The first miracle of John Paul II was recognized. A special medical commission studied the case of a French nun who pleaded for the intercession of the pope after his death and was cured of Parkinson's disease without apparent medical reasons.

The second miracle was officially recognized as the inexplicable healing in May 2011 of a terminally ill woman from Costa Rica. She received serious brain damage, but after prayers to John Paul II she was able to recover.

In several cities of the world John Paul II. The world's tallest statue of the pontiff with a height of 14 meters appeared in the Polish city of Czestochowa in April 2013. Prior to that, the largest monument to him was considered a 12-meter statue in Chile.

Monument to Pope John Paul II by Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli was unveiled near the cathedral Notre Dame of Paris in Paris (France).

In October 2011, a monument was erected to him in the courtyard of the Russian State Library for Foreign Literature. Rudomino in Moscow.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Biography

Saint John Paul II - Pope of Rome, Primate of the Roman Catholic Church from October 16, 1978 to April 2, 2005, playwright, poet, teacher. Beatified on 1 May 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI. Canonized on April 27, 2014 by Pope Francis and his retired Pope Benedict.

In 1978, the 264th pope, John Paul II, became the first non-Italian pope to be elected in 455 years (Adrian VI, who became pope in 1523, was Dutch by birth), one of the youngest pontiffs in history, and the first pope of Slavic origin. . However, there is a version that John Paul II was the second Slavic pontiff: perhaps the first pope of Slavic origin was Sixtus V, his father Srecko Peric was from Montenegro.

In terms of the duration of his pontificate, he is second only to the Apostle Peter and Pope Pius IX (1846-1878). John Paul II was succeeded by the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI.

Childhood

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920 in the city of Wadowice near Krakow in the family of Lieutenant of the Polish Army K. Wojtyla, who was fluent in German and systematically taught German to his youngest son, and teacher Emilia Kachorowska, a Roman Catholic born in Krakow, by origin from the Kholm region, According to a number of Russian or Ukrainian sources, perhaps that is why the future Pope loved and respected Orthodoxy and believed that Christianity should breathe with two lungs - Western and Eastern. When Karol was 8 years old, his mother died, and at 12 he lost his older brother Edmund.

In his youth, he was fond of theater and dreamed of becoming a professional actor: when his friends asked if he wanted to become a priest, he invariably answered “Non sum dignus” (from Latin - “I am not worthy”). At the age of 14, he tried himself in a school drama club, and in his youth he wrote the play "King-Spirit". He headed the school Marian society. At the same age, he made his first pilgrimage to the main shrine of Poland in the city of Czestochowa. In 1938, Karol received the sacrament of chrismation and received his secondary education.

Youth

Karol studied extremely successfully. After graduating from the classical lyceum in 1938, on the eve of World War II, he entered the Faculty of Polonism at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he studied philology, literature and philosophy of the peoples of Poland. He wrote poetry: in 1939 he compiled a collection called "The Psalter of the Renaissance" (which included various poems, including one dedicated to the mother, as well as the poetic drama "David"). In his lyrics, Wojtyla describes his reverence for the Lord and the possible depths of happiness and sorrow. In addition to engaging in literary activities, he managed to take an introductory course in the Russian language and a course in Church Slavonic writing. Then he became a member of "Studio 39" - a theater group.

I met the beginning of the Second World War in Krakow, where I prayed in the Wawel Cathedral, when the first bombs fell on the city. On September 2, together with his father, he left Krakow and went to the east of the country, where, according to the general opinion, the Polish army was gathering forces for a counterattack, but after meeting with the Soviet troops, they had to return back.

During the German occupation, when most of the professors of the university were sent to a concentration camp and classes officially stopped, he attended classes at the “underground university”, and in order to avoid deportation to Germany and support himself and his father, since the occupiers did not pay his father the pension for which they had previously lived, worked in the quarry of the Solvay company near Krakow, then moved to the chemical plant of the same company. He urged the Polish workers not to transfer their hatred of the occupiers to the uninvolved Volksdeutsche, Rusyns and Gorals from among the workers themselves.

From the late autumn of 1939 until the middle of 1940, he wrote many poems and several plays in biblical stories, and also began translating Sophocles' Oedipus Rex into Polish. At this time, Karol was still sure that he would connect his future with theater or science, but his fate was radically influenced by a meeting with Jan Tyranovsky, the owner of a tailoring workshop.

Tyranovsky was the head of the illegal religious society "Life-Giving Rosary": members of the circle met for prayer communication and reflection on the "Sacraments of the Rosary", the number of which was 15 (corresponding to the fifteen main events in the life of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary). Accordingly, Tyranovsky was looking for 15 young people who would be ready to devote themselves to the love of God and the service of others. The organization of such a community at that time was extremely dangerous, and its members were threatened with sending to the camp and death. Once a week, Karol and other young adepts gathered at Tyranovsky's, where he read books on the history of religion and the writings of Catholic mystics with his pupils. The future pope spoke extremely highly of Tyranovsky and believed that it was thanks to him that he discovered the world of true spirituality.

At the same time, he became one of the initiators of the underground Rhapsody Theater, whose performances were reduced to the mere pronunciation of the text. The theater staged plays about social and political injustice, about the struggle of the oppressed: Karol and other members of the troupe believed that their undertaking could support Polish culture during the occupation and preserve the spirit of the nation.

On February 18, 1941, Karol Wojtyla Sr. died. The death of his father was a turning point in Karol's life. Subsequently, he recalled: “By the age of twenty, I had lost everyone I loved. God was clearly preparing me for my path. My father was the person who explained the mysteries of God to me and helped me to comprehend them.” After this moment, Karol finally decided that he would not be an actor or a teacher - he would be a priest.

In 1942, Karol Wojtyla enrolled in the general education courses of the underground Krakow Theological Seminary, turning to Cardinal Sapieha for this, who later became another of his mentor: for Wojtyla, this meant the beginning of an even more stressful and risky life, as he continued to work in a career and participate in theater troupe. In the spring of 1943, Karol finally made a difficult decision by meeting with his theater mentor Mieczysław Kotliarchyk and telling him that he was leaving the theater and was about to take the priesthood. After graduating from the seminary, he initially thought about entering a Carmelite monastery and living the quiet life of a monk.

In 1944, the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Stefan Sapieha, for security reasons, transferred Wojtyla, along with other "illegal" seminarians, to work in the diocesan administration in the archbishop's palace, where Karol remained until the end of the war.

In March 1945, after the liberation of Krakow by Soviet troops, classes resumed at the Jagiellonian University. Wojtyla (like Sapieha) was extremely cautious about the new regime: back in 1941, in one of his letters, he wrote that “communism is a demagogic utopia, and Poland and the Polish communists have nothing in common except language.”

Even in his youth, Karol became a polyglot and spoke quite fluently in thirteen languages ​​- in his native Polish, and in addition to Slovak, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and English, and also knew Latin.

Church ministry

On November 1, 1946, Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest and a few days later went to Rome to continue his theological education.

