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His Holiness Pope John Paul II (born May 18, 1920 as Karol Józef Wojtyła) is the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is also the Sovereign of the Vatican City State, an independent city-state.

In March 2005 John Paul, then aged 84, fell seriously ill. By the end of the month, speculation was growing that he was near death. On March 31, he was given the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick (the last rites or Extreme Unction) and on April 1 his condition worsened drastically, with his heart and kidneys rapidly failing. On April 2 the Vatican announced that the Pope was "near death."

Personal background

Karol Józef Wojtyła (pronounced: voy-TEE-wah; IPA: /ˈkarɔl ˈjuzef vɔjˈtɨwa/) was born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice in southern Poland, a son of a former officer in the Habsburg army. His youth was marked by intensive contacts with the then-thriving Jewish community of Kraków, and the experience of Nazi occupation, during which he worked in a quarry and a chemical factory. In his youth he was an athlete, actor, playwright, and a superb linguist, possibly speaking as many as eleven languages. Currently, he speaks eight languages fluently: Polish, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and English. Though Latin is considered a dead language, the Pope certainly has knowledge of it, as it is the traditional language of the Catholic Church.

Karol Wojtyła was ordained a priest on November 1 1946. He taught ethics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and subsequently at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1958 he was named auxiliary Bishop of Kraków and four years later he assumed leadership of the diocese with the title of Vicar Capitular. On December 30 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków. As both bishop and archbishop, Wojtyła participated in the Second Vatican Council, making contributions to the documents that would become the Decree on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), two of the most historic and influential products of the council.

In 1967 Pope Paul VI elevated him to cardinal. In August 1978, following Paul's death, he participated in the Papal Conclave that elected Albino Luciani, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, as Pope John Paul I. At 65, Luciani was a young man by Papal standards. While Wojtyła at 58 could have expected to participate in another Papal conclave before reaching the age of eighty (the upper age limit for cardinal electors), he could hardly have expected that his second conclave would come so soon, for on 28 September 1978, after only 33 days in the papacy, Pope John Paul I died. In October 1978 Wojtyła returned to Vatican City to participate in the second conclave in less than two months.

The second Conclave of 1978

The conclave itself was divided between two particularly strong candidates: Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, the Archbishop of Genoa, and Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and close associate of Pope John Paul I. In early ballots Benelli came within nine votes of victory. However Wojtyła secured election as the compromise candidate, in part through the support of cardinals Franz Cardinal König and others who had previously supported Siri.

The first Polish Pope

On October 16 1978, at age 58, Wojtyła succeeded Pope John Paul I. On election, the first non-Italian pope for nearly half a millennium was referred to by many simply as the man from a far country. In terms of his age, his nationality, and his rugged health, the former athlete and playwriter broke all the papal rules. He was to become, arguably, the dominant twentieth-century pope of the Catholic Church, eclipsing Pope Paul VI in travels, and, to some, eclipsing Pope Pius XII in intellectual vigour, and Pope John XXIII in charisma.

Like his predecessor, John Paul II opted to simplify his office to make it a less regal institution. He chose not to use the Royal Plural, referring to himself as "I" instead of "We". John Paul also opted for a simple inauguration ceremony instead of the formal papal coronation, and he has not worn the Papal Tiara during his term in office. This was done to emphasize the servant role that is expressed in the title Servus Servorum Dei (Servant of the Servants of God).

While John Paul II is technically the first Polish pope it is worth noting that Pope Pius X was the son of Polish immigrants.

Assassination attempt

On May 13 1981, John Paul II was shot and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish Muslim gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square to address a general audience.

It was never found who commissioned the murder attempt, and much speculation has arisen through the years. Some accused the Soviet bloc, that would have been afraid of the effect of the Polish pope on the stability of Eastern European Soviet satellites, especially Poland; others yet accused factions in the Vatican, especially the so-called "freemason" faction, opposed to Wojtiła and Opus Dei, of which cardinal Casaroli was a front figure. Ali Ağca himself has never been willing to reveal the truth clearly, but has often hinted that he had some help inside the Vatican. Finally, whoever the commissioner, it has been suggested that Ağca, an excellent marksman, would have killed the pope if he had intended so, and that his mission was to scare the Wojtiła rather than killing him. All of this information should be considered rumours however, because no definitive evidence has been found.

