John Paul II

John Paul II (in Latin, Ioannes Paulus II), of secular name Karol Józef Wojtyła(pronunciation (?·i)Wadowice, Poland; May 18, 1920-City of the Vatican, April 2, 2005), was Pope 264 of the Catholic and sovereign Church of the Vatican City from October 16, 1978 until his death in 2005. He was canonized in 2014, during the pontificate of Francis, which makes him a saint of the Catholic Church.

After having been auxiliary bishop (since 1958) and archbishop of Krakow (since 1962), he became the first Polish pope in history, and the first non-Italian since 1523. His nearly 27-year pontificate was the third longest in the history of the Catholic Church, after that of Saint Peter (believed to be between 34 and 37 years, although its exact duration is difficult to determine) and that of Pius IX (31 years).

John Paul II was hailed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, especially remembered for being one of the main symbols of anti-communism, and for his fight against the expansion of Marxism in places like Latin America, where he fought the movement known as liberation theology, with the help of his right hand and ultimately successor, Joseph Ratzinger.

He was also instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually throughout Europe, as well as significantly improving the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion.

Among the most notorious events of his pontificate, he highlighted the assassination attempt he suffered on May 13, 1981, while greeting the faithful in Saint Peter's Square, at the hands of Mehmet Ali Ağca, who shot him at close range between the crowd. Some time later the terrorist was publicly pardoned by the pontiff himself. To this was added another attack that occurred in Fatima on the night of May 12 to 13, 1982 at the hands of the ultra-conservative priest Juan María Fernández Krohn, a fact that did not come to light until after the death of the pontiff.

He was one of the most traveled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. He spoke the following languages: Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Russian, Croatian, Esperanto, Ancient Greek, and Latin, as well as his native language, Polish. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he beatified 1,340 people and canonized 483 saints, more than the combined number of his predecessors in the last five centuries. On December 19, 2009, John Paul II was proclaimed venerable by his successor, Benedict XVI, who subsequently presided over his beatification ceremony on May 1, 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday), and was canonized along with the pope. John XXIII on April 27, 2014 (again Divine Mercy Sunday) by Pope Francis.

Biography

Childhood and youth

John Paul II's home in Wadowice.

Karol Józef was born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, a Polish town near Krakow.

He was the youngest of the three children of the couple Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska. Her mother was a fervent Catholic, and she arranged for her son to be born near a temple, as she wanted the first thing her son heard to be the "chants to God." When Karol was still very young, his mother told other women: You will see that my little Karol will be a great person . His mother died in 1929, when he was nine years old. His sister Olga had died before he was born. His older brother Edmund, who was a doctor, died in 1932 from a disease when he cured a man of humble condition. Together with his father, Karol moved to Krakow to start his studies at the Jagiellonian University. His father, a non-commissioned officer in the Polish army, died during the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1941. His father always guided him on the path of faith and Christian love.

After finishing high school, a time when he stood out as an accomplished chess player (even winning several student championships), he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and also at a theater school. When the German forces closed the University, in September 1939, the young Karol had to work in a quarry and later in a chemical factory (Solvay), to earn a living and avoid being deported to Germany. Recorded by the Gestapo, he took refuge in a Krakow attic. At that time he joined the group of the famous Polish actor Mieczysław Kotlarczyk, creator of the Rhapsody theater, with which he played roles with patriotic content.

During the German occupation of Poland, he especially cultivated culture, theater and friendships, in the context of the Unia group, made up of young Catholics who wanted to resist, both peacefully (like Wojtyła) and through action (directly helping the Jews or using violence), to the Nazi occupation. Later, his situation became complicated and he had to take refuge in the underground of the Archdiocese of Kraków.

Important to his spiritual growth was the person of a tailor, Jan Tyranowski, who gave him St. John of the Cross to read. They met in 1940; Tyranowski gathered a group of young people.

One of the places where he most liked to go to pray and rest was Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, where his grandfather and great-grandfather had worked as guides for the pilgrims who went there.

Pastoral Education

Karol Wojtyła as a priest in Niegowić, Poland, 1948.

Karol Wojtyła, a young priest with his students in Krakow, 1950.

In 1943, he entered the clandestine seminary founded by Monsignor Adam Stefan Sapieha, Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow, beginning his Theology career. At the beginning of 1945 the Soviets entered Krakow and the future Pope saved his life in a curious, almost miraculous way, thanks to Vasily Sirotenko, a Russian university student who, before being sent to liberate Krakow as an officer, was studying the last year of History; the red orchestra (pro-Soviet spies infiltrated in the German army) then reported that the Germans were going to murder some Polish workers enslaved by them; When this group was attacked by the Russians and forced to surrender, they discovered 18 seminarians among the eighty freed Polish workers in a quarry at the Solvay factory. Following Stalin's directives, they were all sent to a Siberian gulag from where they did not return, but not the future pope, since the commander needed someone like him who knew languages and could translate the Latin and German books he had been compiling for him. continue his career after the war; What's more, Wojtyła even knew Russian because his mother was of Ruthenian ethnicity, according to Pedro Beteta López in his book Remembering John Paul II (2009). Sirotenko thus prevented his expatriation to Siberia, even despite the opposition of a Russian political commissar. Without a doubt, this tragic event must have reinforced his anti-Stalinism.

