Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II on 12 August 1993 in Denver (Colorado) John Paul II in 1993
Installed	16 October 1978
Term ended	2 April 2005
Predecessor	John Paul I
Successor	Benedict XVI
Personal details
Born	Karol Józef Wojtyła (1920-05-18)18 May 1920
Died	2 April 2005(2005-04-02) (aged 84)
Signature

Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, born Polish pronunciation: [[ˈkaɾɔl ˈjuzεf vɔi̯ˈtɨwa]]; (18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) reigned as Pope and Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the third-longest pontificate. He has been the only Polish pope, and the first non-Italian since the Dutch pontiff Adrian VI in the 1520s.

John Paul II is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century, who played a pivotal role on the stage of world politics. He has been credited with being instrumental in bringing down communism in Eastern Europe, as well as significantly improving the Roman Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Anglican Churches. Critics have found fault with John Paul II for his views in many areas, including ordination of women, his support for Vatican II and its effect on the Liturgy, his stance on the sanctity of marriage, and his uncompromising position on issues such as contraception.

During his reign, he visited 129 countries, more than any of his predecessors, and he remains one of the most-travelled world leaders in history. He was fluent in numerous languages: his native Polish as well as Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Ancient Greek and Latin. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he canonised more than 470 saints and beatified 1,340 people, more than any previous Pope. According to the Vatican, he canonised more people than the combined tally of his predecessors during the last five centuries.

Biography

Main article: Biography of Pope John Paul II

Early life

Main article: Early life of Pope John Paul II

Family home of the Wojtyłas in Wadowice

Karol Józef Wojtyła (English: ‘Carl Joseph Wojtyla’) was born on 18 May 1920 in the Polish town of Wadowice and was the youngest of three children of Karol Wojtyła, an ethnic Pole, and Emilia Kaczorowska, who was of Lithuanian ancestry. His mother died on 13 April 1929, when he was just eight years old. Karol's elder sister, Olga, had died four days after her birth, preceding Karol's life. Thus, he grew close to his only brother Edmund, whom he nicknamed ‘Mundek’. However, Edmund's work as a physician led to his contraction and death of scarlet fever, profoundly affecting Karol.

Karol's youth was influenced by numerous contacts with the vibrant and prospering Jewish community of Wadowice. He often played football (soccer), as a goalkeeper, and was a supporter of Polish club Cracovia Kraków. School football games were often organised between teams of Jews and Catholics, and Karol would cheerfully offer himself as a substitute goalkeeper on the Jewish side if they were short of players.

In the summer of 1938, Karol Wojtyła and his father left Wadowice and moved to Kraków, where he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University. While studying such topics as philology and various languages at the University, he worked as a volunteer librarian and did compulsory military training in the Academic Legion, but refused to hold or fire a weapon. He also performed with various theatrical groups and served as a playwright. During this time, he learned as many as twelve languages, nine of which he would speak fluently as Pope.

Karol Wojtyła at 12 years old

In 1939, Nazi German occupation forces closed the Jagiellonian University. All able-bodied males were required to work, and, from 1940 to 1944, Wojtyła variously worked as a messenger for a restaurant, a manual labourer in a limestone quarry, and as a salesman for the Solvay chemical factory to avoid being deported to Germany. His father, a non-commissioned army officer, died of a heart attack in 1941, leaving Karol the sole surviving member of his immediate family. “I was not at my mother's death, I was not at my brother's death, I was not at my father's death,” he said, reflecting on these times of his life, nearly forty years later, “At twenty, I had already lost all the people I loved.”

He later stated that he began thinking seriously about the priesthood after his father's death, and that his vocation gradually became ‘an inner fact of unquestionable and absolute clarity.’ In October 1942, increasingly aware of his calling to the priesthood, he knocked on the door of the Archbishop's Palace in Kraków, and declared that he wanted to study for the priesthood. Soon after, he began courses in the clandestine underground seminary run by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha.

On 29 February 1944, Wojtyła was knocked down by a German truck. In sharp contrast to the harshness normally expected from the occupiers, the German Wehrmacht officers tended to him and sent him to a hospital. He spent two weeks there with a severe concussion and a shoulder injury. This accident and his survival seemed to Wojtyła a confirmation of his priestly vocation. On 6 August 1944, ‘Black Sunday’, the Gestapo rounded up young men in Kraków to avoid an uprising similar to the previous uprising in Warsaw. Wojtyła escaped by hiding in the basement of his uncle's home, while German troops searched upstairs. More than 8,000 men and boys were taken into custody that day, but Karol escaped to the Archbishop's Palace, where he sought refuge until after the war.

On the night of 17 January 1945, the Germans left the city, and the seminarians reclaimed the ruined seminary. Wojtyła and another seminarian volunteered for the odious task of chopping up and carting away piles of frozen excrement from the lavatories. That month, Wojtyła personally helped a 14-year-old Jewish refugee girl named Edith Zierer who had run away from a Nazi labour camp in Częstochowa. After her collapse on a railway platform, Wojtyła personally carried her to a train and accompanied her safely to Kraków. Zierer credits Wojtyła for saving her life that day. B'nai B'rith and other authorities have said that Karol helped protect many other Jews from the Nazis.

Priesthood

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Karol Wojtyła as a priest in Niegowić, Poland, 1948

On completion of his studies at the seminary in Kraków, Karol Wojtyła was ordained as a priest on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1946, by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha. He was then sent to study theology in Rome, at the Pontifical International Athenaeum Angelicum, where he earned a licentiate and later a doctorate in sacred theology. This doctorate, the first of two, was based on the Latin dissertation The Doctrine of Faith According to Saint John of the Cross.

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Pontifical International Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome.

He returned to Poland in the summer of 1948 with his first pastoral assignment in 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, gesture that would become one of his ‘trademarks’ during his Papacy.

In March 1949, he was transferred to Saint Florian's parish in Kraków. He taught ethics at the Jagiellonian University there and subsequently at the Catholic University of Lublin. While teaching, Wojtyła gathered a group of about 20 young people, who began to call themselves Rodzinka, the "little family". They met for prayer, philosophical discussion, and helping the blind and sick, eventually gathering some 200 participants. The group went on both skiing and kayaking trips annually.

Fr Wojtyła wrote a series of articles in Kraków's Catholic newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny ("Universal Weekly") dealing with contemporary church issues, and his literary work blossomed in his first dozen years as a priest. 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 - to distinguish his literary from his religious writings, which were published under his own name, and also so that his literary works would be considered on their own merits.

He earned a second doctorate, evaluating the feasibility of a Catholic ethic based on the ethical system of phenomenologist Max Scheler, in 1954. However, the Communist authorities' intervention prevented his receiving the degree until 1957.

Bishop and cardinal

On 4 July 1958, while Karol was on a kayaking vacation in the lakes region of northern Poland, he was nominated for the position of auxiliary bishop of Kraków. He then travelled to Warsaw to meet the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. He agreed to serve as auxiliary to Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak, and he was consecrated to the Episcopate on 28 September 1958.. At age 38, he was the youngest bishop in Poland. 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.