Two days after Christmas in 1983, John Paul went to the prison and met with his would-be assassin. The two spoke privately for a time, and the conversation between the two men remains secret to this day.

John Paul II becoming Pope was correctly predicted decades earlier by Padre Pio. The monk also predicted that Wojtyła's reign would be short and end in blood, a prophecy that almost came true during the shooting. The assassination was also predicted by the third secret of the Three Secrets of Fatima, as an analysis from the Vatican points out.

Travels

During his reign, Pope John Paul II made more foreign trips than all previous popes put together. 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 Pilgrim Pope"), many others were to places that no pope had ever visited before. He became the first reigning pope to travel to the United Kingdom, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. In a dramatic symbolic gesture, he knelt in prayer alongside the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie in the See of the Church of England, Canterbury Cathedral, founded by Augustine of Canterbury. Throughout his trips, he stressed his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary through visits to various shrines to the Virgin Mary, notably Knock in the Republic of Ireland, Fátima in Portugal, Guadalupe in Mexico, and Lourdes in France. His public visits were centered around large Papal Masses; one million people, one quarter of the population of the island of Ireland, attended his Mass in Dublin's Phoenix Park in 1979.

In 1984, John Paul the II became the first Pope to visit Puerto Rico; stands were especially erected for him at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, where he met with governor Rafael Hernandez Colon, and at Plaza Las Americas.

There was a plot to assassinate the Pope during his visit to Manila in January 1995, as part of Operation Bojinka, a mass terrorist attack that was developed by Al-Qaida members Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. A suicide bomber dressed up as a priest, and planned to use the disguise to get closer to the Pope's motorcade so that he could kill the Pope by detonating himself. Before January 15, the day on which the men were to attack the Pope during his Philippine visit, an apartment fire brought investigators led by Aida Fariscal to Yousef's laptop computer, which had terrorist plans on it, as well as clothes and items that suggested an assassination plot. Yousef was arrested in Pakistan about a month later, but Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not arrested until 2003.

In 1999, John Paul II visited Romania and met with the local heads of the Orthodox church. Thus, he became the first Pope to visit a country with a mostly Orthodox population, ever since the East-West Schism in the eleventh century (1054).

In May, 2001, the Pontiff took a pilgrimage that would trace the steps of his namesake, Saint Paul, across the Mediterranean. Traveling from Greece to Syria to the island of Malta, during this journey he was the first Roman Catholic Pope to enter Greece for more than a thousand years, and was the first ever to visit a Mosque, in Damascus. He visited Umayyad Mosque, where John the Baptist is believe to be interred.

Relations with the Jewish people

John Paul II wrote and delivered a number of speeches on the subject of the Church's relationship with Jews, and often paid homage to the victims of the Holocaust in many nations. He was the first pope to have visited Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, in 1979. One of the few popes to have grown up in a climate of flourishing Jewish culture, one of the key components of pre-war Kraków, his interest in Jewish life dated from early youth. His visit to the Synagogue of Rome was the first by a pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

In March 2000, Pope John Paul II went to the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Israel and touched the holiest shrine of the Jewish people, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, promoting Christian-Jewish reconciliation. The Pope has said that Jews are "our older brothers." While many perceive this as a loving inclusive acknowledgment of the fact that Christianity sprang from Judaism and that Jesus and his first followers were Jewish, others interpret it to follow the age-old Catholic bias -- calling Catholics, "Jacob," and Jews, "Esau," asserting the holiness of the former and the barbarism of the latter.

In October 2003, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement congratulating Pope John Paul II on the 25th anniversary of his papacy. "His deep commitment to reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people has been fundamental to his papacy. Jews throughout the world are deeply grateful to the Pope. He has defended the Jewish people at all times, as a priest in his native Poland and during his pontificate... We pray that he remains healthy for many years to come, that he achieves much success in his holy work and that Catholic-Jewish relations continue to flourish."