He was ordained a priest on November 1, 1946 in the private archiepiscopal chapel. Shortly after, he moved to Rome to attend courses at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Athenaeum Angelicum, and obtained a doctorate in Theology with the thesis The act of faith in the doctrine of Saint John of the Cross, under the direction of Garrigou Lagrange.

In 1948 he returned to Poland and carried out his first pastoral ministry as coadjutor vicar of the parish of Niegowić, in the outskirts of Krakow, for thirteen months. In November of that same year he obtained the habilitation to teach at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University. On August 17, 1949, he moved as vicar to the parish of St. Florian, in Krakow, where he ministered for two years, alternating with his work as counselor to students and graduates of the state university in that city.

He was very popular with the students, with whom he often went on excursions, which was not common in those days, as he could draw the attention of the police authorities.

Appointed Professor of Moral Theology and Social Ethics at the Krakow Metropolitan Seminary on October 1, 1953. In 1954 he defended the philosophy thesis on Max Scheler: Assessment of the possibility of building Christian ethics on the foundations of Max Scheler's system, which was a key piece of research to graft the phenomenological method on his previous Aristotelian-Thomist training. That same year he was appointed Professor of Ethics at the University of Lublin, a teaching that would last until 1961. There he gave courses –reconciling them with his priestly work– that gave rise to the beginning of his original philosophical production. In 1958 he was consecrated bishop. In 1960 he published Love and Responsibility. In 1969 he published Person and Act .

Bishop in Poland

Visit to the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Krakow. Beginning June 1967, shortly before being appointed cardinal.

On July 4, 1958, Pope Pius XII consecrated him auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Krakow, under the apostolic administrator, Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak.

From October 11, 1962, he began to take an active part in the Second Vatican Council. They highlight his points about modern atheism and religious freedom. He made an important contribution to the making of the constitution Gaudium et spes . Cardinal Wojtyła also participated in the five assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, prior to his pontificate.On December 8, 1965, he became a member of the Congregations for the Sacraments and for Catholic Education, and of the Council for the Laity. In 1962, when Archbishop Baziak died, he was named capitular vicar and on the following December 30, Pope Paul VI consecrated him Archbishop of Krakow. On May 29, 1967, he was made a cardinal, making him the second youngest cardinal at the time, at 47 years of age.

During the synod of bishops on catechesis held in Rome in October 1977, he met for the first time Joseph Ratzinger, then Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Pontificate

Map indicating the countries visited by Pope John Paul II.

Juan Pablo II on his visit to the Archdiocese of Medellin, Colombia, in 1986.

John Paul II on his visit to Brazil in 1997.

On September 28, 1978, John Paul I died of a heart attack, after a 33-day pontificate. On October 16, 1978, after two days of conclave deliberations, Wojtyła was elected successor to St. Pedro. He adopted the name Ioannes Paulus II (John Paul II) and became, at the age of 58, the youngest pope of the 20th century and the first non-Italian since the Dutchman Hadrian VI (1522- 1523). On November 5 he visited Assisi, the first of his 144 trips to Italy.

On January 25, 1979, he undertook the first of his 104 trips outside of Italy: the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The last one was on August 14, 2004 at the Marian sanctuary of Lourdes, in France. In total she visited 129 different countries, some of them several times.

John Paul II set himself the great objective of positioning the Church as a beacon and guide of the contemporary world, in five directions:

• New evangelization: through a renewal of fidelity to the person of Jesus of Nazareth and his message of universal love (Doming of Divine Mercy in 2000, Atto di affidamento delle sorti del mondo alla Divine Mercy in 2002), especially to the marginalized and disadvantaged, announcing all peoples, with great concern for the de-Christianization of Europe.

• Ecumenism: through dialogue and encounter with the other Christian Churches and each and every religious denomination.

• Ethical and social commitment: assuming the defense of the dignity of the individual and human rights, as well as the promotion of the cultural diversity of peoples and the momentum of social justice and personal morals. It has been at this point where John Paul II has been more discussed, as he is opposed equally to Marxist dictatorships and liberal capitalism, and especially in his condemnation of abortion, contraception and artificial fertilization, in the interests of the defense of life and the family. In this field John Paul II showed a clear distrust of what he regarded as a culture of death as the result of a Western materialism, which he saw as a hedonist, relativist and unsolidary.