Starting in October 1962 Bishop Wojtyła took part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965),where 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).

Bishop Wojtyła also participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops and in December 1963 Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków. On 26 June 1967, Paul VI announced Archbishop Wojtyła's promotion to the Sacred College of Cardinals.

In 1960, Wojtyła published the influential book Love and Responsibility, a defence of the traditional Church teachings on 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.

Papacy

A Pope from Poland

Main article: Papal conclave, October 1978

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Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II with the Marian Cross. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion

Papal styles of Pope John Paul II
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Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Servant of God

In August 1978 following Paul's death, Cardinal Wojtyła voted in the Papal conclave that elected Pope John Paul I, who at 65 was considered young by papal standards. However, John Paul I died after only 33 days as Pope, thereby precipitating another conclave.

Ten days after the funeral of Pope John Paul I, on October 14, the doors of the Sistine Chapel were sealed and the conclave commenced. It was divided between two particularly strong candidates for the papacy: Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, the conservative Archbishop of Genoa, and the liberal Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and a close associate of John Paul I.

Supporters of Benelli were confident that he would be elected, and in early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes of election. However, the scale of opposition to both men meant that neither was likely to receive the votes needed for election, and Cardinal Franz König, Archbishop of Vienna, individually suggested to his fellow electors a compromise candidate: the Polish Cardinal, Karol Józef Wojtyła. Wojtyła ultimately won the election on the eighth ballot on the second day with, according to the Italian press, 99 votes from the 111 participating electors, and the traditional white smoke informed the crowd gathered in St Peter's Square that a Pope had been chosen. He accepted his election with these words: ‘With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the Mother of Christ and the Church, in spite of great difficulties, I accept.’ When John Paul himself appeared on the balcony, he broke tradition by addressing the gathered crowd:

“Dear brothers and sisters, we are saddened at the death of our beloved Pope John Paul I, and so the cardinals have called for a new bishop of Rome. They called him from a faraway land - far and yet always close because of our communion in faith and Christian traditions. I was afraid to accept that responsibility, yet I do so in a spirit of obedience to the Lord and total faithfulness to Mary, our most Holy Mother. I am speaking to you in your - no, our Italian language. If I make a mistake, please ‘corrict’ me...″

Cardinal Wojtyła became the 264th Pope according to the chronological list of popes. At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope elected since Pope Pius IX in 1846, who was 54. 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 .

“I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.”

— Pope John Paul II

Assassination attempts

Main articles: 1981 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt, Juan María Fernández y Krohn, and The Bojinka Plot

On 13 May 1981 John Paul II was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, an expert and trained Turkish gunman who was a member of the militant group Grey Wolves, as he entered St. Peter's Square to address an audience. The gunman used a Browning 9-mm semiautomatic pistol, striking him in the belly and perforating his colon and small intestine multiple times. He was rushed into the Vatican complex, then to the Gemelli Hospital. The Pope had lost almost three-quarters of his blood, a near-exsanguination, despite the fact that the bullets missed his mesenteric artery and abdominal aorta. He underwent five hours of surgery to treat his massive blood loss and abdominal wounds. En route to the hospital, he lost consciousness. 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. 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.″ The pope also stated that Our Lady of Fátima helped keep him alive throughout his ordeal.

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

Another assassination attempt took place on 12 May 1982, just a day before the anniversary of the last attempt on his life, in Fátima, Portugal when a man tried to stab John Paul II with a bayonet, but was stopped by security guards. On October 15, 2008 it was claimed by Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz that John Paul II had in fact been effectively harmed during the attempt but managed to hide the non-life threatening wound, which did show blood. The assailant, a right wing Spanish priest named Juan María Fernández y Krohn, ordained as a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of the Society of Saint Pius X, reportedly opposed the changes caused by the Second Vatican Council and called the pope an agent of Communist Moscow and of the Marxist Eastern Bloc. Fernández y Krohn subsequently left the Roman Catholic priesthood and served three years of a six-year sentence. The ‘ex-priest’ was treated for mental illness and then expelled from Portugal, going on to become a solicitor in Belgium. He was arrested again in July 2000 after climbing over a security barricade at the Royal Palace of Brussels, intent on killing either Belgian King Albert II or the approaching Spanish King Juan Carlos.

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 January 15, 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.

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 first attempt on John Paul II's life, 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. The Italian report stated that certain Communist Bulgarian security departments were utilized to prevent the Soviet Union's role from being uncovered. The report stated Soviet military intelligence (Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije)—and not the KGB—was responsible. In Russia, Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov called the accusation ‘absurd’. Although the Pope declared during a May 2002 visit to Bulgaria that this country had nothing to do with the assassination attempt, his secretary, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, alleges in his book A Life with Karol, that the pope was convinced privately that the former Soviet Union was behind the assassination attempt. Bulgaria and Russia disputed the Italian commission's conclusions, pointing out that the Pope denied the Bulgarian connection.

Health

Main article: Health of Pope John Paul II

When he became pope in 1978, John Paul II was already an avid sportsman, and he travelled extensively during his papacy. At the time, the 58-year old was extremely healthy and active, jogging in the Vatican gardens, weightlifting, swimming and hiking in the mountains. He was also fond of football.

John Paul's obvious physical fitness and athletic good-looks earned much comment in the media following his election, which compared his health and trim figure to the poor health of John Paul I and Paul VI, the portliness of John XXIII and the constant claims of ailments of Pius XII. The only modern pope with a keep-fit regime had been Pope Pius XI (1922–1939) who was an avid mountain climber. An Irish Independent article in the 1980s labelled John Paul II the ‘the keep-fit pope’.

In 1981, John Paul II's health suffered a major blow after the first failed assassination attempt. He went on to a full recovery, and sported an impressive physical condition throughout the 1980s. In 1994 he fell down a flight of stairs and broke the largest bone in his body, the femur. He subsequently rarely walked in public and began to suffer from an increasingly slurred speech and difficulty in hearing. Most experts agreed that the frail pontiff suffered from Parkinson's disease, although it was not until 2003 that the Vatican administration finally confirmed it. From being strikingly fitter than his predecessors, he had declined physically to far more ill health than was the norm among more elderly popes.

In February 2005 John Paul II was taken to the Gemelli hospital with inflammation and spasm of the larynx, the result of influenza. He was released from the hospital, then taken back after a few days because of difficulty breathing. A tracheotomy was performed, which improved the Pope's breathing but limited his speaking abilities, to his visible frustration. In March 2005, speculation was high that the Pope was near death; this was confirmed by the Vatican a few days before John Paul II died.

Death

On 31 March 2005 Pope John Paul II developed septic shock, a widespread form of infection with a very high fever and profoundly low blood pressure, but was not taken to the hospital. Instead, he was offered medical monitoring by a team of consultants at his private residence. This was taken as an indication that the pope and those close to him believed that he was nearing death; it would have been 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 by his friend and secretary Stanisław Dziwisz. During the final days of the Pope's life, the lights were kept burning through the night where he lay in the Papal apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace.

