Biography of Pope John Paul II

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This article contains expanded biographical information about Pope John Paul II.

Pope John Paul II reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City for almost 27 years. The first non-Italian to serve in office since the Dutch-German Pope Adrian VI died in 1523, John Paul II's reign was the third-longest in the history of the Papacy. Although John Paul II's reign was marked by a continuing decline of Catholicism in the developed countries of the West, at the same time there was an expansion of the church's role in the Third World and Communist East Europe. John Paul's election to the papacy is credited by many with fomenting the changes in eastern Europe that eventually led to the downfall of the communist states and the emergence of democratic regimes. ^[1][2][3][4]

Contents 1 Early life 2 The young priest 3 Bishop and Cardinal 4 A Pope from Poland 5 Assassination attempts 6 Health 7 Death 8 World reactions 8.1 "John Paul the Great" 8.2 Titles 8.3 Funeral 9 References

[edit] Early life

[edit] The young priest

Karol Wojtyła was ordained a priest on 1 November 1946, age 26, by the Archbishop of Kraków, Adam Stefan Sapieha. The following day he celebrated his first Mass at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.^[5][6] He then travelled to Rome to begin doctoral studies in the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the Angelicum. There he became well versed in theology and politics. He studied writings of pope Gregory I, the teachings of Saint John of the Cross, the phenomenology of Max Scheler. He also studied Yves Congar, an important theoretician of ecumenism. He lived for two years in Rome in the Belgian College. The college was small with twenty-two resident student-priests and seminarians, among them five Americans. In this polyglot environment, Wojtyła could improve his French and practice his German, while he began to study Italian and English. In his doctoral thesis, Doctrina de fide apud S. Ioannem a Cruce (The Doctrine of Faith According to Saint John of the Cross), Wojtyła emphasized the personal nature of the human encounter with God. Even though his doctoral work was unanimously approved in June 1948, he was denied the degree because he could not afford to print the text of his dissertation (an Angelicum rule). On 16 December of that year, a revised text of his dissertation was approved by the theological faculty of Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and Wojtyła was finally awarded the degree.^[6]

He returned to Poland in the summer of 1948, and his first pastoral assignment was to the village of Niegowić, fifteen miles from Kraków. Arriving at Niegowić during harvest time, his first action was to kneel down and kiss the ground. This gesture would become one of his ‘trademarks’ during his Papacy, but it was not his own, since he acknowledged that he had adopted it from a 19th-century French saint, Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney the ‘Curé d'Ars’.^[7]

In March 1949, he was transferred to Saint Florian's parish in Kraków. He taught ethics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and subsequently at the Catholic University of Lublin. Wojtyła gathered a group of fewer than twenty young people, who began to call themselves Rodzinka, the "little family", who met for prayer, philosophical discussion, and helping the blind and sick. Rodzinka continued to grow. Wojtyła's young friends began to call him Wujek (Uncle) to avoid outsiders from guessing he was a priest on outside trips. ^[8]As the Wojtyła's circle grew, and their bond deepened, several weddings occurred in the group. Eventually there were some 200 people in his circle, which came to be called Środowisko, meaning roughly "milieu". Wojtyła and his group went on both skiing and kayaking trips annually. On the annual kayaking trip, Wojtyła used to have a two-man kayak and others would join him for conversation or spiritual direction. Mass was celebrated using an overturned kayak as an altar, and two paddles as a cross. Once, in 1955, the kayakers took part in an international competition through a gorge on the Dunajec River. Wujek's kayak was punctured and sank at the finish line. Fr Wojtyła wrote a series of articles in Kraków's Catholic newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny ("Universal Weekly") dealing with contemporary church issues.

Karol Wojtyła's literary work blossomed in his first dozen years as a priest.^[6] War, life under communism, and his pastoral responsibilities all fed his poems and plays. These were published under two pseudonyms-Andrzej Jawień, and Stanisław Andrzej Gruda. He used these pseudonyms firstly to distinguish his literary from his religious writings, which were published under his own name, and also so that his literary work would be considered on their own merits rather than as clerical curiosities.

