Portal:Pope John Paul II
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła; [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) served as Pope and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 to 2005.
He was elected by the second Papal conclave of 1978, which was called after Pope John Paul I, who had been elected in August to succeed Pope Paul VI, died after thirty-three days. Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the third day of the conclave and adopted his predecessor's name in tribute to him. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He upheld the Church's teachings on such matters as artificial contraception and the ordination of women, but also supported the Church's Second Vatican Council and its reforms.
Selected general articles
- Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School is a private, coeducational Catholic high school in Potomac Shores, Virginia led by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. As a diocesan school of the Diocese of Arlington, it is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
In 2012 it was included in the Cardinal Newman Society's Top 50 Catholic High Schools list. It was placed on the list again in 2014. Read more... - John Paul the Great Catholic University (nicknamed "JPCatholic") is a Roman Catholic university in Escondido, California. It currently offers Bachelor of Science degrees, a Bachelor of Arts degree, and a Master of Business Administration degree. JPCatholic uses the tagline "The Catholic University for Creative Arts and Business Innovation", and lists "impacting culture for Christ" as one of its main goals. The university was named one of North America's "21 Catholic colleges and universities which most faithfully live their Catholic identity" by the Cardinal Newman Society and has consistently been listed in the Newman Society's "Guide to Choosing a Catholic College". In May 2013, the university purchased a building in Escondido, a city north of San Diego, and relocated during the summer of 2013. Read more...
- Pope John Paul II beatified 1,327 people. The names listed below are from the Vatican website and are listed by year, then date. The locations given are the locations of the beatification ceremonies, not necessarily the birthplaces or homelands of the beatified. Read more...
- Pope John Paul II's visits to Nicaragua were made in March 1983 and February 1996. Read more...
Pope Benedict XVI placing a novelty crown on Our Lady of Lourdes for the plenary indulgence he attached for pilgrims of the World Day of the Sick. 11 February 2007. Saint Peter's Basilica.
The World Day of the Sick is a feast day of the Roman Catholic Church which was instituted on 13 May 1992 by Pope John Paul II. Beginning on 11 February 1993, it is celebrated every year on the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes, for all believers seeks to be "a special time of prayer and sharing, of offering one's suffering". Read more...
The St. John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization is a Roman Catholic Institution in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver. The St. John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization campus is home to the Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary, Redemptoris Mater (seminary), Catholic Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Denver - (Archdiocesan Offices), the residence of the Archbishop of Denver, Cardinal Stafford Library, Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma convent, Bonfils hall, and a large soccer and baseball/softball field. It has been said that it is “at the heart of the Church in northern Colorado and on the frontlines of the Church’s modern “crusade” for the “New Evangelization.””
The original name of the center was the Saint Thomas Seminary. The name was changed in 1996 following the visit of Pope John Paul II to Denver. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Denver, Colorado. Read more...- John Paul II Minor Seminary (abbreviated "JPIIMS") is the Antipolo Diocesan Formation Center for High School Students who have the desire of serving God through priesthood. The Seminary was established in 2007, it is located along Maguey Road in Barangay San Luis in Antipolo City, which is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antipolo under its diocesan bishop, Most Rev. Francisco M. de Leon, DD. It was established by the Bishop-emeritus of Antipolo, Most Rev. Gabriel V. Reyes, DD.
The seminary began with forty-eight (48) First Year seminarians on June 2007, who came from the Province of Rizal and some in Manila area. For the academic year 2010-2011 came the first batch of graduates. Read more...
Pope John Paul II made many apologies. During his long reign as Pope, he apologized to Jews, Galileo, women, people convicted by the Inquisition, Muslims killed by the Crusaders and almost everyone who had allegedly suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church over 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 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'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 (29 May 1995, in a "letter to women").
- The inactivity and silence of many Catholics during the Holocaust (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 actions of the Crusader attack on Constantinople in 1204. To the Patriarch of Constantinople he said "Some memories are especially painful, and some events of the distant past have left deep wounds in the minds and hearts of people to this day. I am thinking of the disastrous sack of the imperial city of Constantinople, which was for so long the bastion of Christianity in the East. It is tragic that the assailants, who had set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their own brothers in the faith. The fact that they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret. How can we fail to see here the mysterium iniquitatis at work in the human heart?".
- St. John Paul II Catholic High School opened in the fall of 2001 in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in Tallahassee, Florida. It is the first Catholic high school to be founded in Tallahassee. The first graduating class was in 2004, with the first charter class graduating the next year, in 2005. The John Paul II School campus initially had a gymnasium, chapel, main building, soccer field, and baseball field. A softball field was added in 2013 and opened for the 2014 season. The school has plans for future augmentation. The school also has a wide range of clubs, including (but not limited to) an Automotive Club, Aerospace Engineering club, Literary club, and more. Read more...