In February 2005, Reuters released excerpts from the pontiff's new book, his fifth, "Memory and Identity". In it, the Pope seems to compare abortion to the Holocaust, saying "There is still, however a legal extermination of human beings who have been conceived but not yet born. And this time we are talking about an extermination which has been allowed by nothing less than democratically elected parliaments where one normally hears appeals for the civil progress of society and all humanity." A leader of Germany's Central Council of Jews called the comparison unacceptable.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's senior doctrinal official, dismissed the charges, saying the pope "was not trying to put the Holocaust and abortion on the same plane" but only warning that evil lurked everywhere, "even in liberal political systems".

Relations with the Eastern Orthodox faith

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 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 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.

However, during the visit the Pope avoided any mention of Cyprus, still a source of tension between the two faiths.

The pope has visited other heavily Orthodox areas such as the Ukraine, despite lack of welcome at times, and has said that an end to the Schism is one of his fondest wishes.

Social and political stances

John Paul II was considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to reproduction and the ordination of women. His collected writings on human sexuality, called the Theology of the Body, are an extended meditation on the nature of masculinity and femininity and the resulting implications for love and sex. These teachings represent a significant development of the Catholic teaching about sexuality. This development has origins in the Song of Songs, and the church's teaching on Sacraments.

He was critical of Liberation Theology for over-emphasizing political liberation at the expense of spiritual liberation. In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) he reasserted the Church's high value on human life and by extension its 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. His stands on capital punishment, world debt forgiveness, and poverty issues were considered politically liberal, showing that 'conservative' and 'liberal' political labels are not easily assigned to religious leaders.

In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. Indeed, the nature of the relationship between the pope and Bono was revealed when someone working at the Dublin recording studio for Bono's band U2 stated that a recording session was interrupted on at least one occasion by a phone call from the Pope, who wanted to talk to Bono about the campaign.

In 2003, John Paul II also became a prominent critic of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. He sent his Peace Minister, Pío Cardinal Laghi, to talk with US President George W. Bush to express opposition to the war. John Paul II says that it is 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.

In European Union negotiations for a new constitution 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.

The Pope was also a leading critic of same-sex marriage. In his last book, "Memory and Identity", John Paul II described same-sex marriage as part of "a new ideology of evil" that is insidiously menacing society. In a chapter dealing with the role of lawmakers, the pope refered to the "pressures" on the European Parliament to permit same-sex marriage. Reuters quotes the pope as writing, "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."

Serious health problems

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

An orthopaedic surgeon confirmed in 2001 that Pope John Paul II was suffering from Parkinson's disease, as international observers had suspected for some time. This was confirmed by the Vatican in 2003. He has difficulty speaking more than a few sentences at a time and has difficulty hearing as well. He also has severe arthritis in his right knee, which he developed following a hip replacement, thus he rarely walks in public. Nevertheless, he has continued to tour the world. He has indicated that he accepts God's will that he be Pope, and thus he is determined to remain in office until his death or until he becomes irrevocably mentally impaired. Those who have met him say that, though physically in poor shape, he remains mentally in full health.

The Pope's health deteriorates

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In September 2003, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who was often considered the Pope's "right hand", said that "we should pray for the Pope", raising serious concerns over the Pope's health condition.

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

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

On 8 March, it was announced that the Pope was scheduled to give his Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter Sunday, 27 March. The other ceremonies of the Easter Triduum were to be led by cardinals.

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

On 22 March, there were renewed concerns for the Pope's health after reports stated that he had taken a turn for the worse and was not responding to medication .

On 24 March, Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo performed the rite of the washing of the feet, in the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica. The cardinal stood in for Pope John Paul II at a Holy Thursday ceremony at the Vatican. He said the ailing Pontiff was 'serenely abandoning' himself to God's will. The 84-year-old Pope, whose health is precarious following throat surgery last month, watched the service on television from his Vatican apartments.

