Pope John Paul II (Latin:Ioannis Paulus PP. II;Italian:Giovanni Paolo II;Polish:Jan Paweł II), sometimes calledSaint John Paul orJohn Paul the Great, bornKarol Józef Wojtyła (Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005), was the 264thPope of theCatholic Church from 16 October 1978 to his death on 2 April 2005. He was the third longest-serving pope in history. As aPole, he was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.[7] The last non-Italian pope wasPope Adrian VI, who died in 1523.
He is the first pope to have visited theWhite House,[8] and amosque.[9] He traveled more than any other pope before him, visiting many of the countries of the world. He is also famous for starting the annualWorld Youth Day. His last youth day was Cologne, Germany in 2005. After he wasbeatified, his title was changed toBlessed John Paul II. John Paul II was canonized byPope Francis on 27 April 2014 which means that the Polish Pope is now known asSaint John Paul II.[10]
Karol Józef Wojtyła was born on 18 May 1920 inWadowice,Poland. His parents were Karol Wojtyła, who was a military officer, and Emilia Kaczorowska, who was a seamstress. He was the youngest of three children.[11] He was nine years old when his mother died in 1929. His father supported him so that he could study. His brother was adoctor. He died when Wojtyła was twelve. He lost everyone in his family - a sister, brother, mother, and father - before he became a priest. He played sports. He likedfootball (soccer)[12] as agoalkeeper.[13]
Wojtyła went to Marcin Wadowita high school in Wadowice. In 1938, he studied drama at the Jagiellonian University inKraków.[11] He worked as a volunteerlibrarian. He was anathlete,actor, andplaywright. He did two months military training in the Academic Legion. This training was compulsory. He would not hold or fire a weapon.[14]
When he was young, he met manyJewish people. They lived in that area. In 1939,Nazi forces closed the Jagiellonian University. All men, except for thedisabled, had to have a job. From 1940 to 1944, Wojtyła worked in arestaurant. He also worked in alimestonequarry, and then as asalesman for a chemicalfactory. He did not want to be sent to Germany. If he was sent, he would be made to join the German army.[11] His father died of aheart attack in February 1941.
On 29 February 1944, Wojtyła was knocked down by a German truck (lorry). He thought he would be badly treated. The German officers sent him to a hospital. He spent two weeks there with head and shoulder injuries. It was at this time that he decided that he must become apriest. When he left hospital, the young Polish men were being sent to Germany for training. He escaped to the house of theArchbishop. He hid there till after the war. On the night of 17 January 1945, the Germans left the city. The priests and teacher and students went back to theseminary. There was a big clean-up to be done. Wojtyła offered to clean out thelavatories.[15]
That month, Wojtyła found a fourteen-year-old Jewishrefugee named Edith Zierer. She was trying to reach her parents. She had collapsed fromhunger.[16] He gave her food and helped her go to the railway station. She did not hear of him again until the day came when he was elected Pope.[17][18][19]
In 1958, Wojtyła then became the youngestbishop in Poland at the age of 38. In 1962 he took part in theSecond Vatican Council and helped write two very important documents. One was about Religious freedom and the other one was about the work of the church in the Modern World.
In 1963 Bishop Wojtyła becameArchbishop of Kraków.
John Paul II became Pope on 16 October 1978. John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. He was pope for 26 years, making him the second longest serving pope afterPope Pius IX who held the office for 31 years and seven months.[21] He was also the first and onlySlavic pope. John Paul II was the most traveled pope in history with 104 international trips.
John Paul II beatified many people. This means that the Pope gave these people the title of "Blessed". One example is the painterFra Angelico, who lived in the 1400s. After studying his life and teaching, it was decided that he should officially be called "the Blessed Fra Angelico". John Paul II gave more people the title of "Blessed" than any other pope in history. He also made manysaints.
In 1984 John Paul II startedWorld Youth Day which was first held in Rome and attended by about 300,000 people. Since then it has been held in a different country every year. It encourages young people to be faithful to God, and to live together in peace. Many millions of people have attended.
Countries that John Paul II visited, showing the number of visits.
The first pope who traveled frequently wasPope Paul VI. Like him, John Paul II liked to travel. While he was pope, he made 105 trips, visiting 117 countries.[23] In total he travelled more than 1.1 million km (725,000 miles). Wherever he went, he attracted large crowds. All these travels were paid by the money of the countries he visited and not by the Vatican.
One of John Paul II's earliest official visits was to his home country ofPoland, in June 1979. There, he was always surrounded by happy, cheering crowds.[24] The Pope wanted to bring freedom and human rights to his country. His visit encouraged Poles to oppose the communism, and in 1980 the Solidarity movement was born. On later trips to Poland, he made his message of support stronger. TheSoviet Union had controlledEastern Europe for many years. In 1989, Poland was the first country to begin to break free from the Soviet Union.
In 1988 he made a trip toLesotho to beatifyJoseph Gérard.[31] On 15 January 1995, during the 10thWorld Youth Day, he offered Mass to an estimated crowd of between four and eight million in Luneta Park,Manila,Philippines. This is considered to be the largest single event in Christian history.