He earned a second doctorate, evaluating the feasibility of a Catholic ethic based on the ethical system of phenomenologist Max Scheler (An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler), in 1954. As was the case with the first degree, he was not granted the degree upon earning it, as the communist authorities forbade the faculty at the Jagiellonian University from granting the degree. In conjunction with his habilitation at the Catholic University of Lublin, he finally obtained the doctorate of philosophy in 1957 from that institution, where he had assumed the Chair of Ethics in 1956.^[6]

[edit] Bishop and Cardinal

On 5 August 1958, while on a two-week Środowisko kayaking trip on the river Lyne in north-eastern Poland, Karol Wojtyła received a letter ordering him to report immediately to the primate, Cardinal Wyszynski, in Warsaw. When he arrived at the primate's office, the cardinal informed him that he had been nominated as an auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Kraków, because the archdiocese had become a sede vacante with the death of Cardinal Sapieha. Wojtyła accepted the nomination and went straight to the Ursuline convent, where he knocked on the door and asked if he could come in to pray. Wojtyła amazed the nuns by remaining prostrate on the floor for some time in front of the tabernacle. Pope John Paul II recounts in his book Rise, Let us be on our Way that as he entered a room full of priests, following news of his appointment as auxiliary Bishop, Archbishop Baziak had called out "Habemus papam" ("We have a Pope"). He suggests that these words may be seen as prophetic in the light of subsequent events. And so Karol Wojtyła found himself, at thirty-eight, the youngest bishop in Poland. He was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Baziak on the feast of St. Wenceslaus, 28 September 1958 in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.^[9][10][11]

Bishop Wojtyła began an annual custom, in 1959, of celebrating Christmas midnight Mass in an open field^[12] in Nowa Huta, a new industrial town built by the communists not far from Kraków and the first town in Polish history deliberately built without a church. (The measured but persistent pressure by the Catholics would eventually succeed, and in 1977 a church was built in Nowa Huta.)

Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak died in June 1962 and on 16 July Karol Wojtyła was elected as Vicar Capitular, or temporary administrator, of the Archdiocese until an Archbishop could be appointed. On 5 October 1962, Bishop Karol Wojtyła departed for Rome to take part in the Second Vatican Council. Being young and having relatively low position in the hierarchy, Wojtyła sat next to the door of St. Peter's basilica. Prior to the council, Bishop Wojtyła had sent an essay to the commissioners preparing for the Council suggesting that the world wanted to know what the church had to say about the human person and the human condition. What was the Church's answer to modernity's widespread "despair about any and all human existence?"

He made contributions to two of the most historic and influential products of the council, the Decree on Religious Freedom (in Latin, Dignitatis Humanae) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes).^[6]

On 30 December 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków. ^[11]

In 1960, Wojtyła had published the influential book Love and Responsibility, a defence of the traditional Church teachings on sex and marriage from a new philosophical standpoint. In 1967, he was instrumental in formulating the encyclical Humanae Vitae which deals with those same issues and forbids abortion and artificial birth control.^[13][6]

In 1967 Pope Paul VI elevated him to cardinal.^[11]

[edit] A Pope from Poland

In August 1978, following Paul's death, Cardinal Wojtyła voted in the Papal Conclave that elected Albino Luciani, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, as Pope John Paul I. At sixty-five, Luciani was a young man by Papal standards and Wojtyła, then fifty-eight, could have expected to participate in another Papal conclave before reaching the age of eighty (the upper age limit for cardinal electors). However, he could hardly have expected that his second conclave would come so soon, for on 28 September 1978, after only 33 days as Pope, John Paul I was discovered dead in the papal apartments. In October 1978 Wojtyła returned to Vatican City to participate in the second conclave in less than two months. Voting in the second conclave was divided between two particularly strong candidates: Giuseppe Siri, the Archbishop of Genoa, and Giovanni Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and a close associate of Pope John Paul I. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes of victory. However, Wojtyła secured election as a compromise candidate, in part through the support of the Cardinal of Vienna Franz König and others who had previously supported Giuseppe Siri.^[14][15][11]

The next day he celebrated Mass together with the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. After the mass, he delivered his first Urbi et Orbi (a traditional blessing) message, broadcast worldwide via radio.

Like his immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II dispensed with the traditional Papal coronation and instead received ecclesiastical investiture with the simplified Papal inauguration on 22 October 1978. During his inauguration, when the cardinals were to kneel before him to take their vows and kiss his ring, he stood up as the Polish prelate Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński knelt down, stopped him from kissing the ring, and hugged him ^[16].

As Bishop of Rome he took possession of his Cathedral Church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 12 November 1978.

