For a rundown on his remarkable life, take a look at the official Vatican site. Suddenly, we had a pope from the High Tatra Mountains who swam in a pool and went to the mountains to ski; a pope who talked to reporters on his plane, kissed children on the forehead and patted visitors on the arm A papal audience: Crossing The Threshold Of Hope
Art of Living & Morality Across Frontiers: A World in Mourning: Pope John Paul II: The Great
Pope John Paul II, who headed the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years, has died. THE passing of a Pope is always a dramatic moment. The great bell at the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tolled 84 times today to mark the passing of 84-year-old Pope John Paul II.
However you gauge it, the reign of John Paul II has been a pontificate on the grand scale. Inaugurated in 1978, it is the third-longest in the 2000-year history of the papacy. Karol Wojtyla became the first non-Italian to take up the crook of St Peter in more than 450 years and his nationality proved crucially important in the years following his election.
The fact that he is a Polish pope helped to destabilise communism in his native country and the rest of central and eastern Europe. As official documents for the period become available, his role in ending the divisions of the Cold War may be shown to have been more than just inspirational. Claims have been made, though never proved, that he facilitated the channelling of funds to the Polish Solidarity organisation, and that this explains at least some of the murky dealings in which the Vatican bank was found to be immersed soon afterwards.
• Death of Pope John Paul II [Pontiff's final words are to world's youth: Thank you ; Man of the people who led without fear ]
• · 1920 - May 18: Karol Jozef Wojtyla born in Wadowice, Poland; 1942 - Autumn: Accepted by the Archdiocese of Krakow as a clandestine seminarian 1958 - July: Made auxiliary bishop of Krakow. 1979 - June: First visit to Poland as Pope: Don’t Be Afraid Life of a pontiff ; The Pope's death brings to an end a long ministry fighting for human rights and his uncompromising but compassionate beliefs He was simply the world's most charismatic Christian
• · · Google: Pope death received with tearful applauds ; The life of Pope John Paul II was extraordinary, from his boyhood in Poland, to his rise through the church hierarchy and his 26-year papacy. He resisted communist rule in his homeland, reached out to other faiths, and traveled widely across the world. But his conservative theology did not win over all Catholics Remembrances: The Life of Pope John Paul II
• · · · Pope John Paul spent the final hours of his life on Saturday surrounded by the only family he had -- his closest Polish aides Vatican's Apostolic Palace ; Bush hails a champion of freedom ; Poland in the late 1970s was a grim and isolated place. The economy was a shambles. The shelves of shops were empty, and consumers waited in long lines. The Communist regime went almost unchallenged. There can be no just Europe without the independence of Poland marked on its map. His theme, repeated over and over at every stop, was solidarnosz—the solidarity of the Polish people The pope altered the psychological landscape of his homeland, instilling a sense of dignity and courage
• · · · · He appointed more than 100 of the 115 cardinals who will decide his successor, he was nominally responsible for the appointment of over 4000 bishops, including my cousin Andrej Imrich, and his doctrine, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church of 1992, presented his teaching in the language of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s His death diminishes us all ; The cardinal of Krakow was also the first Slavic pontiff and, at the age of 58, the youngest pope in 132 years Less than eight months after becoming pope, Wojtyla returned to Poland: with a message - Don’t Be Afraid
• · · · · · The Paradoxical Pope ; A "giant among the giants" ; Who will now lead one billion souls?