• Fight for peace: through mediation in multiple conflicts and the strong condemnation of war and arms race, as well as the encouragement of reconciliation initiatives and the fight against inequalities.

• Doctrinal Rigor: John Paul II condemned the most extreme positions of Liberation Theology but was more forceful with the most conservative wing of Catholicism by excommunicating Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre and de-authorizing his movement. John Paul II gave recognition to theologians on their day sanctioned or questioned by their aperturistic positions, believing them cardinals (Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar or Walter Kasper, to whom he put at the forefront of the ecumenical action of the Church). However, through the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, presided by Joseph Ratzinger was inflexible with Hans Küng, already condemned by Paul VI, and with Bernhard Häring or Leonardo Boff, due to his heterodox positions on dogmatic and moral theology and his opposition to the papal magisterium. John Paul II was unfavorable to commune the divorced and remarried, the marriage of priests and the ordination of women.^{[chuckles]required]}

Throughout his nearly 27-year pontificate, he appointed a total of 232 cardinals.

As pope, Wojtyła imposed a new style by discarding the gestatory chair used by his predecessors to display himself in public, he approached the street and the crowds, showing his sympathies for children and young people. Due to his multiple trips abroad, he was known by the media, particularly in Latin America, as "the athlete of God", "the walker of the Gospel", the "traveling pope" or the "pilgrim pope".

During his long tenure, John Paul II surpassed numerous records: he was not only the most traveled pontiff to date, but also the one who proclaimed the most saints and blessed during his pontificate (the number of saints and blessed raised to altars per he is equivalent to that carried out in the previous four hundred years).

Before being elected pope, Wojtyła also showed his ability as a poet, philosopher and playwright. Among his writings, the play The Goldsmith's Workshop stands out, later turned into a rock opera. The work was first published in Warsaw in 1960, when Wojtyła was auxiliary bishop of Kraków, while in Spain it was first published in 1980, after his election as pope.

Attempt on her life

On May 13, 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca shot the pope as he was driving through St. Peter's Square in an open vehicle. The pontiff was wounded in the hand, arm and abdomen. A few years later, in December 1983, the Pope visited him in the Rebibbia prison, talked with him and pardoned him. The attack led to the construction of a special vehicle with armored glass specially designed for this type of act and which was popularly baptized as the popemobile. One year later, on the night of May 12-13, 1982, John Paul II suffered a new attack in Fátima (Portugal) where he had come to thank the Virgin Mary for having saved her life. On that occasion, an ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Fernández Krohn, wanted to skewer him with a bayonet but was immobilized just in time, although the presence of blood was seen on the papal vestments, all of which was revealed by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz years later. Since Mehmet Ali Ağca's attack, he began to suffer from various health problems: in addition to the difficulties he had in recovering from the gunshot wounds he suffered in the stomach and one hand, he suffered various accidents and ailments (see section about his physical ailments).

Activities after the attack

John Paul II with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Denver, during the 1993 World Youth Day.

In the late 1980s, despite his physical ailments, his actions in Poland and his influence on the events that took place in the then communist bloc contributed considerably to the fall of Soviet communism and the democratization of Europe oriental, according to different historians and writers.

On July 1, 1986, John Paul II visited Colombia —as a consequence of the Armero tragedy in Tolima— and went to the place where the events occurred, and in front of a large cross he prayed for a while and named the site as < i>holy place in honor of the 25,000 deaths of that tragic scene that the Colombian people had to experience a week after the holocaust of the capture of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, in which 80 people died (or even further).

More than a decade later, and despite his relentless physical deterioration, in March 2003 John Paul II opposed with all his strength and authority the US invasion of Iraq. In that mission he showed the same determination that he had shown at the beginning of his pontificate to mediate the Beagle Conflict between Argentina and Chile in 1978, when they were on the verge of a confrontation.

Among the main episodes of his pontificate is the first visit by a pope to a Lutheran church (Rome, 1983), the first to a synagogue (Rome, 1986), the World Day of Prayer for Peace (Assisi, 1986) and the excommunication of Bishop Marcel Lefebvre (1988). That year a historic event took place: John Paul II visited an Orthodox country, Greece, and entered a mosque, that of Damascus (Syria), it was the first time that a Catholic Pontiff set foot in a mosque and prayed inside.

John Paul II during his visit to the Parliament of Poland, 1999.

They also include the first meeting of a pope with a Muslim community (Casablanca, 1985), the Jubilee of Redemption of 1983, from which he created the World Youth Days, celebrated under his pontificate in Rome (several times), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Denver (United States), Manila (Philippines), Czestochowa (Poland), Paris (France) and Toronto (Canada).