Tens of thousands of people rushed to the Vatican, filling St. Peter's Square and beyond with a vast multitude, and held vigil for two days. Upon hearing of this, the dying pope was said to have stated: “I have searched for you, and now you have come to me, and I thank you.”

On Saturday 2 April 2005, at about 15:30 CEST, John Paul II spoke his final words, “pozwólcie mi odejść do domu Ojca”, (“Let me go to the house of the Father”), to his aides in his native Polish and fell into a coma about four hours later. He died in his private apartment, at 21:37 CEST (19:37 UTC) of heart failure, sepsis and Parkinson's disease. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for quite some time. He died 46 days short of his 85th birthday. The mass of the vigil of the Second Sunday of Easter, that is, Divine Mercy Sunday which was put into the Church's calendar by him on the occasion of the canonisation of Saint Maria Faustina on 30 April 2000, had just been celebrated at his bedside, presided over by Stanisław Dziwisz and two Polish associates. Also present at the bedside was a cardinal from the Ukraine who served as a priest with John Paul in Poland, along with Polish nuns of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, who ran the papal household. John Paul had no close family at all by the time he died, and his feelings are reflected in his words, as written in 2000, at the end of his Last Will and Testament:

“As the end of my earthly life approaches, I return with my memory to its beginning, to my parents, my brother and the sister (whom I never knew because she died before my birth), to the Parish of Wadowice where I was baptised, to that city I love, to my peers, friends from elementary school, high school and the university, up to the time of the occupation when I was a worker, then inthe Parish in Niegowic, to St Florian's in Kraków, to the pastoral ministry of academics, to the milieu of... to all milieux... to Kraków and to Rome... to the people who were entrusted to me in a special way by the Lord.”

A crowd of over two million present in Vatican City mourned the death of John Paul II. The public viewing of his body in St. Peter's Basilica drew over four million people to Vatican City and was one of the largest pilgrimages in the history of Christianity. Many world leaders expressed their condolences and ordered flags in their countries lowered to half-staff. Numerous countries with a Catholic majority, and even some with only a small Catholic population, declared mourning for John Paul II.

On his death certificate, the primary cause of death was listed as (refractory) septic shock leading to profound hypotension and complete circulatory collapse.

Funeral

Main article: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

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 April 7 revealed that the pontiff contemplated being buried in his native Poland but left the final decision to The College of Cardinals. The College of Cardinals 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. (See: List of Dignitaries) It was the single largest gathering of heads of state in history, surpassing the funerals of Winston Churchill (1965) and 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. 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. From 250,000 to 300,000 watched the event from within the Vatican walls. The Dean of the College of Cardinals, 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 Blessed 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.

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”

— Pope John Paul II

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 (this title was recently removed from the papal list of titles by the reigning pope, Benedict XVI), 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.’

Posthumous recognition and cause for canonisation

Title "the Great"

Since the death of John Paul II, a number of clergy at the Vatican and laymen throughout the world have been referring to the late pontiff as "John Paul the Great"—only the fourth pope to be so acclaimed, and the first since the first millennium. Scholars of Canon Law say that there is no official process for declaring a pope "Great"; the title simply establishes itself through popular and continued usage. The three popes who today commonly are known as "Great" are Leo I, who reigned from 440–461 and persuaded Attila the Hun to withdraw from Rome; Gregory I, 590–604, after whom the Gregorian Chant is named; and Pope Nicholas I, 858-867.

His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, referred to him as "the great Pope John Paul II" in his first address from the loggia of St Peter's Church. Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, stirred excitement by some devotees of the pope when in his published written homily for the Mass of Repose, he referred to Pope John Paul II as "the Great."

Since giving his homily at the funeral of Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict XVI has continued to refer to John Paul II as "the Great." At the 2005 World Youth Day in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Polish, John Paul's native language, said, "As the great Pope John Paul II would say: keep the flame of faith alive in your lives and your people." In May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI visited John Paul's native Poland. During that visit he repeatedly made references to "the great John Paul" and "my great predecessor."

In addition to the Vatican calling him "the great," numerous newspapers have also done so. For example the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera called him "the Greatest" and the South African Catholic newspaper, The Southern Cross, has called him "John Paul II The Great."

In San Diego, California, New Catholic University has renamed itself John Paul the Great Catholic University.

Beatification

On 9 May 2005, Benedict XVI began the beatification process for his predecessor, John Paul II. Normally five years must pass after a person's death before the beatification process can begin. However, in an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, Camillo Ruini, Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome and the one responsible for promoting the cause for canonisation of any person who dies within that diocese, cited "exceptional circumstances" which suggested that the waiting period could be waived.

The "exceptional circumstances" may possibly refer to the people's cries of "Santo Subito!" ("Make him a Saint Now!" in Italian) during the late pontiff's funeral. Therefore the new Pope waived the five year rule "so that the cause of Beatification and Canonisation of the same Servant of God can begin immediately." The decision was announced on 13 May 2005, the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima and the 24th anniversary of the assassination attempt on John Paul II at St. Peter's Square. John Paul II often credited Our Lady of Fátima for preserving him on that day. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, officially opened the cause for beatification in the Lateran Basilica on 28 June 2005.

In early 2006, it was reported that the Vatican was investigating a possible miracle associated with John Paul II. A French nun, confined to her bed by Parkinson's Disease, is reported to have experienced a "complete and lasting cure after members of her community prayed for the intercession of Pope John Paul II". The nun was later identified as Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Wards from Puyricard, near Aix-en-Provence. Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, 46, is working again, now in Paris at a maternity hospital run by her order. She met reporters March 30, 2006 in Aix-en-Provence during a press conference with Archbishop Claude Feidt of Aix, the archdiocese where the cure took place.

“I was sick and now I am cured,” she told reporters. “I am cured, but it is up to the church to say whether it was a miracle or not.”

On 28 May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said Mass before an estimated 900,000 people in John Paul II's native Poland. During his homily he encouraged prayers for the early canonisation of John Paul II and stated that he hoped canonisation would happen "in the near future."

In January 2007, it was announced by Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz of Kraków, his former secretary, that the key interviewing phase in Italy and Poland of the beatification process was nearing completion. Cardinal Dziwisz had been giving an interview that featured the introduction of his new book in Polish and Italian, Living With Karol, when he made the announcement. In February 2007, the website of the late pope's sainthood cause has stated that relics of Pope John Paul II — pieces of white papal cassocks he used to wear — were being freely distributed with prayer cards for the cause to interested parties; this distribution and prayerful use of relics is a typical praiseworthy pious practice after a saintly Catholic's death.

On 8 March 2007 it was announced that the Vicariate of Rome announced that the diocesan phase of John Paul's cause for beatification is at an end. Following a ceremony on 2 April 2007 — the second anniversary of the Pontiff's death — the cause proceeded to the scrutiny of the committee of lay, clerical, and episcopal members of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who will conduct an investigation of their own.