The election of a cardinal from a communist country is similar to the plot of the book (1963) and film (1968) The Shoes of the Fisherman.^[17]

[edit] Assassination attempts

As he entered St. Peter's Square to address an audience on 13 May 1981, John Paul II was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca,^[3][18] a trained expert Turkish gunman who was a member of the militant group Grey Wolves.^[19] The gunman used a Browning 9-mm semiautomatic pistol, striking him in the belly and perforating his colon and small intestine multiple times.^[2] John Paul II was rushed into the Vatican complex and then to the Gemelli Hospital. En route to the hospital, he lost consciousness. Despite the fact that the bullets missed his mesenteric artery and abdominal aorta, he lost nearly three-quarters of his blood and neared exsanguination. He underwent five hours of surgery to treat his massive blood loss and abdominal wounds. When he briefly gained consciousness before being operated on he instructed the doctors not to remove his Brown Scapular during the operation.^[20][21] The pope stated that Our Lady of Fátima helped keep him alive throughout his ordeal.^[3][22]

“	Could I forget that the event [Ali Ağca's assassination attempt] in St. Peter’s Square took place on the day and at the hour when the first appearance of the Mother of Christ to the poor little peasants has been remembered for over sixty years at Fátima, Portugal? For in everything that happened to me on that very day, I felt that extraordinary motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger than the deadly bullet.	”
—Pope John Paul II -Memory & Identity, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, p.184

Ağca was caught and restrained by a nun and other bystanders until police arrived. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days after Christmas in 1983, John Paul II visited the prison where his would-be assassin was being held. The two spoke privately for 20 minutes.^[3] John Paul II said, “What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.″

On 2 March 2006, an Italian parliamentary commission, the Mitrokhin Commission, set up by Silvio Berlusconi and headed by Forza Italia senator Paolo Guzzanti, concluded that the Soviet Union was behind the attempt on John Paul II's life,^[19][23] in retaliation for the pope's support of Solidarity, the Catholic, pro-democratic Polish workers' movement, a theory which had already been supported by Michael Ledeen and the United States Central Intelligence Agency at the time.^[19][23] The Italian report stated that certain Communist Bulgarian security departments were utilised to prevent the Soviet Union's role from being uncovered.^[23] The report stated Soviet military intelligence (Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije)—and not the KGB—was responsible.^[23] Russian Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov called the accusation ‘absurd’.^[23] Although the Pope declared during a May 2002 visit to Bulgaria that the country's Soviet bloc-era leadership had nothing to do with the assassination attempt,^[19][23] his secretary, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, alleged in his book A Life with Karol, that the pope was convinced privately that the former Soviet Union was behind the assassination attempt.^[24] Bulgaria and Russia disputed the Italian commission's conclusions, pointing out that the Pope denied the Bulgarian connection.^[23]

A second assassination attempt took place on 12 May 1982, just a day before the anniversary of the first attempt on his life, in Fátima, Portugal when a man tried to stab John Paul II with a bayonet.^[25][26][27] He was stopped by security guards, although Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz later claimed that John Paul II had been injured during the attempt but managed to hide a non-life threatening wound.^[25][26][27] The assailant, a right wing Spanish priest named Juan María Fernández y Krohn,^[25] was ordained as a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of the Society of Saint Pius X and was opposed to the changes caused by the Second Vatican Council, calling the pope an agent of Communist Moscow and of the Marxist Eastern Bloc.^[28] Fernández y Krohn subsequently left the Roman Catholic priesthood and served three years of a six-year sentence.^[26][27][28] The ‘ex-priest’ was treated for mental illness and then expelled from Portugal, going on to become a solicitor in Belgium.^[28] He was arrested again in July 2000 after climbing over a security barricade at the Royal Palace of Brussels, accusing the visiting Spanish King Juan Carlos of murdering his older brother Alfonso in 1956.^[26][27][29]

Pope John Paul II was also one of the targets of the Al-Qaeda-funded Operation Bojinka during a visit to the Philippines in 1995. The first plan was to kill Pope John Paul II when he visited the Philippines during the World Youth Day 1995 celebrations. On 15 January 1995, a suicide bomber would dress up as a priest, while John Paul II passed in his motorcade on his way to the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City. The assassin planned to get close to the Pope, and detonate the bomb. The planned assassination of the Pope was intended to divert attention from the next part of the phase. However, a chemical fire inadvertently started by the would-be assassins alerted police to their whereabouts, and they were arrested nearly a week before the Pope's visit.^[30]

[edit] Health

As the youngest pope elected since Pope Pius IX in 1846, John Paul II entered the papacy as a healthy, relatively young man who hiked, swam and went skiing. However, after over twenty-five years on the papal throne, the 1981 assassination attempt, and a number of cancer scares, John Paul's physical health declined. He had a tumour removed from his colon in 1992, dislocated his shoulder in 1993, broke his femur in 1994, and had his appendix removed in 1996.

