"On Sunday, 1 May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI beati-fied his predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, before a crowd of many hundreds of thousands of people at a mass in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. At ten thirty-eight the Pope beatified Pope John Paul II, who was the leader of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005, in the traditional Latin rite. The feast day of Blessed John Paul II is the same day as his papal investiture in 1978, 22 October. Beatification is the first part in the process of can-onisation. John Paul II (1920-2005) was beatified at record speed in modern times, only six years and one month after his death. The commemorative cover shows a detail of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the location of the beatification. On the cover the special postmark of a portrait of Pope John Paul II adorns either the stamp block issued in honour of his visit in 1991 or the stamp block issued in his memory in 2005."