It also highlights the meeting with the last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, in December 1989, the normalization of the Catholic Church in European countries until then communist, and the visit made in January 1998 to Cuba, where he was received with all honors by Fidel Castro.

Apart from his fourteen encyclicals, with John Paul II the new Codes of Latin Canon Law (1983) and Oriental have been published, as well as the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), the result of the special synod of bishops of 1985, dedicated to the Second Vatican Council.

John Paul II apologized for the errors committed by the Catholic Church, including the prosecution and conviction of the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who was forced by the Inquisition to retract his heliocentric theories on June 22 from 1633.

His great wish, which he materialized, was to reach the year 2000, open the Holy Door of Saint Peter's Basilica and introduce the Church into the third millennium with the Jubilee of the year 2000. In the spring of 2000 he was finally able to set foot on the Holy Land. He visited Mount Nebo, where (according to the Tanakh or Old Testament) the prophet Moses saw the Promised Land before he died; Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth and various towns in Galilee.

During that trip, John Paul II, the first to recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people in 1986 and to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994, said mass in Bethlehem's Manger Square, asked for forgiveness at the Wall of Lamentations and in the Holocaust Museum for the mistakes made by the Christians who persecuted the Jews and celebrated mass in the Holy Sepulchre.

At the end of his pontificate with his death, John Paul II left two trips pending: one to Moscow, in the face of opposition from the Orthodox Patriarch Alexios II, who accused the Catholic Church of "proselytism" in its area of influence and another to China, where the communist regime prohibits the obedience of the Chinese Catholic Church to the Holy See, with whom it also had conflicts due to the recognition of Taiwan since 1949.

Physical ailments and death

John Paul II in 2004.

John Paul II was the first pontiff to leave Vatican City to be hospitalized. Since the attack on May 13, 1981, he was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic on several occasions: on June 20 of the same year, due to an infection derived from the wound suffered; on July 15, 1992, when he underwent a cholecystectomy, with additional removal of a foot of intestine due to the presence of a benign tubulovillous adenoma; on November 11, 1993, for a dislocated shoulder; on November 28, 1995 for a femoral fracture; on September 8, 1996 for an operation for appendicitis. The progression of Parkinson's disease weakened him to the point of defenselessness, limiting his ability to speak. His successor, Joseph Ratzinger, noted that in the final years of John Paul II's pontificate, the suffering he underwent was almost a form of government:

Yes, you can also rule with suffering. It's definitely something extraordinary. But after a long pontificate and after so much active life of the Pope, it was significant and eloquent a time of suffering, which became almost in a form of government.

Benedict XVI

The physical deterioration of John Paul II increased until his death in 2005. That year he had to be hospitalized for respiratory distress syndrome. He underwent a tracheostomy in mid-March. Towards the end of the same month his condition worsened and between March 31 and April 1 he suffered sepsis as a complication of a urinary tract infection.

Funeral by John Paul II, April 5, 2005.

She passed away on April 2, 2005 at 9:37 p.m. (the night before Divine Mercy Sunday). A few minutes later, Monsignor Leonardo Sandri announced the news to the people gathered in Saint Peter's Square and to the entire world. The days after his death, some newspapers published that his last word was "Amen", however the Holy See denied this version and affirmed that the last words were in Polish: "Pozwólcie mi iść do domu Ojca" (Let me go to my Father's house). The death was confirmed by Cardinal Camerlengo Eduardo Martínez Somalo. The Camerlengo communicated the death to Cardinal Camillo Ruini, as "Vicar for the City" and the Cardinal-Dean of the College of Cardinals, Joseph Ratzinger, officially informed all the Cardinals, summoning them to the Conclave, upon declaring the See Vacant.

When his death was announced, in the middle of the recitation of the Rosary, the public present in the Plaza de San Pedro broke into great applause. The lights in his room in the Apostolic Palace went off for a moment to communicate in this way the moment of his death, but then they were turned on again and remained that way.

His death occurred due to sepsis and irreversible cardiopulmonary collapse, aggravated by his Parkinson's disease. She was 84 years and 11 months old. In his agony, he dictated to his secretary, Stanisław Dziwisz, a letter in which he said:

Joseph Ratzinger firing the pope.

"I'm happy, be happy, too. I don't want tears. Let us pray together with satisfaction. In the Virgin I trust everything happily". The Pope's spokesman, Joaquín Navarro Valls initially stated that the pontiff, in his last moments, dedicated a few words to the crowd, especially young people, gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro (St.I've been looking for them and now they come looking for me, I thank you.), making the gesture of the blessing to the window of their quarters, to the faithful placed in the Plaza de San Pedro. However, the doctor who certified death has pointed out that the Pope remained unconscious during the last fifty minutes of his life and that, therefore, such phrases had to say at least one hour before his death.^{[chuckles]required]}

The funerals revealed the high degree of appreciation for John Paul II, not only from leaders of many countries, but also from people of all walks of life. They had a high political resonance due to some unexpected gestures, such as the greeting between the leaders of Israel, Iran and Syria.