Not all Catholic theologians agree with the call for beatification, though they have no authority or say in the matter whatsoever. Eleven dissident theologians, including Jesuit professor Jose Maria Castillo and Italian theologian Giovanni Franzoni raised seven points, including his stance against contraception and the ordination of women as well as the Church scandals that presented "facts which according to their consciences and convictions should be an obstacle to beatification".

Life's work

Teachings

“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”

— Pope John Paul II

Main article: Teachings of Pope John Paul II

As pope, one of John Paul II's most important roles was to teach people about Christianity. He wrote 14 papal encyclicals (List of Encyclicals of Pope John Paul II) that many observers believe will have long-lasting influence on the church.

In his Apostolic Letter At the beginning of the third millennium (Novo Millennio Ineunte), he emphasized the importance of "starting afresh from Christ": "No, we shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person." In what he called a "program for all times," he placed "sanctity" as the single most important priority of all pastoral activities in the entire Catholic Church. He canonised many saints around the world as exemplars for his vision and he supported the prelature of Opus Dei, whose aim is to spread the message of the universal call to holiness and the sanctification of secular activities, which he said is a "great ideal" and a "characteristic mark" of the Second Vatican Council. In The Splendour of the Truth (Veritatis Splendor) he emphasized the dependence of man on God and his law ("Without the Creator, the creature disappears") and the "dependence of freedom on the truth". He warned that man "giving himself over to relativism and scepticism, goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself".

In Fides et Ratio (On the Relationship between Faith and Reason) John Paul promotes a renewed interest in philosophy and an autonomous pursuit for Truth in theological matters. Drawing on many different sources (such as Thomism), he describes the mutually supporting relationship between faith and reason, and emphasizes why it is important that theologians should focus on the relationship. John Paul proposes that philosophy has lost its meaning (e.g., the pursuit for objective truth), and that restoring it will ultimately help cure the nihilistic condition of our current age; and, moreover, lead to the Truth of sacred scripture.

John Paul II also wrote extensively about workers and the social doctrine of the Church, which he discussed in three encyclicals. Through his encyclicals, John Paul also talked about the dignity of women and the importance of the family for the future of mankind, and many Apostolic Letters and Exhortations.

Other encyclicals include The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae) and Orientale Lumen (Light of the East). Despite critics who accused him of inflexibility, he explicitly asserted Catholic moral teachings about murder, euthanasia and abortion that had remained unchanging for two thousand years. Like all statements on faith and morals asserted in official papal capacity, these statements were infallible according to Roman Catholic doctrine, and were so defined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the Vatican II (1962–65), affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished aloud that he would embrace the so-called "progressive" agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. In fact, the Council did not advocate "progressive" changes in these areas, e.g., still condemning the taking of unborn human life through abortion as an "unspeakable crime". John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, with Cardinal Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), opposed Liberation theology.

He believed in the Church's exaltation of the marital act of sexual intercourse between a baptized man and woman within sacramental marriage as proper and exclusive to the sacrament of marriage that was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a 'second' marriage, and by homosexual acts. Often mistakenly assumed to be a rejection against women, he definitively explained and asserted in 1994 for all time the Church's lack of authority to ordain women to the priesthood, without such authority such ordination is not legitimately compatible with fidelity to Christ. This was also deemed a repudiation of calls to break with the constant tradition of the Church by ordaining women to the priesthood. (Apostolic Letter 'Ordinatio Sacerdotalis') In addition, John Paul II chose not to end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although in a small number of unusual circumstances, he did allow certain married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests.

John Paul II, as a writer of philosophical and theological thought, was characterized by his explorations in phenomenology and personalism. He is also known for his development of the Theology of the Body.

Philosophers and theologians influenced by him include-among countless others: his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, Jürgen Habermas, John Haas, Andrew Greeley, Rocco Buttiglione, Hans Köchler, George Weigel, Scott Hahn, Mary Beth Bonacci, Deirdre McQuade, Antoinette Bosco, Hans Küng, Yves Congar, Avery Dulles, SJ, John J. Myers, Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, Joseph Bernardin, Francis Cardinal George, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immacul, Timothy M. Dolan, Edward Egan, John O'Connor, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, Christoph Schönborn, Stanisław Dziwisz, Franciszek Macharski, Józef Glemp, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Paolo Dezza, Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Óscar Romero, Mother Teresa, Walter Kasper, Michael Fitzgerald, Jean-Marie Lustiger, André Vingt-Trois, Jarosław Gowin, Christopher West and Elio Sgreccia.

“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”

— Pope John Paul II

Pastoral trips

Main article: Pastoral trips of Pope John Paul II

During his pontificate, Pope John Paul II made trips to 129 countries. In total he logged more than 1.1 million km (725,000 miles). He consistently attracted large crowds on his travels, some amongst the largest ever assembled in human history. 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 Poland, in June 1979, where he was constantly surrounded by ecstatic crowds. This first trip to Poland uplifted the whole nations spirit and sparked the formation of the Solidarity movement in 1980, which brought freedom and human rights to his troubled country. On later trips to Poland, he gave tacit support to the organisation. Successive trips reinforced this message and Poland began the process that would finally defeat the domination of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe in 1989.

While some of his trips (such as to the United States and the Holy Land) were to places previously visited by Pope Paul VI (the first pope to travel widely), many others were to places that no pope had ever visited before, including Mexico in January, (1979) for a Bishops Synod, even before going to Poland for the first time, Ireland later that year in September 1979, Japan (in 1982), South Korea and Puerto Rico (both in 1984). He was the first reigning pope to travel to the United Kingdom, in 1982, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. In the first visit by a pontiff to Cuba (1998), he sharply criticised Cuba's stance on religious expression, as well as US sanctions against Cuba. In 2000, the first modern Catholic pope to visit Egypt met with the Coptic pope and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. He was the first Catholic pope to visit and pray in an Islamic mosque, in Damascus, Syria in 2001. He visited Umayyad Mosque, where John the Baptist is believed to be interred, where he made a speech calling for Muslims, Christians and Jews to work together.

In 1988 he made a trip to Lesotho to beatify Joseph Gerrad. On 15 January 1995, during the X World Youth Day, he offered Mass to an estimated crowd of between five and seven million in Luneta Park, Manila, Philippines, considered to be the largest single gathering in Christian history. In March 2000 as the first Pope in history, John Paul the Great visited Jerusalem and prayed by the Western Wall. In September 2001 amid post-September 11 concerns, he travelled to Kazakhstan, with an audience of largely Muslims, and to Armenia, to participate in the celebration of the 1700 years of Christianity in that nation.

Pope John Paul II’s World Travels: He fluently said Mass in local languages during some visits, including Kiswahili at a Mass in Nairobi, Kenya in 1995 and in an Indonesian language in East Timor.

Throughout his trips, he stressed his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary through visits to various shrines to the Virgin Mary, notably Knock in Ireland, Licheń Stary in Poland, Fátima in Portugal, Tepeyac in Mexico and Lourdes in France.

“Today, for the first time in history, a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil. This fair land, once a distant outpost of the pagan world, has become, through the preaching of the Gospel, a beloved and gifted portion of Christ's vineyard.”