In the summer of 1947 he made a trip to Western Europe, during which he endured not only pleasant, but also disturbing impressions. Many years after that, he wrote: “I saw from different angles and began to better understand what Western Europe- Europe after the war, Europe of magnificent Gothic cathedrals, which, however, was swept over by a wave of secularization. I realized the seriousness of the challenge thrown to the church and the need to confront the formidable danger with new forms of pastoral activity, open to wider participation of the laity.

In June 1948, at the Pontifical International Athenaeum "Angelicum", he defended his doctoral thesis on the works of the Spanish mystic of the 16th century, the reformer of the Carmelite order, St. John of the Cross. Then he returned to Poland, where in July 1948 he was appointed assistant rector of the parish in the village of Niegovich, in the south of the country in the commune of Gdow, where he served under Kazimierz Buzaly, whom Sapieha deeply respected. In the village, the newly-made priest immediately won great respect: so once the local representatives of the secret police decided to dissolve the parish branch of the Catholic Youth Association and intensively searched for scammers among the parishioners, but no one agreed to betray Father Wojtyla. Karol taught parishioners not to openly oppose the authorities: he believed that in such difficult times it is better to behave loyally and humbly.

In December 1948, the Academic Senate of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow recognized the diploma received by Wojtyla in Rome as valid and awarded him a doctorate.

In August 1949 he was appointed assistant priest in the parish of St. Florian in Krakow, but in September 1951 he was temporarily relieved of his post in order to prepare for the exam for the title of university teacher.

In 1953, Wojtyła defended his dissertation at the theological faculty of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow on the possibility of substantiating Christian ethics based on the ethical system of the German philosopher Max Scheler. After defending his dissertation in October 1953, he began teaching ethics and moral theology at the university, but soon the communist government of Poland closed the theological faculty, and they were forced to transfer their studies to the Krakow Theological Seminary. Then he was offered to teach at the Catholic University of Lublin, where at the end of 1956 he headed the department of ethics.

On July 4, 1958, by appointment of Pope Pius XII, Father Wojtyła became auxiliary bishop of the Archbishopric of Cracow and titular bishop of Ombi. On September 28, 1958, the ordination to the bishop took place, which was performed by Archbishop Eugeniusz Bazyak of Lviv in co-service with the titular Bishop of Daulia Franciszek Jop and the titular Bishop of Vaga Boleslav Komink. On July 16, 1962, after the death of Archbishop Eugeniusz Bazyak, he was elected capitular vicar of the Krakow Archbishopric.

Between 1962 and 1964 he took part in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII, being one of the youngest participants. He played an important role in the preparation of the pastoral constitution "Gaudium et spes" and the declaration of religious freedom "Dignitatis Humanae". Thanks to this work, in January 1964 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop, metropolitan of Krakow.

On June 26, 1967, Pope Paul VI elevated him to the cardinal priesthood with the title of the church pro hac vice of San Cesareo in Palatio.

As a cardinal, he tried in every possible way to oppose the communist regime in Poland. During the events in Gdansk, people took to the streets after sharp increase commodity prices, and police and troops were brought in to quell the riots, resulting in several deaths. Wojtyła condemned acts of violence by the authorities and demanded "the right to bread, the right to freedom ... genuine justice ... and an end to intimidation." The cardinal also continued his long-standing litigation with state power: for example, he filed petitions for the construction of new churches, advocated the abolition of military service for seminary students, and defended the right to give children a Catholic upbringing and education. All these activities were partially successful.

In 1973-1975, Paul VI invited Wojtyla to Rome 11 times for private conversations, which indicates that a rather close relationship developed between them. In March 1976, Wojtyla reads his sermons in Italian to other cardinals (and not in Latin: knowledge of Italian increased the chances of being elected pontiff). After this, the new Polish cardinal began to be noticed more often: for example, in the same year, The New York Times included him in the list of the ten most likely successors to Paul VI.

In August 1978, after the death of Paul VI, Karol Wojtyla participated in the conclave that elected Pope John Paul I, but he died just 33 days after the election - on September 28, 1978.

In October of the same year, another conclave was held. The participants in the conclave were split into supporters of two Italian contenders - Giuseppe Siri - the archbishop of Genoa, known for his conservative views, and the more liberal Giovanni Benelli - the archbishop of Florence. Ultimately, Wojtyła emerged as a compromise candidate and was elected pope. Upon accession to the throne, Wojtyla took the name of his predecessor and became John Paul II.

Pope John Paul II

1970s

John Paul II became pope on October 16, 1978, at the age of 58.

Like his predecessor, John Paul II tried to simplify his position, depriving her of many royal attributes. In particular, speaking about himself, he used the pronoun I instead of we, as is customary among royalty. The pope abandoned the coronation ceremony, instead holding a simple enthronement. He did not wear the papal tiara and always sought to emphasize the role that is indicated in the title of the pope, Servus Servorum Dei (from Latin - "slave of God's servants").

1979

January 24 - Pope John Paul II received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Andrei Gromyko at his request, which was an unprecedented event, since there were no diplomatic relations between the USSR and the Vatican at that time, and everyone knew the pope's attitude towards the communist ideology and the obvious hostility of the Soviet power to Catholicism.

January 25 - The Pope's pastoral trip to Mexico begins - the first of the pontiff's 104 trips abroad.
March 4 - The first papal encyclical Redemptor Hominis (Jesus Christ, the Redeemer) is published.

March 6 - Pope John Paul II made a will, which he constantly reread, and which, with the exception of a few additions, remained unchanged.

June 2 - Wojtyła came to his native Poland for the first time as head of the Roman Catholic Church. For the Poles, who were under the rule of an atheistic pro-Soviet regime, the election of their compatriot as pope was a spiritual impetus to the struggle and the emergence of the Solidarity movement. “Without him, communism would not have ended, or at least it would have happened much later and with more bloodshed,” was how the words were conveyed former leader"Solidarity" by Lech Walesa British newspaper Financial Times. During the entire period of the pontificate, John Paul II visited his homeland eight times. Perhaps the most important was the visit in 1983, when the country was still reeling from the shock caused by the imposition of martial law in December 1981. The communist authorities feared that the pope's visit would be used by the opposition. But the Pope did not give rise to accusations either then or on his next visit in 1987. With opposition leader Lech Walesa, he met exclusively in private. AT Soviet times the Polish leadership agreed to the arrival of the pope with the obligatory consideration of the reaction of the USSR. The then leader of Poland, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, agreeing to the pope's visit, wanted to show that he was first of all a Pole and a patriot, and only then a communist. Later, the pope played a big role in the fact that in the late 1980s the change of power in Poland took place without firing a shot. As a result of his dialogue with General Wojciech Jaruzelski, he peacefully transferred power to Lech Walesa, who received papal blessing for democratic reforms.

June 28 - The first consistory of the pontificate was held, during which the pope handed over red cardinal caps to 14 new "princes of the church".

In 1980, the Vatican was visited on a state visit by the English Queen Elizabeth II (she is also the head of the Anglican Church). It was a historic visit, given that for many centuries the British monarchs and Roman pontiffs were implacable enemies. Elizabeth II was the first of the British monarchs to visit the Vatican on a state visit and even invited the Pope to the UK for a pastoral visit to 4 million British Catholics.

assassination attempt

On May 13, 1981, the reign of John Paul II almost ended as a result of an assassination attempt on the Vatican's St. Peter. Subsequently, John Paul II came to the conclusion that the hand of the Mother of God herself took the bullet away from him.