On 27 March, Easter day, the Pope appeared at his window in the Vatican for a short time. Angelo Cardinal Sodano read the Urbi et orbi message while the Pope blessed the people with his own hand. He tried to speak but he could not.

On 31 March, the Pope developed a "very high fever caused by a urinary tract infection" , but was not rushed to hospital, apparently in accordance with his stated wishes to die in the Vatican. Later that day, Vatican sources announced that the Pope had been given the Anointing of the Sick of the Roman Catholic Church, the first time that pope had received the sacrament since the 1981 assassination attempt on his life. It is unclear if the Pope received the Apostolic Pardon as well..

On 1 April, the Pope had been fitted with a second feeding tube in his nose to help boost his nutritional intake as a result of his fever. Reports out of the Vatican early that morning reported that the Pope had suffered a heart attack, but remained awake. . Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls denied the reports of the heart attack, but said the Pope had suffered a "cardiocirculatory collapse" and called the Pope's condition "very serious" ].

At around 10:30 UTC (03:30 EST) a Vatican spokesman gave a further briefing on the Pope's health, he confirmed that the Pope has had the Last Rites. He refused to be taken to the hospital, and met with his closest associates. He also requested that he be read the meditations said on the Stations of the Cross a few days before.

At approximately 17:00 UTC the Italian news sources claimed that Pope John Paul II lost consciousness. At least one medical center stated that there is no more hope for him, according to MSNBC.

The Vatican published a press release at 19:00 CET (17:00 UTC, 11:00 ET) saying the Pope's kidneys stopped functioning. The ANSA news agency reported around 19:30 CET that he lost consciousness. Several Italian media agencies reported the Pope's death at 20:20 CET (18:20 UTC, 13:20 ET), but soon afterwards, the Vatican denied that the Pope was indeed dead, and stories changed. TV Sky Italia reported that his heart and brain were functioning.

It now seems very likely that there will be a Papal Election in 2005. A number of men have been mentioned as papabili (possible successors), including Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger, Jorge Bergoglio, Francis Arinze, Christoph Schönborn, and Angelo Sodano.

Other

Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz is the Pope's Private Secretary. A fellow Pole, he was ordained in 1963 by Bishop Wojtyła, he became the second secretary to Archbishop Wojtyła in 1966, and shortly after, the principal secretary. He was ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul in 1998.

According to a New York Post article of February 19 2002, John Paul II personally performed three exorcisms during his tenure as pope. The first exorcism was performed on a woman in 1982 who writhed on the ground. His second was in September 2000 when he performed the rite on a nineteen-year-old woman who had become enraged in St. Peter's Square. A year later, in September 2001, he performed an exorcism on a twenty-year-old woman.

John Paul II International Airport (IATA: KRK) near his hometown of Kraków, Poland was named after him.

Selected books by John Paul II

• Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium
• The Way to Christ: Spiritual Exercises
• Crossing the Threshold of Hope
• Pope John Paul II: In My Own Words
• Gift and Mystery: On the fiftieth anniversary of my priestly ordination
• Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way

Selected movies about Pope John Paul II

• Pope John Paul II: The Movie (1984) starring: Albert Finney, Nigel Hawthorne, Alfred Burke, John McEnery, Patrick Stewart.

• Pope John Paul's Third Pilgrimage to His Homeland — A documentary on John Paul's June '87 visit to Poland.

Antipopes

For antipopes during his papacy, see Sedevacantist antipopes.

Further reading

• George Weigel, Witness to Hope (1999, 2001) ISBN 006018793X

Related articles

• 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

External links

• John Paul II at vatican.va
• Internet Movie Database
• www.vatican.va
• LookSmart - Pope John Paul II directory category
• Open Directory Project - John Paul II directory category
• Yahoo - Pope John Paul II directory category
• "Job Description for the Next Pope" - by R. Scott Appleby from Foreign Policy Magazine
• Relationships with Pope John Paul II
• Pope John Paul II Hospitalized: Post Prayers for the Pope
• The Pope Blog - Unofficial blog about Pope John Paul II

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