— Pope John Paul II (1982)

Relations with other religions and denominations

Pope John Paul II travelled extensively and came into contact with believers from many divergent faiths. He constantly attempted to find common ground, both doctrinal and dogmatic. At the World Day of Prayer for Peace, held in Assisi on 27 October 1986, more than 120 representatives of different religions and Christian denominations spent a day together with fasting and praying.

Anglicanism

Pope John Paul II had good relations with the Church of England, referred to by his predecessor Pope Paul VI, as "our beloved Sister Church". He preached in Canterbury Cathedral during his visit to Britain, and received the Archbishop of Canterbury with friendship and courtesy. However, John Paul II was disappointed by the Anglican Church's decision to offer the sacrament of priestly ordination to women and saw it as a step in the opposite direction from unity between the Anglican Church and Roman Catholicism.

In 1980 Pope John Paul II issued a Pastoral Provision allowing married former Episcopal priests to become Catholic priests, and for the acceptance of former Episcopal Church parishes into the Catholic Church. He also allowed the creation of the Anglican Use form of the Latin Rite, which incorporates the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Pope John Paul II's historic ecumenical step with Anglicanism was realised with the establishment of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church (Anglican Use), in cooperation with San Antonio Archbishop Patrick Flores.

Judaism

As a child, Karol Wojtyła had played sports with his many Jewish neighbours. In 1979 he became the first Pope to visit the Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where many of his countrymen (mostly Polish Jews) had perished during the German Nazi occupation. In 1998 he issued "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah" which outlined his thinking on the Holocaust. He also became the first pope known to have made an official papal visit to a synagogue, when he visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986.

In 1994, John Paul II established formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel, acknowledging its centrality in Jewish life and faith. In honour of this event, Pope John Paul II hosted ‘The Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust’. This concert, which was conceived and conducted by American Maestro Gilbert Levine, was attended by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, the President of Italy, and survivors of the Holocaust from around the world.

In March 2000, John Paul II visited Yad Vashem, (the Israeli national Holocaust memorial) in Israel and later made history by touching the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, placing a letter inside it (in which he prayed for forgiveness for the actions against Jews in the past). In part of his address he said: “I assure the Jewish people the Catholic Church ... is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place”, he added that there were “no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust”. Israeli cabinet minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, who hosted the Pope's visit, said he was “very moved” by the Pope's gesture.

“It was beyond history, beyond memory”

—  Rabbi Michael Melchior (26 March 2000)

“We are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”

— Pope John Paul II (12 March 2000) from a note left by the Pope at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

In October 2003 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a statement congratulating John Paul II on entering the 25th year of his papacy. In January 2005, John Paul II became the first Pope in history known to receive a priestly blessing from a rabbi, when Rabbis Benjamin Blech, Barry Dov Schwartz, and Jack Bemporad visited the Pontiff at Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace.

Immediately after the pope's death, the ADL issued a statement that Pope John Paul II had revolutionised Catholic-Jewish relations, saying that “more change for the better took place in his 27 year Papacy than in the nearly 2,000 years before.” In another statement issued by the Australia, Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Director Dr Colin Rubenstei said,“The Pope will be remembered for his inspiring spiritual leadership in the cause of freedom and humanity. He achieved far more in terms of transforming relations with both the Jewish people and the State of Israel than any other figure in the history of the Catholic Church”

“With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.”

—  Pope John Paul II (13 April 1986)

Eastern Orthodox Church

Main article: Pope John Paul II's relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church

In May 1999, John Paul II visited Romania on the invitation from Patriarch Teoctist Arăpaşu of the Romanian Orthodox Church. This was the first time a pope had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054. On his arrival, the Patriarch and the President of Romania, Emil Constantinescu, greeted the Pope. The Patriarch stated, "The second millennium of Christian history began with a painful wounding of the unity of the Church; the end of this millennium has seen a real commitment to restoring Christian unity."

John Paul II visited other heavily Orthodox areas such as Ukraine, despite lack of welcome at times, and he said that an end to the Schism was one of his fondest wishes.

In 2001, John Paul II was the first Pope to visit Greece in 1291 years. The visit was controversial, and the Pontiff was met with protests and snubbed by Eastern Orthodox leaders, not one of which met his arrival.

In Athens the Pope met with Archbishop Christodoulos, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church. After a private 30 minute meeting, the two spoke publicly. Christodoulos read a list of "13 offenses" of the Roman Catholic Church against the Orthodox Church since the Great Schism, including the pillaging of Constantinople by crusaders in 1204, and bemoaned the lack of any apology from the Roman Catholic Church, saying "Until now, there has not been heard a single request for pardon" for the "maniacal crusaders of the 13th century."

The Pope responded by saying "For the occasions past and present, when sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have sinned by action or omission against their Orthodox brothers and sisters, may the Lord grant us forgiveness," to which Christodoulos immediately applauded. John Paul II also said that the sacking of Constantinople was a source of "deep regret" for Catholics.

Later John Paul and Christodoulos met on a spot where Saint Paul had once preached to Athenian Christians. They issued a "common declaration", saying "We shall do everything in our power, so that the Christian roots of Europe and its Christian soul may be preserved. … We condemn all recourse to violence, proselytism and fanaticism, in the name of religion." The two leaders then said the Lord's Prayer together, breaking an Orthodox taboo against praying with Catholics.

The Pope had also said throughout his pontificate that one of his greatest dreams was to visit Russia, but this never occurred. He had made several attempts to solve the problems which arose over a period of centuries between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, such as giving back the icon of Our Lady of Kazan in August 2004. However, the Russian Orthodox Church never expressed much enthusiasm, making statements to the effect of: "The question of the visit of the Pope in Russia is not connected by the journalists with the problems between the Churches, which are now unreal to solve, but with giving back one of many sacred things, which were illegally stolen from Russia." (Vsevolod Chaplin).

Buddhism

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, visited Pope John Paul II eight times, more than any other single dignitary. The Pope and the Dalai Lama often shared similar views and understood similar plights, both coming from peoples affected by communism and both being heads of religious bodies.

Islam

On 6 May 2001, Pope John Paul II became the first Catholic pope to enter and pray in an Islamic mosque. Respectfully removing his shoes, he entered the Umayyad Mosque, a former Byzantine era Christian church dedicated to John the Baptist (who is believed to be interred there) in Damascus, Syria, and gave a speech including the statement: "For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and to offer each other forgiveness." He kissed the Qur’an in Syria , an act which made him popular amongst Muslims and more unpopular amongst traditionalist Catholics.

In 2005, Pope John Paul II hosted the "Papal Concert of Reconciliation," which brought together leaders of Islam with leaders of the Jewish community and of the Catholic Church at the Vatican for a concert by choirs from Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The event was conceived and conducted by Sir Gilbert Levine, KCSG and was broadcast throughout the world.

John Paul II oversaw the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church which makes a special provision for Muslims; therein, it is written, "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."

Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

On 10 February 2005, Pope John Paul II elevated the Archdiocese of Trivandrum to a Major Archdiocese, elevating the Archbishop to Major Archbishop (called Catholicos by Syro-Malankara Catholics). As a major archiepiscopal church, the Syro-Malankaras are granted the greatest level of self-government (autonomy) under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, governed by the major archbishop and the general synod of all bishops of the church, subject to papal oversight.

The Pope for youth

John Paul II had a special relationship with Catholic youth and is known by some as ‘The Pope for Youth’. Before he was pope he used to camp and mountain hike with the youth. He still went mountain hiking when he was pope. At gatherings, young Catholics and non-Catholics alike were fond of chanting the phrase ‘JP Two, We Love You’, to which John Paul often replied ‘JP too, He Loves You!’ He was particularly concerned with the education of future priests, and made many early visits to Roman seminaries, including to the Venerable English College in 1979.

He established World Youth Day in 1984 with the intention of bringing young Catholics from all parts of the world together to celebrate the faith. These week-long meetings of youth occur every two or three years, attracting hundreds of thousands of young people, who go there to sing, party, have a good time and deepen their faith. Some of his most faithful youths gathered themselves in two organisations: ‘papaboys’ and ‘papagirls’. The 19 World Youth Day's celebrated during his pontificate brought together millions of young people from all over the world. During this time his care for the family was expressed in the World Meetings of Families, which he initiated in 1994.

“Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.”

— Pope John Paul II

Apologies

John Paul II was sincere and passionate with his many apologies. During his long reign as Pope, he said ‘sorry’ to Jews, Galileo, women, victims of the Inquisition, Muslims slaughtered by the Crusaders and almost everyone who had suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church through the years. Even before he became the Pope, he was a prominent editor and supporter of initiatives like the Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops from 1965. As Pope, he officially made public apologies for over 100 of these wrongdoings, including:

• The conquest of Mesoamerica by Spain in the name of the Church
• The legal process on the Italian scientist and philosopher Galileo Galilei, himself a devout Catholic, around 1633 (31 October 1992).
• Catholics' involvement with the African slave trade (9 August 1993).
• The Church Hierarchy's role in burnings at the stake and the religious wars that followed the Protestant Reformation (May 1995, in the Czech Republic).
• The injustices committed against women, the violation of women's rights and for the historical denigration of women (10 July 1995, in a letter to "every woman").
• The inactivity and silence of many Catholics during the Holocaust (see the article Religion in Nazi Germany) (16 March 1998)
• For the execution of Jan Hus in 1415 (18 December 1999 in Prague). When John Paul II visited Prague in 1990s, he requested experts in this matter "to define with greater clarity the position held by Jan Hus among the Church's reformers, and acknowledged that "independently of the theological convictions he defended, Hus cannot be denied integrity in his personal life and commitment to the nation's moral education." It was another step in building a bridge between Catholics and Protestants.
• For the sins of Catholics throughout the ages for violating "the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and [for showing] contempt for their cultures and religious traditions". (12 March 2000, during a public Mass of Pardons).
• For the sins of the Crusader attack on Constantinople in 1204. (4 May 2001, to the Patriarch of Constantinople).

“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.”

— Pope John Paul II

Social and political stances

John Paul II was considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to reproduction and the ordination of women.

A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work entitled ‘Theology of the Body’, an extended meditation on the nature of human sexuality. He also extended it to condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all uses of capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice.

Relations with dictatorships

In 1984 and 1986, through the voice of Cardinal Ratzinger, leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, John Paul II officially condemned the Liberation theology which had many followers in South America. Óscar Romero's attempt, during his visit to Europe, to obtain a Vatican condemnation of El Salvador's regime, denounced for violations of human rights and its support of death squads, was a failure. In his travel to Managua, Nicaragua in 1983, John Paul II harshly condemned what he dubbed the "popular Church" (i.e. "ecclesial base communities" (CEBs) supported by the CELAM), and the Nicaraguan clergy's tendencies to support the leftist Sandinistas, reminding the clergy of their duties of obedience to the Holy See.

John Paul II was criticised for visiting Augusto Pinochet in Chile. He invited him to restore democracy, but, critics claim, not in as firm terms as the ones he used against communist countries. John Paul also allegedly endorsed Pío Cardinal Laghi, who critics say supported the "Dirty War" in Argentina and was on friendly terms with the Argentine generals of the military dictatorship, allegedly playing regular tennis matches with general Jorge Rafael Videla. However, the Pope has been linked to the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier's dictatorship in Haiti. He was also critical of the Chinese government and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association running the church and appointing bishops without the consent of the Holy See, and maintained strong ties with underground Catholic groups.

The pope, who began his papacy when the Soviets controlled his native country of Poland, as well as the rest of Eastern Europe, was a harsh critic of communism, and supported the Polish Solidarity movement. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev once said the collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II.

In later years, after having harshly condemned Liberation theology, John Paul II criticised some of the more extreme versions of capitalism. "Unfortunately, not everything the West proposes as a theoretical vision or as a concrete lifestyle reflects Gospel values." He saw in capitalism certain "viruses": secularism, indifferentism, hedonistic consumerism, practical materialism, and also formal atheism.

Jubilee 2000 campaign

In 2000 he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. It was reported that during this period, U2's recording sessions were repeatedly interrupted by phone calls from the Pope, wanting to discuss the campaign with Bono.

Iraq war

In 2003 John Paul II also became a prominent critic of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. In his 2003 State of the World address the Pope declared his opposition to the invasion by stating, "No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity." He sent former Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to the United States Pío Cardinal Laghi to talk with American President George W. Bush to express opposition to the war. John Paul II said that it was up to the United Nations to solve the international conflict through diplomacy and that a unilateral aggression is a crime against peace and a violation of international law.

“Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore... prove ultimately futile.”

— Pope John Paul II

European Constitutional Treaty

In European Union negotiations for a new European Constitutional Treaty in 2003 and 2004, the Vatican's representatives failed to secure any mention of Europe's "Christian heritage"—one of the Pope's cherished goals.

Sexuality

See also: Homosexuality and Roman Catholicism and Theology of the Body

While taking a traditional position on sexuality, defending the Church's moral opposition to marriage for same-sex couples, the pope asserted that persons with homosexual inclinations possess the same inherent dignity and rights as everybody else. In his last book, Memory and Identity, he referred to the "pressures" on the European Parliament to permit "homosexual 'marriage'". In the book, as quoted by Reuters, he wrote: “It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man.”

The Pope also reaffirmed the Church's existing teaching on gender in relation to transsexuals, as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he supervised, made clear that transsexuals could not serve in church positions.

Scientific theories and the interpretation of Genesis

See also: Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church.

In an address on 22 October 1996 to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the Church's openness to the theory of evolution:

"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points....Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies -- which was neither planned nor sought -- constitutes in itself a significant argument in favour of the theory." (John Paul II, Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Evolution)

In the same address, the Pope rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul:

"Theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man."