An orthopaedic surgeon confirmed in 2001 that Pope John Paul II was suffering from Parkinson's disease, as international observers had suspected for some time; this was acknowledged publicly by the Vatican in 2003. He had difficulty speaking more than a few sentences at a time, as well as trouble hearing. He also developed severe arthritis in his right knee following a hip replacement, and therefore rarely walked in public. Nevertheless, he continued to tour the world. Those who met him late in his life said that although physically he was in poor shape, mentally he remained fully alert.

Towards the end of his Papacy, there were those both within and outside the church who thought that the Pope should resign or retire. Even term limits for Popes were suggested. However, as John Paul had indicated his acceptance of God's will that he should be Pope, he was determined to stay in office until his death, although his private papers show that he gave resignation serious consideration in 2002.

On 1 February 2005, the Pope was taken to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic in Rome suffering from acute inflammation of the larynx and laryngo-spasm, brought on by a bout of influenza. The Vatican reported the following day that his condition had stabilised, but he would remain in the hospital until fully recovered. The pope appeared in public on 6 February to deliver the final lines of the Angelus blessing in a hoarse voice from the window of his hospital room. He missed the Ash Wednesday ceremonies in St Peter's on 9 February for the first time in his 26-year papacy, and returned to the Vatican on 10 February.^[31]

On 24 February 2005 the Pope began having trouble breathing and also had a fever, and he was rushed back to the Gemelli Hospital, where a tracheotomy was successfully performed. An aide to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that John Paul was "serene" after waking up following the surgery.^[32] He raised his hand and attempted to say something, but his doctors advised him not to try speaking. The Pope gave 'silent blessings' from his hospital window on Sunday 27 February and Sunday 6 March, and is said to have spoken in German and Italian during a working meeting with Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) in his 10th floor suite of the Gemelli on Tuesday 1 March. Cardinal Ratzinger told international press: "the Pope spoke to me in German and Italian. He was completely lucid. I brought the Holy Father greetings from the plenary of the Congregation for the divine cult, which is meeting at this moment in the Vatican. The Holy Father will be working on material, which I gave him today. I am happy to see him fully lucid and mentally capable of saying the essential matters with his own voice. We usually speak in German. The details are unimportant--he spoke of essential matters."

During the Angelus of Sunday 13 March The Pope was able to speak to pilgrims for the first time since he was readmitted to hospital. Later that day he returned to the Vatican for the first time in nearly a month.^[33] On Palm Sunday (20 March) the Pope made a brief appearance at his window to greet pilgrims. He was cheered by thousands of the faithful as he silently waved an olive branch. It was the first time in his pontificate that he could not officiate at Palm Sunday Mass. He watched it on his TV in his apartment overlooking St Peter's Square.

On 22 March, there were renewed concerns for the Pope's health after reports stated that he had taken a turn for the worse and was not responding to medication.^[34] On 24 March, Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo performed the rite of the washing of the feet, in the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica. The cardinal stood in for Pope John Paul II at a Holy Thursday ceremony at the Vatican. He said the ailing Pontiff was 'serenely abandoning' himself to God's will. The Pope, whose health was precarious following the throat surgery in February, watched the service on television from his Vatican apartments. On 27 March, Easter day, the Pope appeared at his window in the Vatican for a short time. Angelo Sodano read the Urbi et Orbi message while the Pope blessed the people with his own hand. He tried to speak but he could not. By the end of the month, speculation was growing, and was finally confirmed by the Vatican officials, that he was nearing death.

[edit] Death

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On 31 March 2005 the Pope developed a "very high fever caused by a urinary tract infection",^[35] but was not taken to the hospital, apparently in accordance with his wishes to die in the Vatican. Later that day, Vatican sources announced that John Paul II had been given the Anointing of the Sick (informally known as Last Rites) of the Roman Catholic Church, the first time that the pontiff had received the sacrament since the 1981 assassination attempt on his life. It is unclear if he received the Apostolic Pardon as well.^[36]

On 1 April, his condition worsened drastically, with his heart and kidneys rapidly failing. The Pope had been fitted with a second feeding tube in his nose to help boost his nutritional intake as a result of his fever. Reports from the Vatican early that morning reported that the Pope had suffered a heart attack, but remained awake.^[37] Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls denied the reports of the heart attack, but said the Pope had suffered a "cardio-circulatory collapse" and called the Pope's condition "very serious".^[38]

Several Italian media agencies reported the Pope's death at 20:20 CEST (18:20 UTC), but soon afterwards, the Vatican denied that the Pope was dead, and stories changed. TV Sky Italia reported that his heart and brain were functioning.