The attack was carried out by a member of the Turkish far-right group " Grey Wolves» Mehmet Ali Agca. He ended up in Italy after escaping from a Turkish prison, where he served time for murder and bank robbery. Agca seriously wounded John Paul II in the stomach and was arrested on the spot.

In 1983, the Pope visited the imprisoned Ali Agca, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. They talked about something, left alone, but the topic of their conversation is still unknown. After this meeting, John Paul II said: “What we talked about will remain our secret. I spoke to him as to a brother whom I have forgiven and who has my full confidence."

In 1984, Ali Agca testified that the Bulgarian special services were involved in the assassination attempt, after which charges were brought against three Bulgarian citizens and three Turkish citizens, including Bulgarian citizen Sergei Antonov, who was declared the coordinator of the assassination attempt. The version about the involvement of the KGB in this has become widespread. However, all of the accused, except Agdzhi, were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

At the request of John Paul II, Agca was pardoned by the Italian authorities and handed over to Turkish justice.
In 2005, Ali Agja stated that some Vatican cardinals were involved in the assassination attempt.

The head of the special commission of the Italian parliament, Senator Paolo Gutsanti, a member of the Forward Italy party (led by Berlusconi), told reporters: "The commission believes that, without a doubt, the leaders of the USSR were the initiators of the removal of John Paul II." The report is based on information published by Vasily Mitrokhin, former head of the USSR KGB archival department, who fled to the UK in 1992. This report, however, was never considered official in Italy, the special commission itself was dissolved and subsequently accused of slander, and the report of fraud designed to denigrate the socialist Romano Prodi, Berlusconi's rival in the upcoming elections.

1980s

In 1982, Pope John Paul II met with Yasser Arafat.
On December 11, 1983, John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit a Lutheran church (in Rome).
1985

On February 27, during a visit to Portugal, another assassination attempt was made on the pope. The attempt was made by a young priest, a supporter of the ultra-conservative and reactionary Cardinal Lefebvre.

1986
On April 13, for the first time since apostolic times, the pope visited the synagogue (in Rome) and greeted the Jews, whom he called "big brothers".
On October 27, in the Italian city of Assisi, the World Day of Prayer for Peace was held with the participation of representatives different religions from all over the world.
From April 1 to April 12, 1987, the Pope traveled to Chile and met with Pinochet.

On December 1, 1989, for the first time, the pope received a Soviet leader in the Vatican - Mikhail Gorbachev became him. The biographer of John Paul II, George Weigel, assessed this event as follows: "Gorbachev's visit to the Vatican was an act of capitulation of atheistic humanism as an alternative to the development of mankind." The meeting became a turning point in diplomatic contacts between the USSR and the Vatican and in the process of reviving the Catholic Church in the USSR. On March 15, 1990, official relations were established between the Vatican and the USSR, having diplomatic status. Already in April 1991, an official document was signed on the restoration of the structures of the Catholic Church in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. And in August 1991, by special order of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Iron Curtain was raised, and more than 100 thousand young men and women from the USSR without visas, on internal Soviet passports, went to meet with the Pope in Poland.

1990s

On July 12, 1992, the pontiff announced his forthcoming hospitalization due to the need to remove a tumor in the intestines.
On December 30, 1993, diplomatic relations were established between the Vatican and Israel.

On April 29, 1994, the pontiff slipped while getting out of the shower and broke his hip. According to independent experts, from the same year he began to suffer from Parkinson's disease.

In May 1995, when John Paul II turned 75, he asked his closest adviser, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whether he should resign his post, as he attributed the canon law of the Catholic Church to the bishops and cardinals who have reached this age. As a result of the historical and theological research, it was concluded that for the Church, an aged Pope is preferable to a "retired Pope".

On May 21, 1995, the Pope asked for forgiveness for the evil done by Catholics in the past to representatives of other faiths.
On November 19, 1996, the pontiff received Cuban leader Fidel Castro at the Vatican.
1997

On April 12, John Paul II traveled to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), where he spoke about the civil war in this former Yugoslav republic as a tragedy and a challenge for all of Europe. Mines were found along the path of the papal cortege.

On August 24, the Pope took part in the World Catholic Youth Day in Paris, which was attended by over a million young men and women.
On September 27, the pontiff attended a concert of rock stars in Bologna as a listener.

On January 21, 1998, the Pope began a pastoral trip to communist Cuba. At a meeting with Fidel Castro at the Palace of the Revolution (Spanish) Russian. in Havana, the Pope condemned economic sanctions against Cuba. At the same time, the Pope gave Fidel Castro a list of 302 names of Cuban political prisoners. The historic visit culminated in a mass at the Revolution Square in Havana, where about a million Cubans gathered. After this visit, the Cuban authorities released several prisoners, allowed Christmas to be celebrated, agreed to allow new missionaries to enter the island, and in general, the attitude towards the church became more liberal.

1999

On March 11, the Pope met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami for the first time in Rome. This visit helped Iran emerge from international isolation.

On May 7, the papal trip to Romania began. John Paul II became the first Pope to visit Orthodox country.

On June 13, the Pope visited Warsaw and during the visit conducted a beatification of 108 blessed Polish martyrs - ministers of the church who died during the Second World War.

2000s

year 2000
In 2000, the Pope was awarded the United States' highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.
On March 12, the pontiff performed the rite Mea Culpa - repentance for the sins of the sons of the church.
On March 20, the papal visit to Israel began, during which he prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
On May 13, the Roman high priest revealed the "third secret" of the Mother of God of Fatima, connected with the prediction of an attempt on his life in 1981.
year 2001
On May 4, in Athens, the pontiff asked for forgiveness for the destruction of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204.
On May 6, in Damascus, John Paul II became the first pope to visit a mosque.

Until his last days, dad tried to support the flock in the post-Soviet republics of the USSR. In June, already seriously ill, he visited Kyiv and Lvov, where he gathered hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. In September, a pastoral visit to Kazakhstan and Armenia followed, in Yerevan he performed a divine service at the Eternal Flame of the Memorial to the victims of the Ottoman Empire. In May 2002 he visited Azerbaijan.

On September 12, after the terrorist attacks in the United States, the head of the Roman Catholic Church urged President George W. Bush not to allow the logic of hatred and violence to prevail.

On November 5, 2003, the pontiff received Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Vatican.
2004
On June 29, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I made an official visit to the Vatican.
On August 27, the Pope sent as a gift to the Russian Orthodox Church a list of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which was kept in his personal chapel.
2005 year

February 1 - John Paul II was hastily taken to the Roman clinic "Gemelli" in connection with acute laryngotracheitis, complicated by spasmodic phenomena.

February 23 - The last book written by the Pope, "Memory and Identity", appeared on the shelves of bookstores in Italy.
February 24 - the pontiff was re-hospitalized, during which he underwent a tracheostomy.

March 13 - The pope was discharged from the hospital and returned to the Vatican, but for the first time he was unable to take part directly in the Holy Week services.