St. John Paul II Catholic Secondary School (occasionally known as SJPII, St. John Paul II, SJPIICSS, JPII, or in short, Pope); known as Blessed Pope John Paul II Catholic Secondary School and Pope John Paul II Catholic Secondary School before the beatification of John Paul II is a publicly funded high school in West Hill and Seven Oaks neighbourhoods of Scarborough, which is the eastern part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Read more...- Universi Dominici gregis is an apostolic constitution of the Catholic Church issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 February 1996. It superseded Pope Paul VI's 1975 apostolic constitution, Romano Pontifici eligendo, and all previous apostolic constitutions and orders on the subject of the election of the Roman Pontiff.
Universi Dominici gregis ("the Lord's whole flock", from the opening statement "The Shepherd of the Lord's whole flock is the Bishop of the Church of Rome, ..."), subtitled On the Vacancy of the Apostolic See and the Election of the Roman Pontiff, deals with the vacancy of the See of Rome, i.e., the papacy. Read more... - The Papal Chase is a 2004 Canadian micro-budget feature-length guerrilla-style mockumentary directed by Kenny Hotz of Kenny vs. Spenny fame, and written by Hotz and Paul Johnson. The film features cameo appearances by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ron Wood, as well as footage of Toronto mayoral candidate Kevin Clarke. It is also the only comedy feature that has an appearance by Pope John Paul II. Among its awards, the film won the Phillip Borsos Award for 'Best Canadian Feature Film' at the 2004 Whistler Film Festival, and won 'Best Documentary' at the 2005 Canadian Filmmakers' Festival. Read more...
- Fides et ratio (Faith and Reason) is an encyclical promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998. It was one of 14 encyclicals issued by John Paul II. Georges Cardinal Cottier, Theologian emeritus of the Pontifical Household and later Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Domenico e Sisto the University Church of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, was influential in drafting the encyclical. The encyclical primarily addresses the relationship between faith and reason. Read more...
- The early life of Pope John Paul II covers the period in his life from his birth in 1920 to his ordination to the priesthood in 1946. Read more...
Laborem exercens (Latin: Through Work) is an encyclical written by Pope John Paul II in 1981, on human work. It is part of the larger body of Catholic social teaching, which traces its origin to Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum. Read more...- The Planet Is Alive...Let it Live! is a 1984 studio album by Sarah Vaughan, of the poetry of Pope John Paul II translated by Gene Lees.
In 1995 the album was reissued on CD as The Mystery of Man. Read more...
Pope John Paul II Park Reservation, also known as Pope Park, is a 66-acre (27 ha) Massachusetts state park bordering the Neponset River in the Dorchester section of Boston. The park has been reclaimed from the former site of a landfill and the Neponset Drive-In as part of the Lower Neponset River Master Plan and the development of the Neponset River Reservation. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
DCR has restored a salt marsh area and planted native trees and shrubs. The area now attracts an increased variety of birds to the habitat, including snowy egrets and great blue herons. Read more...
Pope John Paul II College of Education is a private educational institution owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore. The college is governed by the board of directors of Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore (Le Conseil d'Administration de l'Archidiocèse de Pondicherry).
The institution is affiliated to Pondicherry University (Central University) and is the only institution accredited with A by NAAC in Puducherry. Read more...- Pope John Paul II's relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church were marked by a significant improvement in relations between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Read more...
Pentecost: The spread of Christianity begins.
Redemptor hominis (Latin: The Redeemer of Man) is the name of the first encyclical written by Pope John Paul II. It lays a blueprint for his pontificate in its exploration of contemporary human problems and especially their proposed solutions found in a deeper understanding of the human person. The encyclical was promulgated on 4 March 1979, less than five months after his installation as pope. Read more...
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Latin: Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the Catechism or the CCC) is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It sums up, in book form, the beliefs of the Catholic faithful.
A catechism ( /ˈkætəˌkizəm/; from Greek: κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts. Read more...- Pope John Paul II High School is a four-year, college-preparatory, Catholic high school, named after John Paul II, who was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. The school is located in Lacey, Washington, within the Archdiocese of Seattle.
Pope John Paul II High School opened in 2010. Read more...
The visit of Pope John Paul II to the United Kingdom in 1982 was the first visit there by a reigning Pope. The Pope arrived in the UK on Friday 28 May, and during his time there visited nine cities, delivering 16 major addresses. Among significant events were a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a joint service alongside the then-Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie at Canterbury Cathedral, meeting with and addressing the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at The Mound, and five large open air Masses in London, Coventry, Manchester, Glasgow, and Cardiff. Following his six-day visit which took him to locations in England, Scotland and Wales, he returned to the Vatican on 2 June.