John Paul II also wrote to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the subject of cosmology and how to interpret Genesis:

"Cosmogony and cosmology have always aroused great interest among peoples and religions. The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise, but in order to state the correct relationships of man with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer. The Sacred Book likewise wishes to tell men that the world was not created as the seat of the gods, as was taught by other cosmogonies and cosmologies, but was rather created for the service of man and the glory of God. Any other teaching about the origin and make-up of the universe is alien to the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach how heaven was made but how one goes to heaven." (Pope John Paul II, 3 October 1981 to the Pontifical Academy of Science, "Cosmology and Fundamental Physics")

Role in the fall of Communism

John Paul II has been credited with being instrumental in bringing down communism in eastern Europe, by being the spiritual inspiration behind its downfall, and a catalyst for "a peaceful revolution" in Poland. Lech Wałęsa, the founder of the ‘Solidarity’ movement, credited John Paul II with giving Poles the courage to rise up. "The pope started this chain of events that led to the end of communism," Wałęsa said. "Before his pontificate, the world was divided into blocs. Nobody knew how to get rid of communism. "He simply said, ‘Do not be afraid, change the image of this land...’ "

In December 1989 John Paul II met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Vatican and each expressed his respect and admiration for the other. Gorbachev once said ‘The collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II’. On John Paul's passing Mikhail Gorbachev said: "Pope John Paul II's devotion to his followers is a remarkable example to all of us."

In February 2004 Pope John Paul II was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize honouring his life's work in opposing Communist oppression and helping to reshape the world.

“Warsaw, Moscow, Budapest, Berlin, Prague, Sofia and Bucharest have become stages in a long pilgrimage toward liberty. It is admirable that in these events, entire peoples spoke out — women, young people, men, overcoming fears, their irrepressible thirst for liberty speeded up developments, made walls tumble down and opened gates.”

—  Pope John Paul II (1989)

President George W. Bush presents Medal of Freedom to Pope John Paul II

President George W. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, to Pope John Paul II during a ceremony at the Vatican June 4, 2004

The president read the citation that accompanied the medal, which recognised “this son of Poland” whose “principled stand for peace and freedom has inspired millions and helped to topple communism and tyranny.”

After receiving the award, John Paul II said, “May the desire for freedom, peace, a more humane world symbolized by this medal inspire men and women of goodwill in every time and place.”

John Paul II's thoughts to being credited with fall of Communism:

“I am constantly aware that in everything I say and do in fulfilment of my vocation, my mission, my ministry, what happens is not just my own initiative. I know that it is not I alone who act in what I do as the Successor of Peter.
Let us that the example of the Communist system. As I have said before, a contributory factor in its demise was certainly its deficient economic doctrine, but to account for what happened solely in terms of economic factors would be a rather naïve simplification. On the other hand, it would be ridiculous to claim that (the Pope) had brought down Communism single-handedly.
I think the explanation can be found in the Gospel. When the first disciples returned to their Master, having been sent out on a mission, they said: ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name’ (Luke 10:17). Christ replied to them: ‘Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that the names are written in heaven’ (Luke 10:20). And on another occasion He adds: ‘Say: “We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.” ’ (Luke 17:10).
Unworthy servants ... The sense of being an ‘unworthy servant’ is growing in me in the midst of all that happens around me - and I think I feel at ease with this...”

—  Pope John Paul II

Criticism

John Paul II was criticised for his support of the Opus Dei prelature and the canonisation of its founder, Josemaría Escrivá. In 2002 he canonised Escrivá, and called him ‘the saint of ordinary life.’ Other movements and religious organisations of the Church went decidedly under his wing (Legion of Christ, the Neocatechumenal Way, Schoenstatt, the charismatic movement etc.) and he was accused repeatedly of waving a soft hand on them, especially in the case of Rev. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ.

John Paul II's defence of traditional moral teachings of the Catholic Church regarding gender roles, sexuality, euthanasia and artificial contraception came under attack. Some feminists criticised his traditional positions on the roles of women, which included rejecting women priests.

“The legacy of Pope John Paul II is vibrant and extraordinary, yet painfully inconsistent. The contradiction in his legacy lies in his teaching and actions on the dignity of women. John Paul II called for women to be included as decision makers in secular governments. However, when it came to bringing women into the decision making bodies of his church, he slammed the door in our faces, barring us from ordination and locking the door by stating the discussion about women’s ordination is closed.”

—  Aisha Taylor (Women's Ordination Conference 2005)

Many gay-rights activists and others criticised him for maintaining the Church's unbroken opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Critics have also claimed that large families are caused by lack of contraception and exacerbate Third World poverty and problems such as street children in South America. In 2007, TIME magazine reported that the manner of John Paul II's death may have contravened his own position on using medical means to prolong life.

In addition to all the criticism from those demanding modernisation, traditionalist Catholics sometimes denounced him from the right, demanding a return to the Tridentine Mass and repudiation of the reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, such as the use of the vernacular language in the formerly Latin Roman Rite Mass, ecumenism, and the principle of religious liberty. He was also accused by these critics for allowing and appointing liberal bishops in their sees and thus silently promoting Modernism, which was firmly condemned as the "synthesis of all heresies" by his predecessor Pope St. Pius X. In 1988, the controversial traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X (1970), was excommunicated under John Paul II because of the unapproved ordination of four bishops, which was called by the Holy See a "schismatic act". The World Day of Prayer for Peace, with a meeting in Assisi, Italy, in 1986, in which the Pope prayed only with the Christians, was heavily criticised as giving the impression that syncretism and/or indifferentism were openly embraced by the Papal Magisterium. When a second ‘Day of Prayer for Peace in the World’ was held, in 2002, it was condemned as confusing the laity and compromising to "false religions". Likewise criticised were his kissing of the Qur'an in Damascus, Syria, on one of his travels on 6 May 2001. His call for religious freedom was not always supported; bishops like Antônio de Castro Mayer promoted religious tolerance, but at the same time rejected the Vatican II principle of religious liberty as being liberalist and already condemned by Pope Pius IX in his ‘Syllabus errorum’ (1864) and at the First Vatican Council.

John Paul II took an absolutist position against artificial birth control, including the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. This position was harshly criticised by doctors and AIDS activists, who said that it led to countless deaths and millions of AIDS orphans. It also led to an unusually public debate among certain figures in the Church. The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development published a paper stating, "Any strategy that enables a person to move from a higher-risk towards the lower end of the continuum, [we] believe, is a valid risk reduction strategy."

John Paul II was also criticised for failing to respond quickly enough to the sex abuse crisis, and for recentralising power back to the Vatican following what some viewed as a decentralisation by Pope John XXIII. As such he was regarded by some as a strict authoritarian. Conversely, he was also criticised for spending far too much time preparing for and undertaking foreign travel. The frequency of his trips, it was said, not only undermined the "specialness" of papal visits, but took him away from important business at the Vatican and allowed the Church, administratively speaking, to drift.

There was strong criticism of the pope for the controversy surrounding the alleged use of charitable social programs as a means of converting people in the Third World to Catholicism. The Pope created an uproar in the Indian subcontinent when he suggested that a great harvest of faith would be witnessed on the subcontinent in the third Christian millennium.