March 27 - The pontiff tried to address the faithful after Easter Mass from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square, but could not utter a word.

March 30 - John Paul II made his last public appearance, but failed to greet the faithful who had gathered in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

April 2 - John Paul II, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, arthritis and a number of other diseases, died at the age of 84 at 21:37 local time (GMT +2). In his last hours, a huge crowd of people gathered outside his Vatican residence, praying for relief from his suffering. According to the conclusion of the Vatican doctors, John Paul II died "from septic shock and cardiovascular collapse."

April 14 - The Vatican hosted the premiere of the TV series Karol. The man who became the Pope." The premiere was planned for early April, but was postponed due to the death of the pontiff.

April 17 - mourning for the deceased pope ended and the earthly term of government allotted to him officially ended. According to ancient custom, the personal seal of John Paul II and the ring, the so-called Pescatore ("Fisherman's Ring"), with the image of the first pope, the Apostle Peter, were broken and destroyed. John Paul II certified official letters with a seal, personal correspondence with an imprint of a ring.

April 18 - On the first day of the 2005 Papal Conclave, the Italian television channel Canale 5 began showing the TV series Karol. The man who became the Pope."

Activity

Anti-communist and conservative

An entire era is associated with the name of John Paul II - the era of the collapse of communism in Europe - and for many in the world it was he who became its symbol along with Mikhail Gorbachev.

In his post, John Paul II proved to be a tireless fighter both against Stalinist ideas and against the negative aspects of the modern capitalist system - the political and social oppression of the masses. His public speeches in support of human rights and freedoms have made him a symbol of the struggle against authoritarianism throughout the world.

Being a staunch conservative, the pope resolutely defended the foundations of the dogma and social doctrine of the Catholic Church, inherited from the past. In particular, during his pastoral visit to Nicaragua, John Paul II publicly and strongly condemned the theology of liberation, popular among some Latin American Catholics, and personally the priest Ernesto Cardenal, who joined the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and violated the rules of the Holy Apostles "not to intervene in the government of the people." The Roman curia, as a result of the refusal of the priests to withdraw from the government of Nicaragua, even for a long time after the explanation of the pope, deprived them of their dignity, despite the fact that the church of Nicaragua did not do this.

The Catholic Church under John Paul II maintained an intransigent stance on abortion and contraception. In 1994, the Holy See thwarted the adoption by the United Nations of a US-proposed resolution to support family planning. John Paul II spoke out strongly against homosexual marriages and euthanasia, against the ordination of women to the priesthood, and also supported celibacy.

At the same time, while maintaining the fundamental canons of faith, he proved the ability of the Catholic Church to develop along with civilization, recognizing the achievements of civil society and scientific and technological progress, and even appointing Saints Methodius and Cyril as patrons of the European Union, and Saint Isidore of Seville as patron of the Internet.

Repentance of the Catholic Church

John Paul II, among his predecessors, is distinguished only by repentance for the mistakes committed by some Catholics in the course of history. Even during the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the Polish bishops, together with Karol Wojtyla, published a letter to the German bishops about reconciliation with the words: "We forgive and ask for forgiveness." And already as a pope, John Paul II brought repentance on behalf of the Western Christian Church for the crimes of the Crusades and the Inquisition.

In October 1992, the Roman Catholic Church rehabilitated Galileo Galilei (350 years after the scientist's death).

In August 1997, John Paul II admitted the guilt of the church in the mass destruction of Protestants in France during the St. Bartholomew night of August 24, 1572, and in January 1998 he decided to open the archives of the Holy Inquisition.

On March 12, 2000, during the traditional Sunday mass in St. Peter's Basilica, John Paul II publicly repented of the sins of members of the Catholic Church. He asked for forgiveness for the sins of church leaders: church schisms and religious wars, "contempt, acts of hostility and silence" towards the Jews, the forced evangelization of America, discrimination based on gender and nationality, manifestations of social and economic injustice. Never in the history of mankind has any religion or denomination brought such repentance.

John Paul II acknowledged accusations against the Catholic Church - in particular, in silence during the events of World War II and the Holocaust, when Catholic priests and bishops limited themselves to saving Jews and other people persecuted by the Nazis (see the story of Rabbi Zolli and many others).

peacekeeper

Actively opposed to any wars, in 1982, during the crisis around the Falklands, he visited both the UK and Argentina, calling on the countries to peace. In 1991, the Pope condemned the Gulf War. When the war broke out in Iraq again in 2003, John Paul II sent one of the cardinals on a peace mission to Baghdad, and blessed another for a conversation with US President George W. British invasion of Iraq.

Interfaith Relations

In interfaith relations, John Paul II also differed greatly from his predecessors. He became the first pope to make contacts with other faiths.

In 1982, for the first time in 450 years since the separation of the Anglican Church from the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and celebrated a joint service.

In August 1985, at the invitation of King Hassan II, the Pope spoke in Morocco to an audience of fifty thousand young Muslims. He spoke of the misunderstanding and enmity that had previously existed in relations between Christians and Muslims, and called for the establishment of "peace and unity between people and nations that make up a single community on Earth."

In April 1986, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, the Pope crossed the threshold of the synagogue, where, sitting next to the Chief Rabbi of Rome, he uttered the phrase that became one of his most quoted statements: "You are our beloved brothers and, one might say, our elder brothers." Many years later, in 2000, the pope visited Jerusalem and touched the Western Wall, the shrine of Judaism, and also visited the Yad Vashem memorial.

In October 1986, the first interreligious meeting took place in Assisi, when 47 delegations from various Christian denominations, as well as representatives of 13 other religions, responded to the invitation of the pontiff to discuss the problems of interfaith relations.

On May 4, 2001, John Paul II visited Greece. This was the first visit of the head of the Roman Catholic Church to Greece since 1054, when the Christian Church split into Catholic and Orthodox.

Apostolic visits

John Paul II made more than 100 trips abroad, visiting about 130 countries. Most often, he visited Poland, the USA and France (six times each), as well as Spain and Mexico (five times each). These trips were designed to help strengthen the position of Catholicism around the world and establish links between Catholics and other religions (primarily Islam and Judaism). Everywhere he has always spoken out in defense of human rights and against violence and dictatorial regimes.

In general, during the pontificate, the pope traveled more than 1,167,000 km.

The unfulfilled dream of John Paul II was a trip to Russia. In the years before the fall of communism, his trip to the USSR was not possible. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, visiting Russia became politically possible, but the Russian Orthodox Church opposed the pope's visit. The Moscow Patriarchate accused the Roman Catholic Church of expanding into the original territory of the Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said that until Catholics give up proselytism (attempts to convert the Orthodox to Catholicism), the visit of the head of their church to Russia is impossible. Many political leaders, including Vladimir Putin, tried to promote the pope's visit to Russia, but the Moscow Patriarchate remained adamant. In February 2001, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, trying to circumvent the dissatisfaction of the Moscow Patriarchate, proposed to the Pope that he not make a pastoral, but a state visit to Russia.

According to Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in 2002-2007, one of the main achievements during the pontificate of John Paul II was the restoration of the administrative structures of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia in February 2002. It was these transformations, however, that exacerbated the already complicated relationship between the Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate.