John Paul the Great

After his death, well-known Catholics, from British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, to Archbishop Harry Joseph Flynn and Bishop Thomas G. Doran, his successor in pontificate, Benedict XVI, as well as the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, have referred to John Paul II as John Paul the Great. It is not yet known if this posthumous title will be imposed, since there is no formal procedure to assign this name.

Many followers of the pontiff demanded that he be canonized as soon as possible, shouting Santo subito ("Santo ya") during the acts of public exhibition of his mortal remains and masses of funeral.

Beatification process

Tomb of John Paul II in the Basilica of Saint Peter, since May 2011.

On May 13, 2005, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar for the city of Rome, formally declared the process of beatification of John Paul II to have begun; for this, Benedict XVI granted on April 28 a waiver of the period of five years of waiting after death required by canon law to start the beatification process, similar to how John Paul II himself did with the beatification process of Teresa of Calcutta.

On April 2, 2007, two years after his death, the diocesan phase of the beatification process concluded, bringing together all the testimonies about his life and the alleged miracles, among which stands out that of the French nun Marie Simon Pierre, who claimed to have been cured of Parkinson's disease thanks to the intercession of the pontiff, who had died two months earlier.

In a mass that was celebrated in Saint Peter's Square on the same day, Pope Benedict XVI assured that the process is advancing "quickly". On that date, after the first phase of his canonization process had finished, he was granted the title of Servant of God.

On December 19, 2009, Benedict XVI declared him venerable. A miracle attributed to his intercession was analyzed and considered inexplicable according to science, so after several meetings, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the beatification of John Paul II in January 2011. The beatification ceremony took place on May 1, 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday).

At the beginning of 2011, Father Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Papal Household, announced the date of the beatification and the transfer of his mortal remains, which until then were in the Vatican crypt, to the chapel of Saint Sebastian in the Basilica of San Pedro, next to that of the Pietà by Michelangelo.

This beatification process has been classified as the shortest in the modern history of the Catholic Church, since it lasted six years and thirty days, exceeding the beatification process of Teresa of Calcutta by one month. Despite this,, and according to Lombardi's statements, the process has been carried out in a meticulous way, with complete studies on the miracle of the cure of Sister Marie Simon and the own life of the pontiff.

Canonization

On July 5, 2013, Pope Francis signed the decree authorizing the canonization of John Paul II and John XXIII, held in a historic ceremony in Vatican City on April 27, 2014.

International relations

At the beginning of John Paul II's pontificate, the Holy See had diplomatic relations with 84 states. When this Pope died, he had 173. Likewise, he participates as a full member or as an observer in various international and regional organizations.

The 104 international visits of John Paul II were carried out mainly in his double capacity as head of state and head of the Catholic Church. Hence the gesture of the head of state of the receiving country (if he is of Christian culture) of greeting him first with the hand (in the case of the meeting of two heads of state) and eventually later with the classic bow and kissing hands. The first trip that his Holiness John Paul II made was to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from where he moved to Mexico, which he called "Mexico always faithful", a phrase that has become immortal. The Latin American countries that he visited the most were Mexico on five occasions, Brazil on four, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala on three (which even served as headquarters to visit other nearby countries), and Nicaragua on two occasions, as well as Peru, El Salvador and Venezuela.

John Paul II also proved to be a skillful diplomat. Having recently assumed his pontificate, he had to face the pre-war crisis between Argentina and Chile in December 1978 due to the application of the Arbitration Award issued by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom regarding the Beagle Channel conflict. At a time when both nations had their troops deployed along the border —there is even evidence that would indicate the start of military operations—, John Paul II, taking advantage of the military's ties with the Church, had a decisive influence in preventing the start of military operations. of the hostilities sending Cardinal Antonio Samoré as his representative, obtaining the separation of the forces and the beginning of a mediation process that culminated on November 29, 1984 with the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between both countries.

He was an extraordinary polyglot. Not only did he master Polish, Esperanto, classical Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English and German, but he also had sufficient knowledge of Czech, Lithuanian, Russian and Hungarian; furthermore, he had knowledge of Japanese, Tagalog and several African languages. He was an avid sportsman and expert skier in his youth.

He was the first pope to make intensive use of the media and, especially, the Internet to get his message across, as well as having contacts with religious leaders such as the Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and Tibetan religions (through the Dalai Lama), among others.^{[citation required]}

Resonance of his pontificate

Statue of St. John Paul II with Our Lady of Guadalupe.