At around 00:37 CEST on 2 April (22:37 1 April UTC), a Vatican spokesman gave a further briefing on the Pope's health and confirmed that the Pope had had the Last Rites. He refused to be taken to the hospital, and met with his closest associates, among them Cardinal Ratzinger, who said, "he knows that he is dying and he gave me his last goodbye." The Pope also requested that he be read the meditations said on the Stations of the Cross a few days before.

His final hours were marked by an overwhelming number of younger people who kept vigil outside his Vatican apartments. In his last message, specifically to the youth of the world, he said: "I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you."

Early in the evening, the Vatican announced that his condition "remains very serious. In late morning, the high fever developed." However, "when addressed by members of his household, he responds correctly."

At approximately 19:00 CEST (17:00 UTC), Italian news sources claimed that Pope John Paul II had lost consciousness. At least one medical centre stated that there was no more hope for him. The Vatican published a press release refuting the claim but conceding the Pope's kidneys had stopped functioning. The ANSA news agency reported around half an hour later that he lost consciousness.

According to Father Jarek Cielecki, the Pope's last word before death was "Amen"; then he closed his eyes.^[39] In his private apartments, at 21:37 CEST (19:37 UTC) on 2 April, Pope John Paul II died, 46 days short of his 85th birthday. His death certificate listed septic shock and heart failure as primary causes of death.^[40][41]

Present at the moment of death were his two personal secretaries, Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz and Mieczysław Mokrzycki, Marian Jaworski, Archbishop Stanisław Ryłko and Father Tadeusz Styczeń. The pope was assisted by his personal physician Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, with two doctors, Dr. Alessandro Barelli and Dr. Ciro D'Allo and their respective nurses who had been on call if needed. Also three nuns who were handmaidens of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, helped him in his final hours.

Immediately afterwards Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano arrived, as did the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, Eduardo Martínez Somalo, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute of the Secretariat of State, and Archbishop Paolo Sardi, vice-Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. Thereafter, Cardinal Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Jozef Tomko were able to enter the apartments.

[edit] World reactions

A crowd of over 2 million within Vatican City, over one billion Catholics worldwide, and many non-Catholics mourned John Paul II. The pope always said that his death should be celebrated as the passage to the next stage of his eternal life. The crowd in the Vatican clapped when the announcement of his death was made, following a traditional Italian custom signifying respect.

In Poland, Catholics gathered at the church at Wadowice, the birthplace of the pontiff. State television cancelled all comedy-related shows beginning April 1, 2005, and began showing mass. The Poles, who had a deep sense of devotion towards the pontiff and referred to him as their "father," were particularly devastated by his death. The government declared six days of mourning for him.

Many world leaders expressed their condolences and ordered flags in their countries lowered to half-staff:

• In Argentina students observed a moment of silence before each class on the first school day after the Pope's death. President of Argentina Nestor Kirchner stated that "We're millions that are crying about John Paul II; his teaching is going to follow us all our life, permanently."
• Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Pope John Paul should be remembered as a freedom fighter against communism, and a great Christian leader.^[42]
• In Brazil, the country with the world's largest Catholic population, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed the sorrow of the Brazilian people. [3] The government declared a 7-day official mourning period. [4]. On the eve of the Pope's death, the Brazilian Senate interrupted its session and the senators recited in chorus the Lord's prayer for the Pope's recovery. After the death of the Pope, the Senate observed one minute of silence.
• Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin said, "For a quarter century, Pope John Paul II served as a symbol of love and faith, peace and compassion.... Our grief today is the grief of the world."[5] On 4 April, Martin and other Canadian leaders paid tribute to the pope in the House of Commons. [6] Flags were lowered to half-staff throughout the country and at several diplomatic missions; they remained there through the day of the funeral. [7] The province of Manitoba opened a book of condolences for citizens to sign. [8]
• In Chile, the government declared a 3-day official mourning period. President Ricardo Lagos noted that "...John Paul II won't stay away from us. His name became part of our history, his thoughts will be an always present inspiration to build a more fair country and a more peaceful world for all of us."^[43]
• Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez decreed that flags on government buildings and embassies would be lowered to half-staff for two days. The president's statement emphasised the late pope's struggle for world peace.^[44]
• Cuban authorities allowed Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino to make a rare statement on state television: "This is a man who has carried the moral weight of the world for 26 years... turning himself into the only moral reference for humanity in recent years of wars and difficulties." Cuban Government declared three days of mourning.
• Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh paid tribute in the book of condolences at the Vatican Embassy in New Delhi. [9] The Indian Government declared three days of mourning.
• In the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II expressed her "deep sorrow" at the death of Pope John Paul II and remembered his efforts at promoting peace throughout the world. Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the world has lost a religious leader who was "revered across people of all faiths and none." [10]
• Flags over the White House and other public buildings in the United States were ordered lowered to half-staff until sundown on the day of John Paul II's interment. [11] President George W. Bush expressed his regret at the loss of a "champion of human freedom," an "inspiration to millions of Americans" and a "hero for the ages" [12] and became the first sitting U.S. President to attend a papal funeral. His father and his predecessor (George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton) accompanied him to the funeral, while his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, attended the installation of the new pope.