After death

Responses to the Death of John Paul II

In Italy, Poland, Latin America, Egypt and many others, a three-day mourning was declared in connection with the death of John Paul II. Brazil - the world's largest Catholic country (120 million Catholics) - announced seven days of mourning, Venezuela - five days.

Political and spiritual leaders around the world responded to the death of John Paul II.
US President George W. Bush called him "a knight of freedom."

“I am sure that the role of John Paul II in history, his spiritual and political heritage are duly appreciated by mankind,” the telegram of condolences says. Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The deceased primate of the ancient Roman See was distinguished by his devotion to the path chosen in his youth, his ardent will for Christian service and witness,” said Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia.

"We will never forget that he supported the oppressed peoples, including the Palestinians," - said, according to the press secretary of the Arab League, its Secretary General Amr Musa.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, opening the weekly government meeting, said: “John Paul II was a man of peace, a friend of the Jewish people, who recognized the right of the Jews to the Land of Israel. He did a lot for the historical reconciliation between Judaism and Christianity. It was thanks to his efforts that the Holy See recognized the State of Israel and established diplomatic relations with it at the end of 1993.”

Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stressed in a statement that John Paul II will be remembered as "an outstanding religious figure who dedicated his life to the defense of peace, freedom and equality." Condolences were also expressed by Palestinian parties and movements, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the majority of whose members at the time of its inception were Eastern Christians (Armenians and Orthodox), Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"Cuba has always considered John Paul II a friend who defended the rights of the poor, opposed neo-liberal policies and fought for world peace," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said.

The funeral

Farewell to Pope John Paul II and his funeral became the most massive series of ceremonial events in the history of mankind. 300 thousand people attended the funeral liturgy, 4 million pilgrims saw the pontiff from earthly life to eternal life (more than a million of them were Poles); more than a billion believers belonging to various Christian denominations and professing different religions prayed for the repose of his soul; 2 billion viewers watched the ceremony live.

More than 100 heads of state and government attended the funeral of the pontiff - 11 monarchs, 70 presidents and prime ministers, several heads of international organizations, including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. And about two thousand more members of various delegations - from 176 countries in total. Russia was represented by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.

The funeral ceremony of Pope John Paul II, held on April 8, 2005 in the Vatican St. Peter's Basilica, was based on liturgical texts and the provisions of the apostolic constitution approved by John Paul II in 1996.

On the night of April 8, the access of believers to St. Peter's Cathedral was terminated, and the body of John Paul II was placed in a cypress coffin (according to legend, the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified was made from this tree) - the first of three due to the pontiff during the burial of coffins ( the other two are zinc and pine). Before closing the lid of the coffin, the face of John Paul II was covered with a special piece of white silk. According to tradition, a leather bag with coins issued during the years of the pontificate of John Paul II, and a metal pencil case with a scroll containing the life of John Paul II were placed in the coffin.

After the prayer, the coffin was transferred to the porch in front of the facade of St. Peter's, where at 10 am the cardinals celebrated the funeral mass. The funeral service was led by Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The liturgy was in Latin, but some parts were read in Spanish, English, French, as well as Swahili, Polish, German and Portuguese. The patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches performed the funeral service for the pope in Greek.

At the end of the farewell ceremony, the body of John Paul II was transferred to the grotto of the Basilica (Cathedral) of St. Peter. John Paul II is buried next to the relics of the Holy Apostle Peter, in the chapel of the Mother of God of Czestochowa, the patron saint of Poland, not far from the chapel of the founders of the Slavic alphabet, Saints Cyril and Methodius, in the former grave of Pope John XXIII, whose ashes were buried in connection with his canonization in 2000 moved from the crypt of St. Peter's to the cathedral itself. Chapel of the Mother of God of Czestochowa in 1982, at the insistence of John Paul II, was restored, decorated with the icon of the Holy Virgin Mary and images of Polish saints.

Beatification of John Paul II

In the Latin tradition, beginning with the establishment of Pope Urban VIII in 1642, it is customary to distinguish between the process of being beatified (beatified) and saints (canonized). Later, under Pope Benedict XIV, requirements were established that the candidate must meet: his writings must comply with the teachings of the Church, the virtues he showed must be exceptional, and the facts of the miracle performed through his intercession must be documented or evidenced by witnesses.

For canonization, at least two miracles are required, through the intercession of the deceased. In the beatification and canonization of martyrs, the fact of a miracle is not required.

The issues of glorification are dealt with by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican, which studies the submitted materials and sends them, in case of a positive preliminary conclusion, for approval to the pope, after which the icon of the newly glorified is opened in St. Peter's Basilica.

John Paul II himself canonized more people as saints and blessed than all his predecessors after the 16th century. From 1594 (after the adoption by Sixtus V in 1588 of the apostolic constitution Immensa Aeterni Dei, concerning, in particular, issues of canonization) to 2004, 784 canonizations were made, of which 475 were during the pontificate of John Paul II. John Paul II numbered 1,338 people among the blessed. He declared Teresa the Child Jesus a Doctor of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI began the process of canonizing his predecessor, John Paul II. This was announced by Benedict XVI at a meeting of priests in the Basilica of St. John on the Lateran in Rome. A prerequisite for beatification is a miracle. It is believed that John Paul II healed the French nun Marie Simon-Pierre of Parkinson's disease a few years ago. On May 1, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II.

On April 29, 2011, the body of Pope John Paul II was exhumed and placed in front of the main altar of St. Peter, and after beatification reburied in a new tomb. The marble slab with which the former tomb of the pontiff was covered will be sent to his homeland - to Poland.

Canonization of John Paul II

The decision to canonize was made as a result of a cardinal consistory held by Pope Francis on September 30, 2013. On July 3, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See issued a statement that the second miracle necessary for canonization, with the assistance of the pontiff, occurred on May 1, 2011. A miracle happened in 2011 in Costa Rica with a woman named Floribet Mora Diaz, who was healed of a cerebral aneurysm thanks to the prayer and intercession of John Paul II.

Proceedings

John Paul II is the author of more than 120 philosophical and theological works, 14 encyclicals and five books, the last of which - "Memory and Identity" - was published on the eve of his hospitalization on February 23, 2005. His most popular book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, has sold over 20 million copies.

The most important goal for John Paul II as the head of the Catholic Church was the preaching of the Christian faith. John Paul was the author of a number of important documents, many of which have had and continue to have a huge impact on the Church and the whole world.

His first encyclicals were devoted to the triune essence of God, and the very first was "Jesus Christ, the Redeemer" ("Redemptor Hominis"). This focus on God continued throughout the pontificate.

The life of Karol Wojtyla, whom the world knows under the name of John Paul 2, was filled with both tragic and joyful events. He became the first with Slavic roots. A huge era is associated with his name. In his post, Pope John Paul 2 showed himself as a tireless fighter against the political and social oppression of people. Many of his public speeches supporting human rights and freedoms have turned him into a symbol of the fight against authoritarianism.