With one of the longest pontificates in history, there are many significant events in it. Regarding world politics, shortly before his death, the BBC commented, referring to a significant position taken by Mikhail Gorbachev: "The Pope," Gorbachev told his wife Raisa at the time, "is the most important moral authority in the world." and he is a Slav". The understanding between both personalities undoubtedly paved the way for democracy in the Eastern bloc". In the words of Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last president in communist Poland, John Paul II's visit to Poland in 1979 was the "detonator" On the occasion of his death, the president of the European Parliament, the socialist José Borrell, wrote:

I respect the memory of that great personality that has decisively marked the history of the last quarter of a century. (...) It expressed respect for the clarity of their views and for the sincerity of their continued efforts in favour of justice, peace and respect for dignity and human rights. No one will forget his gestures of openness and dialogue aimed at the representatives of other religions, particularly during the meetings of Assisi. History will recall the decisive commitment of John Paul II to the re-engagement of the States of Central and Eastern Europe towards democracy and freedom. It will also recall its often discreet but determined activity in favour of dialogue between peoples and States in conflict and the resumption of negotiations between the States of the Middle East.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder declared that the pope had “influenced the peaceful integration of Europe in many ways. Through his efforts and his impressive personality, he has changed our world."

His commitment to human rights is also highlighted: "His commitment as pontiff was not only to spread the Gospel, but also to transform the Roman papacy into the spokesperson for human rights".

The balance of his life, from a religious and personal point of view, was outlined by the then Cardinal Ratzinger —later Benedict XVI— at the funeral of John Paul II:

"Follow me," says the risen Lord to Peter, as his last word to this chosen disciple to feed his sheep. "Follow me", this lapidary word of Christ can be considered the key to understanding the message that comes from the life of our weeped and beloved Pope John Paul II.

Among various awards, he was twice considered One of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and in 1994, he was named Person of the Year.

Controversies over his pontificate

Saint John Paul II had to face different controversies during his pontificate and also after his death, both internally within the Church and in the encounter with the contemporary world. Among these controversies, the most famous were:

• During his pontificate the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (his successor in the papacy as Benedict XVI), prohibited the teaching of Catholic theologians such as Leonardo Boff, within a successful movement to isolate and neutralize the promoters of the Theology of Liberation in Latin America, or Hans Küng, one of the most prominent Catholic theologians labeled as "progres.

The extensive documents of the Congregation highlight those points that are incompatible with the Catholic doctrine.

• Other internal criticisms came from the most traditional sectors, especially due to the excommunication of French bishop Marcel Lefebvre, leader of the traditionalist movement known as the Fraternity of St. Pius X, on July 1, 1988 for consecration of four bishops without formal authorization. John Paul II, in addition to explaining his sadness for that attitude, pointed out the reasons for the decision in the Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei presented in the form of motu proprio: «That act has been in itself disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in the most serious matter and of capital importance for the unity of the Church, as is the ordination of bishops, through which the apostolic succession remains sacramentally. For this reason, this disobedience—which carries with it a true rejection of the Roman Primate—is an act. schismatic». The late Lefebvre and John Paul II, and after receiving "the commitment expressed" by Monsignor Bernard Fellay in his name and that of the other consecrated bishops to "being and remain Catholics", to accept "all his teachings with filial encouragement" and to believe "firmly in the primacy of Peter and in his prerogatives", the censorship of excommunication latae sententiae declared by the Congregation for Bishops on July 1, 1988, it was lifted by that same Congregation on January 21, 2009 "as a sign to promote unity in the charity of the universal Church, and by its means to remove the scandal of division".
• St. John Paul II remained faithful to the norms of sexual morals emanated from the encyclical Humanae Vitaewhich recalled the position of the Church over the centuries on this subject (promulgated by Paul VI in 1968). Like Paul VI, this position was criticized by some Catholic sectors that called for a change of ideology in line with the times; it also condemned the use of contraceptives by following its predecessors in the pontificate, and was also explicit in prohibiting Catholics from using prophylactic means under any circumstances, "tampoco for AIDS patients or for people who want to use contraceptives as a prevention against immunodeficiency (12 November 1988). This position attracted harsh criticism from sectors that see it as an obstacle to the fight and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and birth control in developing countries. However, within his ethical principles he explained this problem in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

• His opposition to relax the demands of celibacy of priests, especially after the pressures of many groups against the scandals of some ministers in different countries.^{[chuckles]required]}

• The position of the woman within the Catholic Church: in her doctrinal aspect she reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine that the woman cannot be ordained a priest and in her administrative and government side, the structure of the Church, formed entirely by ordained men, has no woman in any relevant position. Paradoxically and despite the confirmation of this ancient tradition, the pontificate of John Paul II is the one that has had the most progress in the position of women in the Catholic Church. Some women came to represent the Church officially at international conferences. It was also the first pope of history who wrote an extensive document dedicated to women, the Apostle Letter "Dignity of Women" where you can read: "In the Year of Mary, the Church wishes to thank the Most Holy Trinity for the "mystery of women" and for every woman, so it constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for the "villages of God", which in the history of humanity have been fulfilled in her and through her. In short, has it not been done in it and through it the greatest that exists in the history of man on earth, that is, the event that God Himself has become a man?".

