II, along with Pope John XXIII, were canonized together as saints in 2014.

The statue at Resurrection Cemetery was commissioned by the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2013. It was designed by Teresa Clark of Clark Design, who began with an 18-inch clay sculpture. The statue weighs about 8,000 pounds and rests upon a black granite base of 86,000 pounds.

The staff of the Crucible Foundry in Norman, OK, worked over 52 months to maintain Clark’s tool marks and thumb prints of the model through the wax and casting. The foundry also assembled the high quality bronze that makes up the statue of John Paul II, the Archdiocese said in a news release.

Clark’s image does not reflect a certain time of Pope John Paul’s life but "[captures] the essence of the saint over the years of his pontificate," Szabelski said.

Immediately following a field Mass at 10:30 a.m., May 30, commemorating military who died in service to our country, Archbishop Cupich will officially bless the Shrine of St. Pope John Paul II.