| Pope John Paul II | 1920: Born Karol Wojtyla on 18 May in Wadowice near Krakow, Poland
1946: Ordained a priest
1964: Appointed Archbishop of Krakow
1967: Created Cardinal by Pope Paul VI
1978: Elected Pope on 16 October
1981: Assassination attempt on the Pope
1992: Symptoms of Parkinson's disease appear
2000: Pope leads Jubilee 2000 celebrations
2003: 25 years of the papacy
2005: Dies of septic shock and irreversible heart failure - Pope John Paul II was the 265th Pope.
- He was the first Polish Pope and the first non-Italian Pope since Adrian VI (Dutch, 1522-1523).
- He was the youngest (aged 58 at election) since Pius IX (aged 54 at election in 1846).
- In 2004, his papacy became the 3rd longest pontificate in history, after those of St Peter (34-37 years: AD 30-64/67) and Pius IX (31 years: 1846-1878).
- He made 104 visits outside Italy.
- He canonised 482 saints, substantially more than were canonised by all of other popes since 1592 put together (302).
- He created 232 cardinals, including one in pectore (secretly).
- 117 of the 120 cardinal electors (cardinals 80 years of age or less) who will choose his successor were appointed by him.
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Election On the evening of October 16th 1978, I was in Henley-on-Thames, recording an edition of "Sunday Half Hour" for BBC Radio 2, when the news began to come through that there was white smoke over the Vatican. A new Pope had been elected to succeed the Pope of 30 days, John Paul I. Only the most dedicated of Vatican watchers knew anything about Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Krakow. For most of us, it was just a name. He took the name of John Paul II, in memory of
his predecessor and that is the name by which history will remember him. Ministry His time as Pope has spanned the end and the beginning of two centuries and his contribution and influence during those years has been massive. His death will be mourned across the whole world and not simply by the Catholic community, though we naturally feel that we have a special claim on him and his memory. This worldwide appeal is a measure of the place he has held on the world stage. Though "in the world", he has never been "of the world". The Gospel of Christ has been the only "fashion" to which he has subscribed. In the name of Christ and for the sake of Christ, he has preached and taught tirelessly of the dignity of the human person, of the sanctity of life from its earliest beginnings to the grave, of the God-given and inalienable right of every human person to determine their condition of life. He has championed the poor, the unborn and the elderly, the sick and the disabled and, surprisingly to some, the right of women to play a full part in the life of the Church and in society as a whole. Pastoral Visits He has ceaselessly travelled the world making over 100 trips and wherever he has gone, he has forcibly and vigorously proclaimed and taught the Gospel of Christ. We, in England, remember, with particular gratitude, his visit to these shores at a critical time during the Falklands War. It was a real "confirming in faith" for us.
Ecumenism He has reached out to brothers and sisters of other Christian communities. He has longed for a growing unity with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and has forged valuable and fruitful links with the Anglican Communion, particularly by his encouragement of the ARCIC process and through his warm and personal relationships with successive Archbishops of Canterbury, not least with Archbishop George Carey with whom he has held several meetings. Despite his failing health, he met with Archbishop Rowan Williams on 25 October 2003. Communism and Eastern Europe He has always been an implacable enemy of the Communist and Marxist totalitarian systems, knowing and suffering both at first hand from his early years as he grew up in Poland. His encyclical letter Centesimus Annus, written in 1991, is a devastating critique of atheistic materialism and was an important contribution to the eventual disintegration of the old Marxist and Soviet hegemonies. At the same time, he has been no less critical of what he described as the "unbridled capitalism" of the West, which he has seen as dangerously decadent and destructive. His support and encouragement of the Solidarnosc movement in Poland in the early eighties was crucial, coming as it did, at the beginning of the process by which Communism and the Soviet empire were first undermined and then overthrown. The Church Within the family of the Church, he has presided over a time of enormous change and adjustment following the Second Vatican Council, to the teachings of which he has always been committed, having been one of the Council Fathers himself. He has often been characterised as conservative and even, by some, as repressive but it is clear that he is a man who is deeply conscious of the Lord's command to Peter – and therefore to himself as the successor of Peter – to confirm and strengthen the faith of his brothers and sisters by faithfully handing on the tradition and teaching of the Apostles. The Brother Bishop To his fellow Bishops, he has always been a brother and it has been a personal joy and privilege for me to know that, from time to time, the successor of Peter has had time to sit down with me to listen to my concerns and to take a lively interest in all that we are trying to do in the diocese. These moments of sharing with the one who is our brother Peter have been very special moments for me in my life and work as a bishop. The Last Years In these last years and months, his ministry to the Church and to the world has been marked by
suffering and increasing frailty and illness. From being the strong and vigorously athletic Pope of 58 years, he has become, in a quite extraordinary way, the old and frail, but loved and respected, father of the human family. He has remained indomitable in his determination both to embrace whatever the Lord sends him and to be faithful to the end to the call given him by the Lord. Young People He has been a giant of the stage of the world but, at the same time, always the pastor, always the father, always the beloved brother in Christ. How else has it been possible for him to draw and engage, with such demonstrable warmth and affection, that most critical of communities, the young people of today. World Youth Day has been his creation and as they have been celebrated over the years, millions (literally) of young people from all over the world have been drawn to celebrate their faith with him. Ad Limina, 2003 I last met with the Holy Father during the Ad Limina visit made by the Bishops of England and Wales in the autumn of 2003. We were in Rome at a time when his schedule was particularly punishing, what with his own Silver Jubilee, the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the creation of the new Cardinals who will soon be gathering to elect the new Pope. Despite his evident tiredness - and even exhaustion - he insisted that we should all be able to spend just a little time with him personally and individually. When I spoke with him, on behalf of the diocese I thanked him for all that he had done for us and for the Church as a whole. I particularly thanked him for his post-Millennial document "Novo Millennio Ineunte", which has been such an inspiration for us in the diocese. I promised him the prayers of all the Catholic people of the Portsmouth diocese and he was just able to say "thank you very much; give your people my blessing." The End His own devoted Polish people sang "Stolat" – may you live for a hundred years – when he visited them for the last time in August 2002. It was not to be. This great Pope has been called into the presence of his Lord. We know how eagerly he has longed for that call, provided his work was done. He is with his Lord, whose faithful and tireless Apostle he has been. His motto has been "Totus Tuus" and no one could have been more faithful to those words than Pope John Paul II. There is no doubt that he will be numbered among the great when the history of the modern Papacy comes to be written." May he rest in peace.
Bishop Crispian Hollis
Bishop of Portsmouth | 