• The ecumenical character of the pontiff: although the Catholic Church advances ecumenical dialogues with the different Churches, in the case of Protestant Churches it does not recognize its ministers or their Eucharistic celebrations as valid. However, the baptism of Protestant Churches is valid by virtue of the ancient ecumenical creed."One baptism"as long as it is according to the trinitarian formula. The supporters of John Paul II, for their part, acknowledge the enormous progress that has been in this field in their pontificate and the correspondence between more than 400 years of separation from the Protestant Reform and a process of dialogue openly begun during the Second Vatican Council.

• The Catholic Church's attempt to impose its moral choices in the civil sphere: critics express that in matters related to sexual morality, such as the opposition to contraception, to marriage between people of the same sex, therapeutic experimentation with embryonic stem cells, abortion and euthanasia, among others, is an interference of the Church in the field of civility. Through episcopal conferences or through the participation of the Holy See in many international organizations and conferences, the Church attempts to influence the legislation it considers against human nature. For its part, the Church, which confirms the principle of self-determination of peoples, comes to the right of democratic participation as another social subject with the right to dissent. On the other hand, the principal interlocutor of the doctrine and dogmas of the Church is the believer, and while the Church and the churches consider their universal moral message of character for being based on human dignity, the non-believer is respected in his free will, as expressed in the Magisterium, of which John Paul II did not depart.

• He was also criticized for visiting countries of dictatorial government, such as Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship or Fidel Castro's Cuba, or for having supported the nuncio's work in Argentina during the military dictatorship, Pio Laghi, which, according to human rights defenders in Argentina, tacitly supported the repression carried out by the military. At the same time, John Paul II publicly criticized Ernesto Cardenal during his visit to Nicaragua in 1983 for holding a position in the Sandinista government as a minister of education of the regime that had overthrown the Somoza dictatorship in 1979; a few months later he suspended from the exercise of the priesthood the Cardinal himself and three other priests for the same reason. These incidents were presented by their detractors as an alignment of the papacy with the Latin American military dictatorships. However, for other sectors, visits such as that made to Cuba in 1998, constituted an attempt by the Pope to open the harshness of the regimes, as he did in Poland, his own country.

• It has also been criticized for its excessive external projection and its alleged obsession with mass ceremonies, with the consequent presence in the media. This would have helped trivialize the figure of the Pope, to the point that various Catholic environments accuse him of turning the Church into a mass spectacle and not the place of deep spirituality that should be.^{[chuckles]required]} John Paul II himself, however, used to justify his travels for the opportunity to present the doctrine of the Church everywhere; many times — his supporters affirm — his journey has been an occasion to make the world known great injustices that would otherwise have been obscured, such as the grave violations of freedom and human rights in Eastern Europe at that time or the neighbourhoods of the Church. favelas in Brazil or the economic backwardness of so many countries in Africa.

• It has also been criticized for not acting properly during its pontificate against sexual abuse of minors committed by priests. At least since 1985 he would have known of the cover-up of some bishops to the alleged aggressors, according to counsel Thomas Doyle. A report promoted by the Secretary of State of the Holy See revealed that John Paul II also ignored the allegations of the inappropriate sexual conduct of Bishop Theodore McCarrick, known to him in 1999. Despite the "rumors" and the checks practiced in the mid-nineties, and that McCarrick himself later acknowledged that he had slept “imprudently” with seminarians, John Paul II promoted the American religious to the cardinalate in 2001. Precisely the accusations of covering up pederasts such as the Mexican Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, were the main argument of numerous theologians against the rapid beatification of the pope (each six years after his death).

Documents of John Paul II

Encyclicals

He wrote the following 14 encyclicals (in chronological order).

• Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979)
• Dives in Misericordia (30 November 1980)
• Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981)
• Slavorum Apostoli (2 June 1985)
• Dominum et Vivificantem (18 May 1986)
• Redemptoris Mater (25 March 1987)
• Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987)
• Redemptoris Missio (7 December 1990)
• Centesimus Annus (1 May 1991)
• Veritatis Splendor (6 August 1993)
• Evangelium Vitae (25 March 1995)
• Ut Unum Sint (25 May 1995)
• Fides et Ratio (14 September 1998)
• Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003)

Books written by John Paul II

• My vision of man: Collection of articles on ethics written before Wojtyła was elected pope. In the first part of this book, a "Introduction to Ethics" is presented, where the author presents his opinion on the main issues affecting man, such as love, happiness or justice. The second part, "Personal Ethics Tests", is a selection of writings published in specialized journals. In these texts Karol Wojtyła offers a significant contribution to the foundation of a personalistic ethic and presents to the public in Spanish the ethics school of Lublin.
• Love and responsibility, a study of sexual morals, published in 1960, where it addresses the issues of sexuality, love, friendship, chastity, sin, marriage, procreation, paternity, birth control and divorce.
• Sign of contradiction
• Person and action. This book, the most important philosophical work of Wojtyła, presents the problem of action and the person, of how the action offers us the best access to penetrate into the intrinsic essence of the person and allows us to get as much knowledge as possible of it.
• Poesías de Karol Wojtyła
• Don and mystery: this book was published on 15 November 1996. The occasion of the publication of this book that already marks the personal and retrospective character of the writer, is due to its 50th anniversary of priestly ordination. This book is a very personal testimony but at the same time encompassing his priestly vocation: memories and reflections, his memories about the origins of his priesthood.
• Get up!: book published in May 2004, just under a year after having celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary as Sumo pontiff and at the age of 45 years of being appointed bishop, collects his intimate reflections on his episcopal experience. This book complements post-synodal exhortation Pastors Gregis on the ministry of the bishop in the Church of 16 October 2003. Wojtyła himself indicates that this book was taking shape when he listened to the other bishops to give their testimonies on the episcopal ministry during the Synod of Bishops of the year 2000 in Rome. The tone of this book is very similar to “Don and mystery”. Karol Wojtyła was a man who pondered the beautiful passage of God for his life and reflected in his deep and excited heart, the merciful love of a Father and tender God. In this writing, the work of a physically invalid old man, evidences the Christian optimism, the hope of a believer in the mystery of a very difficult vocation, especially after the Second Vatican Council. Wojtyła is happy to relive her particular experiences. He confesses and runs through the rivers, mountains, neighborhoods, shrines of his beloved Poland, rescues conversations with his friends and acquaintances. He even recounts words and gestures such as those of the archbishop of Krakow who, when receiving him as auxiliary bishop, says of him: “Habemus papam”.
• Memory and identity
• Roman triptych. Measurements (2003): Karol Wojtyła faces the great issues of life and life, penetrating into the mystery of his choice as Pope and even in that of his successor. It consists of three parts: the first, "Arroyo", it is a mystical contemplation of nature. The second part, "Meditations on the book of Genesis on the threshold of the Sistine Chapel", it is a reflection on man, the image of God, from Creation to the Final Judgment, inspired by the impressive series of images of Michelangelo who presides over the enclosure, where the cardinals meet every time they will choose a new pope. The third part, "Monte in the region of Moria", it is based on the evocation of Ur of Caldea, the homeland of Abraham, and the conversation between the patriarch and his son Isaac, whom Abraham was about to sacrifice on Mount Moria, as proof of his allegiance to God.
• Crossing the threshold of hope. Interview book with journalist Vittorio Messori.

Discography

He was the first pope to resort to the recording media to spread his message, either in the form of speeches, prayers (such as the Rosary) and Gregorian chants intoned by himself. Here is a rough list of recordings of him:

Documents on John Paul II

Discography

Documentaries

• The Pope who made history produced by the Centro Televisivo Vaticano, distributed by HDH Communications, 2006.
• John Paul II - I tell you my life produced by NOVA-T, distributed by HDH Communications, 2006.
• The Keys of the Kingdom - From John Paul II to Benedict XVI produced by the Centro Televisivo Vaticano, distributed by HDH Communications, 2006.
• John Paul II - His life, His Pontificate produced by the Centro Televisivo Vaticano, distributed by HDH Communications, 2006.
• John Paul II in the 90s (2001). Produced by the Vatican Television Center, distributed by HDH Comunications. This program was broadcast by several television channels, at the beginning of the centuryXXI.
• Visit to Chile of John Paul II (1997 - 2005) Produced jointly by the Vatican Television Centre and the Television Corporation of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Canal 13) and HDH Comunications. These were distributed in the Diario el Mercurio de Santiago.

Feature films

• Gives a tarpaulin (From a Far Country) (1981), led by Krzysztof Zanussi.
• Pope John Paul II (TV) (1984).
• Karol: A man who became Pope (2005) (Original title) "Karol, a Papa diventato uome"led by Giacomo Battiato).
• Karol: The Pope, the Man (2006) (Original title) "Karol - A potato rhymesto uomo"led by Giacomo Battiato) sequel of the previous one.