JP2's flair for the dramatic and imprudent Vatican TV endorsement

Headline seen on Drudge:

"Holy Smoke! Vatican TV claims image is Pope John Paul II waving from beyond grave... "

Which leads to this article from the UK Daily Mail: "Is this Pope John Paul II waving from beyond the grave? Vatican TV director says yes". Here is the image side-by-side with its supposed counterpart:

The details of the claim(s):

This fiery figure is being hailed as Pope John Paul II making an appearance beyond the grave.

The image, said by believers to show the Holy Father with his right hand raised in blessing, was spotted during a ceremony in Poland to mark the second anniversary of his death.

Details appeared on the Vatican News Service, a TV station in Rome which specialises in religious news broadcasts.

Service director Jarek Cielecki, a Polish priest and close friend of John Paul II, travelled to Poland after hearing an onlooker had photographed the image.

Father Cielecki said he was convinced the picture showed the former pontiff.
"You can see the image of a person in the flames and I think it is the servant of God, Pope John Paul II," he said.

The pictures were being broadcast continuously on Italian TV and also posted on religious websites, some of which crashed as thousands logged on to see for themselves the eerie figure formed by the flames.

The bonfire was lit during a service at Beskid Zywiecki, close to John Paul's birthplace at Katowice, southern Poland, on April 2 - the second anniversary of his death.

Hundreds had attended the ceremony. Gregorz Lukasik, the Polish man who took the photographs, said: "It was only afterwards when I got home and looked at the pictures that I realised I had something.

"I showed them to my brother and sister and they, like me, were convinced the flames had formed the image of Pope John Paul II.

"I was so happy with the picture that I showed it to our local bishop who said that Pope John Paul had made many pilgrimages during his life and he was still making them in death."

I think it's irresponsible for Fr. Cielecki to be encouraging this form of psuedo-mysticism, (let alone giving it airtime on Vatican TV?!). This kind of thing does nothing to disabuse non-Catholics of their (mis)conception that religion is based on nothing more than emotional spiritualism.

If a still photograph brings to mind the memory of our late Pope, that's one thing. It's another thing entirely to claim that a (presumed) saint in heaven actually intended to manifest his presence through a bonfire.

Really, this ranks right up there with the "Virgin Mary Toast", which sold for $28,000.

And let's face it, if JP2 was going to show himself I think he'd to it with a bit more flair.

Update: Ya learn somethin' every day. There's a name for this: Paraidolia! (ph/t: New Advent)