Childhood

Karol Jozef Wojtyla, the future great John Paul 2, was born in a small town near Krakow in a military family. His father, a lieutenant in the Polish army, was fluent in German and systematically taught the language to his son. The mother of the future pontiff is a teacher, she, according to some sources, was Ukrainian. It is precisely the fact that the ancestors of John Paul 2 were of Slavic blood, apparently, that explains the fact that the Pope understood and respected everything related to the Russian language and culture. When the boy was eight years old, he lost his mother, and at the age of twelve his elder brother also died. As a child, the boy was fond of the theater. He dreamed of growing up and becoming an artist, and at the age of 14 he even wrote a play called The Spirit King.

Youth

In John Paul II, whose biography any Christian can envy, he graduated from a classical college and received the sacrament of chrismation. As historians testify, Karol studied quite successfully. Having completed his secondary education on the eve of World War II, he continued his studies at the Krakow Jagiellonian University at the Faculty of Polonist Studies.

In four years, he managed to pass philology, literature, Church Slavonic writing and even the basics of the Russian language. As a student, Karol Wojtyla enrolled in a theater group. During the years of the occupation, the professors of this one of the most famous universities in Europe were sent to concentration camps, and classes officially stopped. But the future pontiff continued his studies, attending classes underground. And so that he would not be driven to Germany, and he could support his father, whose pension was cut by the invaders, the young man went to work in a quarry near Krakow, and then moved to a chemical plant.

Education

In 1942, Karol enrolled in the general education courses of the theological seminary, which operated underground in Krakow. In 1944, Archbishop Stefan Sapieha, for security reasons, transferred Wojtyla and several other "illegal" seminarians to the diocesan administration, where they worked in the archbishop's palace until the end of the war. Thirteen languages ​​fluently spoken by John Paul II, biographies of saints, one hundred philosophical and theological and philosophical works, as well as fourteen encyclicals and five books written by him, made him one of the most enlightened pontiffs.

Church ministry

On November 1, 1946, Wojtyla was ordained a priest. Just a couple of days later, he headed to Rome to continue his theological education. In 1948 he completed his doctoral thesis on the writings of the Reformed Carmelites, the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. After that, Karol returned to his homeland, where he was appointed assistant rector in the parish of the village of Negovich in southern Poland.

In 1953, the future pontiff defended another dissertation on the possibility of substantiating Christian ethics on the basis of Scheler's ethical system. Since October of the same year, he begins to teach moral theology, but soon the Polish communist government closed the faculty. Then Wojtyla was offered to head the Department of Ethics at the Catholic University in Ljubljana.

In 1958, Pope Pius XII appointed him as auxiliary bishop in the Archbishopric of Krakow. In September of the same year, he was ordained. The rite was performed by Lvov Archbishop Bazyak. And after the death of the latter in 1962, Wojtyla was elected capitular vicar.

From 1962 to 1964, the biography of John Paul 2 is closely connected with the Second Vatican Council. He took part in all sessions convened by the then pontiff. In 1967, the future Pope was elevated to cardinal-priests. After the death of Paul VI in 1978, Karol Wojtyla voted in the conclave, as a result of which Pope John Paul I was elected. However, the latter died just thirty-three days later. In October 1978, a new conclave was held. The participants split into two camps. Some defended the archbishop of Genoa, Giuseppe Siri, who was famous for his conservative views, while others defended Giovanni Benelli, who was known as a liberal. Without reaching a common agreement, in the end the conclave chose a compromise candidate, which became Karol Wojtyla. Upon accession to the papacy, he took the name of his predecessor.

Traits

Pope John Paul 2, whose biography has always been associated with the church, became pope at the age of fifty-eight. Like his predecessor, he sought to simplify the position of pontiff, in particular, deprived her of some of the royal attributes. For example, he began to speak of himself as the Pope, using the pronoun "I", refused to be crowned, instead of which he simply carried out enthronement. He never wore a tiara and considered himself a servant of God.

Eight times John Paul 2 visited his homeland. He played a huge role in the fact that the change of power in Poland in the late 1980s took place without a shot being fired. After his conversation with General Jaruzelski, the latter peacefully handed over the leadership of the country to Walesa, who had already received papal blessing for democratic reforms.

assassination attempt

On May 13, 1981, the life of John Paul II almost ended. It was on this day in the square of St. Peter in the Vatican, he was assassinated. The perpetrator was a member of the Turkish far-right extremists Mehmet Agca. The terrorist seriously wounded the pontiff in the stomach. He was arrested immediately at the scene of the crime. Two years later, dad came to Agca in prison, where he was serving a life sentence. The victim and the perpetrator talked about something for a long time, but John Paul 2 did not want to talk about the topic of their conversation, although he said that he had forgiven him.

Prophecies

Subsequently, he came to the conclusion that the hand of the Mother of God took the bullet away from him. And the reason for this was the famous Fatima predictions of the Virgin Mary, which John recognized. Paul 2 was so interested in the prophecy of the Mother of God, in particular, the last one, that he devoted many years to studying it. In fact, there were three predictions: the first of them related to two world wars, the second in allegorical form concerned the revolution in Russia.

As for the third prophecy of the Virgin Mary, for a long time it was the subject of hypotheses and incredible conjectures, which is not surprising: the Vatican kept it a deep secret for a long time. It was even said by the highest Catholic clergy that it would forever remain a secret. And only Pope John Paul 2 decided to reveal to the people the riddle of the latter. He always had the courage of actions. On the thirteenth of May, on the day of his eighty-third birthday, he declared that he saw no point in the need to keep the secret of the predictions of the Virgin Mary. The Vatican Secretary of State told in general terms what the nun Lucia wrote down, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in her childhood. The report said that the Virgin Mary predicted the martyrdom that the popes of Rome would follow in the twentieth century, even the assassination attempt on John Paul II by the Turkish terrorist Ali Agca.

Pontificate years

In 1982, he met with Yasser Arafat. A year later, John Paul II visited the Lutheran church in Rome. He became the first pope to take such a step. In December 1989, for the first time in the history of the Vatican, the pontiff received a Soviet leader. It was Mikhail Gorbachev.

Hard work, numerous trips around the world undermine the health of the head of the Vatican. In July 1992, the pontiff announced his upcoming hospitalization. John Paul II was diagnosed with a tumor in the intestines, which had to be removed. The operation went well, and soon the pontiff returned to his normal life.

A year later, he ensured that diplomatic relations were established between the Vatican and Israel. In April 1994, the pontiff slipped and fell. It turned out that he had a broken femoral neck. Independent experts claim that it was then that John Paul 2 developed Parkinson's disease.

But even this serious illness does not stop the pontiff in his peacekeeping activities. In 1995, he asks for forgiveness for the evil that Catholics have inflicted on believers of other faiths in the past. A year and a half later, the Cuban leader Castro comes to the pontiff. In 1997, the pope came to Sarajevo, where in his speech he spoke of the tragedy of the civil war in that country as a challenge to Europe. During this visit, there were minefields on the way of his cortege more than once.

In the same year, the pontiff comes to Bologna for a rock concert, where he appears as a listener. A few months later, John Paul 2, whose biography is full of peacekeeping activities, undertakes a pastoral visit to the territory of communist Cuba. In Havana, at a meeting with Castro, he condemns the economic sanctions against this country and gives the leader a list of three hundred political prisoners. This historic visit culminates in a mass held by the pontiff in the Revolution Square in the Cuban capital, where more than a million people gather. After the departure of the pope, the authorities released more than half of the prisoners.

