ATLANTA, Sept. 30, 2013 – Pope Francis announced today that Blesseds Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII will be canonized on April 27, Divine Mercy Sunday. Lino Rulli, author of the new book SAINT, who is also hoping to be canonized, welcomed today’s official news.
“If you ask me who my favorite saint is — present company included — the answer will always be John Paul II,” Rulli writes in SAINT. “He’s my model for holiness and eventual sainthood. … He was a regular guy, with faults and with sins — before him, I had never heard of a pope who went to confession. It never occurred to me that popes even committed sins. And somehow, knowing that he was a sinner gave me hope.”
Rulli has a special devotion to Blessed Pope John Paul, which he chronicles throughout SAINT. Rulli knows first hand what it was like to have a front-row seat at the funeral of Blessed Pope John Paul II; owns a rosary Blessed Pope John Paul II gave him; has stories from visiting his tomb; and traveling to Poland, the late Pope’s birthplace to experience the historical places that molded the life of the memorable saint.
To say Rulli is a Saint-struck is an understatement. “By canonizing him, we’re saying, ‘Hey, you remember that guy who was alive a few years ago? Yeah, he’s in heaven now.’ Which means heaven is real. A place that’s more accessible. It says we can be saints, too.”
In SAINT, Rulli demonstrates that faith can be funny, and all too human, and holiness is for everybody, no matter how often we stumble. He’s a self-proclaimed saint who celebrates his oddities and failures in the hope that he can encourage his brothers and sisters to join God (and now Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII) in heaven, too.
Please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276, or [email protected]) of Carmel Communications for more information, to request a review copy of SAINT or to schedule an interview with Lino Rulli.
###