Unlike the 2010 papal visit of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul II's was a pastoral rather than a state visit, and was consequently funded by the Catholic Church in the UK rather than the Government. The trip was almost cancelled because Britain was then at war with Argentina, which had invaded the British possession of the Falkland Islands. This visit had to be balanced for fairness with an unscheduled trip to Argentina that June. Over 2 million people attended events hosted by the Pope, with the visit said to be the biggest event for British Catholics since their emancipation. Read more...- Pastor bonus (Latin: "The Good Shepherd") is an apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 28 June 1988. It instituted a number of reforms in the process of running the central government of the Roman Catholic Church, as article 1 states "The Roman Curia is the complex of dicasteries and institutes which help the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme pastoral office for the good and service of the whole Church and of the particular Churches. It thus strengthens the unity of the faith and the communion of the people of God and promotes the mission proper to the Church in the world". Read more...
Pope John Paul II High School is a Catholic preparatory school in Hendersonville, Tennessee fifteen minutes north of downtown Nashville. It is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville. Read more...
Saint John Paul II Academy (formerly Pope John Paul II High School) is a college preparatory Roman Catholic secondary school with a 30-acre (120,000 m2) campus in East Boca Raton, Florida, adjacent to the main campus of Lynn University. The school opened in 1980. The school is funded through donations, tuition and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach. Read more...- Dominus Iesus (English: The Lord Jesus) is a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (known as the "Holy Office"), approved in a Plenary meeting of the Congregation and signed by its then Prefect, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, and of its then Secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, later Cardinal Secretary of State. The declaration was approved by Pope John Paul II and was published on August 6, 2000. It is subtitled "On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church". It is most widely known for its elaboration of the Catholic dogma that the Catholic Church is the sole true Church of Christ. Read more...
- Abbà Pater (English: Good Father) is a devotional album from Pope John Paul II released in 1999 in anticipation of the Great Jubilee for Radio Vaticana. The album reached #175 on the Billboard album chart. The pontiff had reached #126 in 1979 with another album, "Pope John Paul II Sings At The Festival Of Sacrosong." Abbà Pater is made up entirely of original compositions. Many of the lyrics are derived from the Bible and Roman Catholic liturgy. The liner notes are composed in English, Italian, French and Spanish. Read more...
- Veritatis splendor (Latin: The Splendor of the Truth) is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II. It expresses the position of the Catholic Church regarding fundamentals of the Church's role in moral teaching. The encyclical is one of the most comprehensive and philosophical teachings of moral theology in the Catholic tradition. It was promulgated on 6 August 1993. Cardinal Georges Cottier, Theologian emeritus of the Pontifical Household and Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Domenico e Sisto the University Church of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas was influential in drafting the encyclical, as was Servais-Théodore Pinckaers a professor of moral theology at the University of Fribourg. Read more...
- Misericordia Dei (Mercy of God) is the title of an apostolic letter by Pope John Paul II to foster and reemphasize the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The letter is subtitled "On Certain Aspects of the Sacrament of Penance" and was promulgated on 7 April 2002 in Rome, issued as Motu proprio and was signed by him.
The letter begins by quoting the Gospel of Matthew 1:21 that Jesus was born to "save his people from their sins" and emphasizes the fervent and energetic summons with which John the Baptist called for repentance. Quoting the Epistle to the Romans 8:21, it states that "Salvation is therefore and above all redemption from sin, which hinders friendship with God." Read more...
John Paul II Catholic Secondary School, often referred to as JPII, John Paul, or Jp; is a secondary school in London, Ontario. It is administered by the London District Catholic School Board. It is located at 1300 Oxford Street East, at the northeast corner of Oxford and Highbury Avenue, next to Fanshawe College. The property is quite large and occupies the corner of Oxford and Fanshawe.
The school opened in 1985 and was originally located on Huron Street. The current building at Oxford and Highbury was opened in 1991. Read more...- St. John Paul II High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Corpus Christi, Texas. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Corpus Christi. Read more...
- The Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America is a satellite session of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences. Prior to September 2017, it was a satellite session of the central session at the Lateran University in Rome. The Institute is devoted to the study of the truth about the human person in all of its dimensions: theological, philosophical, anthropological, and cosmological-scientific. The Institute centers its study of the person in the community that is the original cell of human society: marriage and family. Other satellites include Mexico, Spain, and Chile. The one in Mexico and Chile offers a bachelor's degree in Family Science Read more...