Honours and namesakes

See also: List of places named for Pope John Paul II

The pontiff was celebrated during his lifetime and later posthumously with several honours and as the namesake of several places and institutions. Such places often bear the name John Paul II but newer institutions are using the name John Paul the Great.

Educational and cultural centres named in honour of the Pope include the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family whose largest campuses are located at the Lateran University in Rome, Italy and Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, United States. Affiliated campuses are found in Australia, Benin, Brazil, India, Mexico and Spain. There is also a Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in the United States capital. John Paul the Great Catholic University is a rededicated degree-granting institution in San Diego, California. Several John Paul II Catholic Centres may be found on college and university campuses around the world, usually serving students and staff as Roman Catholic chapels. Several elementary and secondary schools also use the name John Paul II or John Paul the Great, like Pope John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Prince William County, Virginia, administered by the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia or "Nashville Dominicans." (The tabernacle of the school was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on 17 April 2008.)

Pope Benedict XVI is shown a map of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula in Antarctica.

Several national and municipal public projects were named in honour of the Pope. Rome's main railway station, the Roma Termini station, was dedicated to Pope John Paul II by a vote of the City Council, a first municipal public object in Rome bearing the name of a non Italian. International airports named after him are John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice — one of the principal airports of Poland — and the João Paulo II Airport in the Azores. The Juan Pablo II Bridge is located in Chile, while John Paul II Square in Bulgaria denotes the Pope's visit to Sofia in 2002. Estádio João Paulo II (John Paul II Stadium) is a football (soccer) stadium in Mogi-Mirim in Brazil. Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II is a centrepiece of one of Paris' neighbourhoods. Pope John Paul II Park is a feature of Boston, Massachusetts while Pope John Paul II Drive serves residents of Chicago, Illinois.

Of international interest, Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands was named in honour of the Pope. The Antarctic landmark recognises his contribution to world peace and understanding among people.

“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”

— Pope John Paul II

See also

Cultural references to Pope John Paul II Karol: A Man Who Became Pope - TV miniseries Karol: The Pope, The Man - TV miniseries Liberation theology List of canonisations List of Encyclicals of Pope John Paul II List of pastoral visits of Pope John Paul II outside Italy

List of Roman Catholic bishops of Kraków Papabili Papal election, 2005 Personalism Pope John Paul II - TV miniseries Popemobile Stanisław Dziwisz - Personal secretary

External links

Vatican: the Holy See The Holy See - The Holy Father - John Paul II 'Lolek, The Boy Who Became Pope John Paul II' Link to collected tributes, writings and commentary on John Paul II John Paul II's funeral, 8 April 2005, the pictures

Electing a new Pope: The Conclave and all that John Paul II Karol Wojtyła Papiez z Polski John Paul II: text, concordances and frequency list John Paul II's Multilingual Opera Omnia Tomb of John Paul II

Pope John Paul II Karol Wojtyła and Benedict XVI Ascension of John Paul the Great. English website of the Cause for the Beatification and canonisation of John Paul II Pope John Paul II at AllMusic Pope John Paul II at Curlie

Further reading

Main article: Pope John Paul II - Further Reading

• For a comprehensive list of books written by and about John Paul II, please see Further Reading on Pope John Paul II
• For other references see Cultural references to Pope John Paul II

References

• Address of Bishop Stanisław Dziwisz On Sunday, 13 May 2001 to the Catholic University of Lublin on the 20th anniversary of the assassination attempt, published by Catholic Culture: Dziwisz Address
• "'Cured' Pope returns to Vatican" (10 February 2005). BBC News.
• D'Emilio, Frances (31 March 2005). "Pope Has High Fever From Urinary Infection". The Associated Press, published on Yahoo! News.
• de Montfort, St. Louis-Marie Grignion. True Devotion to Mary. translated by Mark L. Jacobson, Aventine Press, 2007, (ISBN 1593304706).
• Domínguez, J. (no date). "Pope John Paul II and Communism". World Religions and 101 Cults. Retrieved 4 April 2005.
• Duffy, Eamon (1997). Saints and Sinners, a History of the Popes. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-3000-7332-1.
• "Electing a new Pope: The Conclave and all that"
• "Feast of Divine Mercy"
• "Frail Pope suffers heart failure" (1 April 2005). BBC News.
• Interview with AM Programme, ABC Radio (Australia). 3 April 2005. Subject: Death of Pope John Paul II; helicopter crash in Indonesia.
• "John Paul II Election Surprises"
• John Paul II, Pope. “Memory & Identity - Personal Reflections”. London: © 2006 Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 029785075X. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Kamil Tchorek in Cracow and Roger Boyes "Cracow lights a candle for its favourite son's last fight"2 April 2005 The Times
• "Last Days of Pope John Paul II"
• Lorenzi, Rossella (22 March 2005). "Pope's Condition Not Improving". Discovery News.
• Maxwell-Stuart, P.G. (2006). Chronicle of the Popes: Trying to Come Full Circle. London: © 1997, 2006 Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-28608-6. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Navarro-Valls, Joaquin (2005). Il Santo Padre è deceduto questa sera alle ore 21.37 nel Suo appartamento privato. Retrieved 2 April 2005. (The Holy Father passed away at 9:37 this evening in his private apartment.)
• "Pope back at Vatican by Easter? It's possible" (3 March 2005). The Associated Press, republished on MSNBC.
• O'Connor, Garry. Universal Father: A Life of Pope John Paul II. 36 Soho Square, London: © 2005 Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0747582416. Retrieved 14-01-2009. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
• "Pope returns to Vatican after op" (13 March 2005). BBC News.
• Sean Gannon Papal Fallibility (7 April 2006) Haaretz, Israel
• "Stasi Files Implicate KGB in Pope Shooting" (1 April 2005). Deutsche Welle.
• St Anthony Messenger Press (2005). Pope John Paul II's Final Days. Retrieved 2 April 2005.
• Stourton, Edward. John Paul II: Man of History. London: © 2006 Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340908165. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Szulc, Tad. Pope John Paul II: The Biography, (ISBN 0-671-00047-0)
• The Pope Blog (2005). The Last Will and Testament of Pope John Paul II (translated from Italian by V.I.S.). Retrieved 7 April 2005. (Testament in the original Polish)
• The Message of Fátima Tarcisio Bertone with introduction by Tarcisio Bertone. The Holy See
• The Pope Blog (2005). Final Letter of Pope John Paul II to the Faithful (translated from Italian). Retrieved 3 April 2005.
• Time Magazine, 25 January 1982: The Pope vs. his doctors
• "Vatican source: Pope given last rites" (31 March 2005). CNN.
• Wojtyła, Karol (2005). Pope John Paul II. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2 April 2005.
• "World awaits word on pope's condition" (2 April 2005). CNN.
• Yallop, David. The Power and the Glory. 162 Fulham Palace Road, London: Constable & Robinson Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84529-673-5. Retrieved 14-01-2009. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)

Notes

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