In the year 2000, the pontiff comes to Israel, where in Jerusalem at the Wailing Wall he prays for a long time. In 2002, John Paul II visited a mosque in Damascus. He becomes the first pope to take such a step.

Peacekeeping activities

Condemning any wars and actively criticizing them, in 1982, during the crisis associated with the pontiff, he visits Great Britain and Argentina, calling on these countries to conclude peace. In 1991, the Pope denounces the conflict in the Persian Gulf. When the war broke out in Iraq in 2003, John Paul II sent a cardinal from the Vatican on a peacekeeping mission to Baghdad. In addition, he blessed another legate to speak with the then US President Bush. During the meeting, his envoy conveyed to the head of the American state the sharp and rather negative attitude of the pontiff towards the invasion of Iraq.

Apostolic visits

John Paul 2 visited about one hundred and thirty countries during his foreign trips. Most of all he came to Poland - eight times. The pontiff made six visits to the USA and France. In Spain and Mexico, he was five times. All his trips had one goal: they were aimed at helping to strengthen the positions of Catholicism around the world, as well as establishing ties with other religions, and primarily with Islam and Judaism. Everywhere the pontiff spoke out against violence, defending the rights of the people and denying dictatorial regimes.

In general, during his tenure at the head of the Vatican, the pope traveled more than a million kilometers. His unfulfilled dream remained a trip to our country. During the years of communism, his visit to the USSR was impossible. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, though the visit became politically possible, the Russian Orthodox Church opposed the arrival of the pontiff.

demise

John Paul 2 died at the age of 85. Thousands of people spent the night from Saturday to Sunday April 2, 2005 in front of the Vatican, carrying in their memory the deeds, words and image of this amazing man. Candles were lit and silence reigned, despite the huge number of mourners.

The funeral

Farewell to John Paul II has become one of the most massive ceremonies for recent history humanity. Three hundred thousand people attended the funeral liturgy, four million pilgrims saw the pope off eternal life. More than a billion believers of all faiths prayed for the repose of the soul of the deceased, and the number of viewers who watched the ceremony on TV is impossible to count. In memory of his countryman in Poland, a commemorative coin "John Paul 2" was issued.

In the family of a former officer of the Austrian army. Before reaching the age of 20, Karol Wojtyla was left an orphan.

Pope

Like his predecessor, John Paul II tried to simplify his position, depriving her of many of the royal attributes. In particular, speaking about himself, he used the pronoun "I" instead of "we", as is customary among royalty. The pope abandoned the coronation ceremony, holding a simple inauguration instead. He did not wear the papal tiara and always sought to emphasize the role that is indicated in the title of the pope, Servus Servorum Dei (slave of the servants of God).

In the city of John Paul II, for the first time, he met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.A. Gromyko. This was an unprecedented development given the lack of diplomatic relations between Soviet Union and the Vatican. On December 1, the Pope met with the Soviet leader M.S. Gorbachev, and already on March 15, diplomatic relations were established between the USSR and the Vatican.

On January 25, the Pope's visit to Mexico began. This was the first of the pontiff's 104 foreign trips. In the summer, John Paul II visited his native Poland. His election as the head of the Roman Catholic Church was a spiritual impetus to the struggle of the Poles against the communist regime and to the emergence of the Solidarity movement. Later, the pope visited his homeland seven more times, but never gave himself a reason to accuse himself of inciting the opposition to a coup.

May 13, in the Roman square of St. Peter's assassination attempt on John Paul II was made by a member of the Turkish far-right group "Gray Wolves" Mehmet Ali Agca. Agca wounded John Paul II in the chest and arm and was captured. Dad visited the imprisoned Agca, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. What exactly they talked about is still a mystery, but dad told reporters that he forgave Agca. In the city of Agdzha, he testified that the assassination attempt was organized by the Bulgarian and Soviet special services. Three Bulgarians and three Turks were arrested, allegedly involved in the assassination, but for lack of evidence were released. Later, at the request of the pope, Agca was pardoned by the Italian authorities and transferred to the Turkish justice authorities. In Agca, he said that some Vatican cardinals were involved in the assassination attempt. On March 2, excerpts from the report of the commission of the Italian Parliament, which was investigating the circumstances of the assassination attempt on John Paul II, were published. The head of the commission, Senator Paolo Gutsanti, told reporters about the involvement of the USSR leadership in the elimination of John Paul II. The report is based on information published by Vasily Mitrokhin, former head of the USSR KGB archival department, who fled to the UK in 1992.

ecumenical activity

John Paul II actively made contacts with representatives of other confessions. The English Queen Elizabeth II (she is also the head of the Anglican Church) paid a state visit to the Vatican. It was a historic visit, given that for many centuries the British monarchs and Roman pontiffs were implacable enemies. Elizabeth II was the first of the British monarchs to visit the Vatican on a state visit and even invited the Pope to the UK for a pastoral visit to 4 million British Catholics.

In the city, the Pope met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and held a joint service.

In August, at the invitation of King Hassan II, the Pope spoke in Morocco to an audience of fifty thousand young Muslims. He spoke of the misunderstanding and enmity that had previously existed in relations between Christians and Muslims, and called for the establishment of "peace and unity between people and nations that make up a single community on Earth."

In April, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, the Pope crossed the threshold of the synagogue, where, sitting next to the Chief Rabbi of Rome, he uttered the phrase that became one of his most quoted statements: "You are our beloved brothers and, one might say, our elder brothers."

In October, the first interreligious meeting took place in Assisi, when 47 delegations from various Christian denominations, as well as representatives of 13 other religions, responded to the invitation of the pontiff to discuss the problems of interfaith relations.

On May 6, in Damascus, John Paul II was the first of the pontiffs to visit the mosque.

On May 7, John Paul II visited an Orthodox country, Romania, for the first time. In the city, the pope made an official visit to Greece, for the first time since 1054, when the Western Church broke away from the Eastern.

Repentance for mistakes

John Paul II, among his predecessors, is distinguished only by repentance for the mistakes committed by some Catholics in the course of history. Even during the Second Vatican Council in, and in January, he decided to open the archives of the Inquisition.

On March 12, during the traditional Sunday mass in St. Peter's Basilica, John Paul II publicly repented of the sins of the Catholic Church. He asked for forgiveness and admitted the guilt of the church for eight sins: the persecution of the Jews, the split of the church and religious wars, Crusades and war-justifying theological tenets, contempt for minorities and the poor, justification for slavery.

John Paul II acknowledged the accusations against the Catholic Church - in particular, in silence during the events of World War II and the Holocaust, when Catholic priests and bishops limited themselves to saving Jews and other people persecuted by the Nazis.

Illness and death

In the mid-1990s, John Paul II's health began to deteriorate. In 1997, he had a tumor removed from his intestines. On April 29, he slipped in the bathroom and broke his hip. Since that time, he began to suffer from Parkinson's disease. Despite his bodily infirmity, he continued to travel abroad.