Numerous countries with a Catholic majority declared mourning for John Paul II. The government of the Philippines declared mourning until the day of the funeral. Gabon and Paraguay declared five days of mourning, Costa Rica four. Three days of mourning were declared by the governments of Italy, Portugal (the days preceding the funeral, although national flags in public buildings were lowered on the first Monday after the Pope's death), Bolivia, Cape Verde, Croatia, East Timor, Haiti, Malawi and the Seychelles. Peru and Spain declared one day of mourning.

Egypt and Lebanon were also among the countries without a Catholic majority that declared three days mourning for the Pope. Kosovo declared two days mourning, and Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina declared one day. In the Republic of Macedonia, all cultural events were cancelled on the day following the Pope's death.

France and Germany ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff.

In marked contrast to other large Catholic countries, Ireland's Taoiseach Bertie Ahern declared that there would be no "national day of mourning as such." This has proved controversial with a sizeable portion of the Irish population. Commentators have stated that the Irish reaction is somewhat muted and could be indicative of the Irish society and politics moving decisively away from the high esteem in which it previously held the Church.

Many non-Catholic religious leaders throughout the world also expressed condolences.

[edit] "John Paul the Great"

Since the death of John Paul II, a number of clergy at the Vatican, including Angelo Cardinal Sodano in the written form of his homily at the Mass of Repose, have been referring to the late pontiff as John Paul the Great. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera called him even "The Greatest". The title "The Great" has so far been reserved to two popes from the first millennium, Leo the Great and Gregory the Great. Scholars of Canon law state that there is no official process for declaring a pope "Great"; the title establishes itself through popular, and continued, usage.

[edit] Titles

John Paul II's official title was: ‘Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of Saint Peter, Head of the College of Bishops, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servus Servorum Dei, Pope John Paul II.’^[11] In 2006 the title Patriarch of the West was removed from the papal list of titles by the reigning pope, Benedict XVI.

[edit] Funeral

The death of the pontiff set in motion rituals and traditions dating back to medieval times. The Rite of Visitation took place from 4 April to 7 April at St. Peter's Basilica. The Testament of Pope John Paul II published on 7 April^[45] revealed that the pontiff contemplated being buried in his native Poland but left the final decision to The College of Cardinals, which in passing, preferred burial beneath St. Peter's Basilica, honouring the pontiff's request to be placed "in bare earth". The Mass of Requiem on 8 April was said to have set world records both for attendance and number of heads of state present at a funeral.^{[46][47][48][49]} (See: List of Dignitaries) It was the single largest gathering of heads of state in history, surpassing the funerals of Winston Churchill (1965) and Josip Broz Tito (1980). Four kings, five queens, at least 70 presidents and prime ministers, and more than 14 leaders of other religions were attending alongside the faithful.^[47] It is also likely to have been the largest single pilgrimage of Christianity in history, with numbers estimated in excess of four million mourners gathering in Rome.^{[46][48][49][50]} From 250,000 to 300,000 watched the event from within the Vatican walls.^[49] The Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become the next pope, conducted the ceremony. John Paul II was interred in the grottoes under the basilica, the Tomb of the Popes. He was lowered into a tomb created in the same alcove previously occupied by the remains of Pope John XXIII. The alcove had been empty since Pope John's remains had been moved into the main body of the basilica after his beatification.

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[edit] References

v • d • e Pope John Paul II Biography · 1978 Conclave · Teachings (encyclicals) · Relations with Eastern Orthodox Church · Pastoral trips (list of visits) · Health · Funeral (list of dignitaries) · Places named after him · 2005 Conclave  · Canonisation