After the attacks on 11 September 2001, even though people were worried about his safety, the Pope traveled toKazakhstan and spoke to large audiences including many Muslims. He also went toArmenia, to participate in the celebration of the 1700 years ofChristianity.[30][32] He said Mass in local languages during some visits, includingKiswahili inNairobi,Kenya in 1995 and in anIndonesian language inEast Timor.[33]
On 13 May 1981, the Pope was shot twice in theabdomen by a Turkish national,Mehmet Ali Ağca. The pope was gravely injured. He barely survived theassassination attempt, and had to be treated in hospital for 20 days. The pope later visited Ağca in prison. He had forgiven him already. Exactly one year later he traveled toFatima to thank Mary, Mother of God for saving his life.[14]
On this trip there was a second attempt to his life. A follower of theFrencharchbishopMarcel Lefebvre tried to hurt the Pope with abayonet.[36][37][38] He was overpowered by thebodyguards of the Pope. Lefevbre and his followers were against the decisions of theSecond Vatican Council. After this the Pope often travelled in a bullet-proof trailer known as the "popemobile."[14]
Pope John Paul II's funeralMemory about Pope John Paul II.
John Paul died on Saturday, on the eve of the Divine Mercy Holiday, 2 April 2005. The official time of death on his death certificate was 9:37 pm,[39][40] but a few sources reported 9:33 pm. The death certificate stated that when the Pope died, he hadParkinson's disease,[41] with serious breathing difficulties. The Pope hadtracheotomysurgery in mid February but it did not help and he lost weight. He also had an enlarged prostate, urinary infection and other problems. The cause of death were that hiskidneys failed, causing blood poisoning and infection brought by septic shock. John Paul II spoke his final words, “pozwólcie mi odejść do domu Ojca”, (“Let me depart to the house of the Father”), to his aides, and fell into a coma about four hours later.
The Pope's medical team used heart-monitoring machinery for more than 20 minutes, so his real and true time of death was at 9:15 PM Vatican time. As tradition demands, his name was called three times. When there was no reply, his papal ring was broken, which meant the end of John Paul II's papacy (reign as pope).[34]
Many people claimed to have been specially blessed by the reign of Pope John Paul II. Many people thought he should be given the title "Blessed". This usually takes at least five years (and may take hundreds of years). On 13 May 2005,Pope Benedict XVI cut short the usual 5-year wait for the beatification process to begin. The only other time (in recent history) that this has happened was forMother Theresa, who was made Blessed Mother Theresa by John Paul II. It was announced on 14 January 2011, that John Paul II would be beatified on 1 May 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday).According to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II's remains (which will not be exhumed and exposed) will be moved from the grotto beneathSt. Peter's Basilica, where he is presently buried, to a marble stone monument in Pier Paolo Cristofari's Chapel of St. Sebastian, which is where Blessed Pope Innocent XI is currently buried; Blessed Pope Innocent's remains will likely be moved. This more prominent location, next to the Chapel of the Pieta, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and statues of Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, will increase the number of pilgrims capable of viewing his memorial.“ It will be a great joy for us when he is officially beatified, but as far as we are concerned he is already a Saint. ” —Stanisław Dziwisz [189]
On 30 September 2013,Pope Francis said that John Paul, together withPope John XXIII, would bemade saints on 27 April 2014. This was the first time two popes have been made saints on the same day.
John Paul II was generally againstcommunism. He was also a critic ofcapitalism that was not controlled and he did not want people's basic rights to be oppressed by worldgovernments. He officially condemned aspects ofLiberation theology.[43] He was againstabortion andcontraception in general.[44] As head of the largest Christian group, John Paul II taught a conservative theological view ofhuman sexuality. On the subject he wrote 130 topics called the Theology of the Body. He was againsthomosexuality, and in favour of people starting families as one husband and one wife.[45] But he said that homosexuals have the same inherentdignity andrights as everybody else.[46] On 30 April 2000, John Paul instituted a Divine Mercy Holiday, according to the teachings of SaintFaustyna Kowalska and on that day she was also proclaimed a Saint of the Catholic Church. The Feast of the Mercy of God is continuously growing worldwide. John Paul is also remembered for his devotion to the ConsecratedHoly Communion, the Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
During John Paul's time as pope, the church was involved in a large number of claims aboutchild sexual abuse by priests. There are many people who believe that the Church, and therefore the Pope, knew about these claims and tried to cover them up. For example, in 1996 the Irish bishops decided that priests suspected of child abuse must be reported to the police. The Vatican sent a letter to the bishops that they were not to report such cases.[47] The letter was from futurePope Benedict XVI - whom John Paul II had asked to handle such cases.[47] John Paul II is also claimed to have got a cardinal to send a thank you letter to a French bishop who had refused to report a priest to the police.[48] In 2001 John Paul II sent out a special letter saying that the abuse of children by priests was a very serious crime, and should be strictly punished.[49] Some Catholics wanted the process for making John Paul II a saint stopped, until there was an investigation into his role in keeping secret information about bad priests.[50]
↑Pentin, Edward - National Catholic Register."Faith and Football". Legion of Christ. Archived fromthe original on 12 May 2015. Retrieved18 August 2008.
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