Poles celebrate 'miracle' of John Paul II papacy

Poles braved wind and rain to celebrate the beatification of Pope John Paul II at masses across the country on Sunday, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk hailed the "miracle" he had brought about in his homeland.

As the late pope, born as Karol Wojtyla, moved a step closer to sainthood at a beatification ceremony in Rome, his countrymen remembered his role in helping to end more than four decades of communist rule.

"If we compare Poland''s situation when Karol Wojtyla became pope, and the situation today, we can truly say that the miracle has occurred," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.

Tusk joined some 10,000 worshippers at a beatification mass and toured the former Wojtyla home, now a museum, in the southern town of Wadowice.

In Warsaw, over 3,000 huddled beneath umbrellas in the square where, in 1979, John Paul invoked the Holy Spirit to "change the face of this land" - regarded by many Poles as the inspiration that helped the Solidarity trade union movement overthrow Communism a decade later.

"I was 14 when I saw the pope during his visit to Poland, and I cried when he died a few years later. He has helped me in times of need," said history student Marta Wisniewska, 23. "I will continue to invoke his intercession in future."

In Warsaw's southern district of Wilanow, a portrait of John Paul made up of the photographs of 105,000 individual Poles was unveiled at the front of the huge Basilica of Divine Providence, still under construction.

Poles overwhelmingly supported the beatification but there were also sceptics who accused the late pope of being too conservative and dogmatic.

"To churchgoers this may be a milestone, but to the growing ranks of materialists and nonbelievers, the rat-race crowd, this is just an empty ceremony, " said Marek Wojcik, 29, a self-employed IT specialist. "John Paul II has earned a place in our history and I admire him but for me that''s where it ends."