- Pope John Paul II is a 2005 television miniseries dramatizing the life of Pope John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła) from his early adult years in Poland to his death at age 84.
The miniseries was written and directed by John Kent Harrison and aired in the United States on the CBS network on 4 and 7 December 2005. It was first released in Vatican City on 17 November 2005 and ten days later throughout Italy on Rai 1 Read more...
During his reign, Pope John Paul II ("The Pilgrim Pope") made 104 foreign trips, more than all previous popes combined. In total he logged more than 1,167,000 km (725,000 mi). He consistently attracted large crowds on his travels, some among the largest ever assembled. While some of his trips (such as to the United States and the Israel) were to places previously visited by Paul VI (the first pope to travel widely), many others were to countries that no pope had ever previously visited. Read more...- Red Rabbit is a spy thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 5, 2002. The plot occurs a few months after the events of Patriot Games (1987), and incorporates the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Main character Jack Ryan, now an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, takes part in the extraction of a Soviet defector who knows of a KGB plot to kill the pontiff. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Read more...
St. John Paul II High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Hyannis, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River. Read more...- John Paul II High School, Greymouth is an integrated Catholic, co-educational Year 9 to Year 13 (Form 3-7) secondary school located in Greymouth, New Zealand. The school was founded in 1980 from the amalgamation of two schools, St Mary’s High School, operated by the Sisters of Mercy (who arrived in Greymouth in 1882) and Marist Brothers Boys’ School operated by the Marist Brothers (founded in 1892). John Paul II High School was integrated into the State education system by the agreement of the proprietor of the school the (Catholic Bishop of Christchurch) and the Minister of Education in 1983. The staff of the school is now made up of nearly all lay people. Read more...
- Love and Responsibility is a book written by Karol Wojtyła before he became Pope John Paul II and was originally published in Polish in 1960 and in English in 1981. A new, completely updated and original translation was published in 2013.
The work consists of five chapters; "The Person and the Sexual Urge"; "The Person and Love"; "The Person and Chastity"; "Justice to the Creator"; and "Sexology and Ethics".
It is described as 'a defence of the traditional Church teachings on marriage from a new philosophical standpoint'. In his introduction to the first edition, Fr. Wojtyla describes his reasons for writing the book as being "born principally of the need to put the norms of Catholic sexual morality on a firm basis, a basis as definitive as possible, relying on the most elementary and incontrovertible moral truths and the most fundamental values or goods". Fr. Wojtyła was originally inspired to write the book while being a professor at the Catholic University of Lublin, through the experiences he had in teaching young Catholics. Read more...
Did you know...
- ... that with Bosnia and Herzegovina–Holy See relations improving, Pope John Paul II came for a visit—and then police discovered 23 land mines planted in the area where he was to have been driven?
- ... that the youngest bell of St. Lubentius, Dietkirchen, a Romanesque church on a rock, was consecrated by Pope John Paul II?
- ... that Maria Corsini, Italian writer and Roman Catholic lay person, was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 31 October 2001 along with her husband, Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi?
- ... that two Polish nuns harbouring Jewish fugitives who escaped from the Słonim Ghetto were beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with 108 Martyrs of World War II?
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Selected images
Small marble tablet in St. Peter's Square indicating where the shooting of John Paul II occurred. The tablet bears John Paul's personal papal arms and the date of the shooting in Roman numerals.
An ailing John Paul II riding in the Popemobile in September 2004 in St. Peter's Square
A statue of Pope John Paul II with an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, near the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. The statue was made entirely of metal keys donated by the Mexican people.
The courtyard within the family home of the Wojtyłas in Wadowice, Poland
US President George W. Bush presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to John Paul II in June 2004
The Fiat Popemobile that carried John Paul II during the 1981 assassination attempt on his life in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City
(l-r) George W. Bush, Laura Bush, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card, US dignitaries paying respects to John Paul II on 6 April 2005 at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
The newly elected Pope John Paul II stands on the balcony at St. Peter's Basilica on 16 October 1978 in Vatican City.
John Paul II was the first Pope to enter and pray in a mosque, visiting the tomb of John the Baptist at Damascus' Umayyad Mosque.
The tomb of the parents of John Paul II at Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków, Poland
Candles around monument to Pope John Paul in Zaspa, Gdańsk at the time of his death
1.5 million St. Peter's Square attendees witness the beatification of John Paul II on 1 May 2011 in Vatican City
The coat of arms of Pope John Paul II displaying the Marian Cross with the letter M signifying the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus
The tomb of John Paul II in the Vatican Chapel of St. Sebastian within St. Peter's Basilica
Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting John Paul II in June 2000
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