In February, my father was hospitalized with acute laryngotracheitis and underwent a tracheotomy. But, even after being discharged from the hospital, he was unable to take part in the services during Passion Week and was unable to utter a word during the traditional address to the faithful after the Easter Mass.

Immediately after the death of the pope, Catholics around the world began to call on the Vatican to declare him a saint. Benedict XVI began the process of his beatification, disregarding the rule that at least five years must elapse from the date of a person's death.

"Entirely yours" - this motto was guided by a man who devoted his life to serving the Catholic Church. At birth, his name was Karol Wojtyla, but the whole world knows him under the name
John Paul II.

Childhood

In the small town of Vladowice, located in southern Poland, on May 18, 1920, a boy was born, who was named Karol Jozef. He was the youngest son in the family of Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska, their eldest son Edmund was 14 years old at that time. Karol's father, a former officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, was a simple employee on the railway, and his mother was a teacher. No one in the family could have guessed what fate awaited their youngest son, although the mother always believed that her Lolus (as Karolya was affectionately called in the family) would become a great person. Karol's family was very pious: the Bible was read daily, prayers sounded, everything was celebrated. church holidays and rituals were observed.
From early childhood, Karol had to endure heavy losses: at the age of 8 he was left without a mother, after 3 years he lost his brother, when Karol was 20 years old, his father also died. These losses and subsequent loneliness had a huge impact on the formation of his character: he always drew comfort and strength from faith, humility and prayer.

Youth years

From the age of 6, Karol's studies began in primary school. The gifted child studied “excellently”, he especially liked the humanities: Polish and foreign languages, drawing, religion, singing. After 4 years of study at elementary school, Karol continued his studies at the male gymnasium, where he showed himself to be one of the best students. Here he actively participated in the drama group, dreaming of becoming an actor, headed the Marian Society, whose activities were based on the worship and veneration of the Virgin Mary. In 1938, Karol Wojtyla brilliantly graduated from the gymnasium and became a freshman at the Jagiellonian University, choosing the Faculty of Philosophy for study. He combined successful studies with participation in a theater studio, where he acted not only as an actor, but also as a playwright. In the autumn of 1939, the territory of Poland was occupied by German troops, so cultural, educational and religious activities in the country froze. In order not to be forcibly taken to work in Germany, Karol gets a job in a quarry in the vicinity of Krakow, and then moves to the Solvay chemical plant, where he worked for 4 years in difficult conditions. During the German occupation of Krakow, a theological seminary organized by Archbishop Adam Sapieha began to work underground in the city, classes in which the future head of the Roman Catholic Church began to attend. It is in these difficult times young Karol Wojtyla was convinced that he wanted to devote his life to the service of the church. In 1944, in order to protect illegal seminarians, including Karol, Cardinal Sapieha transferred them to work in his residence. After Krakow was liberated, Wojtyla continued his studies at the Higher Theological Seminary, which he combined with studies at the Jagiellonian University at the Faculty of Theology.

Church ministry

In 1946, 26-year-old Karol Wojtyla received the priesthood, the sacrament of ordination to the priesthood was performed by Cardinal Sapieha. After that, the young presbyter was sent to Rome to study theology at the International Pontifical University "Angelicum", where in 1948 he defended his doctoral dissertation. After completing the training, the priest returns to his homeland, where he begins to serve for the benefit of the church: first in the village of Niegovich as an assistant to the parish priest, and then as an assistant priest in the Krakow parish of St. Florian.

In 1953, the dissertation was defended, and Karol Wojtyla received the title of Doctor of Theology at the Jagiellonian University. He teaches at the theological faculty, but the communist authorities in Poland close such faculties, so the young teacher goes to work at the Krakow Theological Seminary. In 1956, he was invited to teach worship and ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin, where two years later Professor Wojtyla became head of the department. By combining work in these educational institutions, he devotes all his free time to those who need his advice, help or confession.

Church career steps

In 1958, important changes took place in the life of the Polish priest: in July he was appointed vicar (auxiliary) bishop in the Krakow Archbishopric, and in September, 38-year-old Karol Wojtyla became the youngest among Polish bishops. He devoted all 12 years of his priestly activity to scientific work, writing about 300 articles on Christian topics, but priest Wojtyla always found time for the spiritual education of young people: he talked with them, gave lectures, held discussions, and explained the Bible.
In the autumn of 1962, a young Polish bishop was invited to serve in the Second Vatican Council. He is working on a declaration of freedom of religion, on the Constitution of the Church in modern world. On New Year's Eve 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Wojtyla Metropolitan of Krakow. On March 3, 1964, the new 43-year-old archbishop solemnly took over his new residence - the Wawel Cathedral. Another important event took place in the career of the Polish priest - in May 1967 he was elevated to the rank of cardinal. At the beginning of summer, a solemn ceremony took place in the Sistine Chapel - 26 cardinals, including Karol Wojtyla, were placed on their heads with a red cardinal cap.

Pope John Paul II

In 1978, two shocks hit the Catholic world at once: in August, Pope Paul VI died, and in September (after only 33 days in office), Pope John Paul I died suddenly. To elect a new rector of the Catholic Church, a conclave of cardinals was held. Two Italian priests claimed the Holy See: Giovanni Benelli and Giuseppe Siri. On October 16, 1978, white smoke appeared over the Sistine Chapel, indicating the election of 264 Popes. They became the 58-year-old Cardinal Karol Wojtyla - the first foreigner in this post in the last 455 years, and even a native of socialist Poland. The new Pope chose the name John Paul II.
The elected pontiff was strikingly different from his predecessors: he relieved his position of many attributes of royal power, was close and accessible to believers, did a lot of sports, his reign combined the inviolability of the canons of Catholicism and the ability to develop and think in the spirit of modernity. John Paul II is the first Pope who visited a Lutheran church, a Jewish synagogue and a Muslim mosque, paid an official visit to an Orthodox country, listened to a concert of rock stars and attended a football match at the stadium.

During the 26 years of his pontificate, John Paul II traveled to 130 countries, making about 250 trips and visiting 1022 cities in various parts of the globe. These were pastoral trips to Mexico, to their homeland in Poland, to communist Cuba, to civil war-torn Sarajevo, to Orthodox Romania, to Israel, as well as to the post-Soviet republics - Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. By this, he contributed to the strengthening of the position of Catholicism throughout the world, strengthened the connection of the Catholic faith with other religions. He opposed wars, totalitarianism and very often criticized the communist system.
Never in the world has any religion asked for forgiveness for its mistakes. The pontiff, on behalf of the Catholic Church, brought public repentance for the mistakes it had made in the course of history: the persecution of the Jewish people, the Crusades, violent evangelism and the crimes of the Inquisition. Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus were rehabilitated by him.

In the 90s, the health of the 70-year-old pontiff began to deteriorate. A tumor in the intestines, a fracture of the femoral neck, arthritis, Parkinson's disease - all this greatly affected his condition, but the Pope, as usual, made trips, meetings, held services.

In 2005, the pontiff became so exhausted that he could not turn to the faithful after the Easter Mass, and on April 2, 2005, John Paul II died. This great man died at the age of 85.