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Pope John Paul II died after a long struggle
against crippling infirmity, which inspired Catholics the world over, ending a tumultuous 26-year reign that shaped world politics and
plunging 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into mourning.
The 84-year-old pontiff died at 9:37 pm
(1937 GMT), according to a Vatican statement, two days after suffering heart failure brought on by two months of acute breathing problems
and other infections.
"The Holy Father died this evening at
21:37 in his private apartment," said a brief statement released by the Holy See.
"All the procedures foreseen by the
Apostolic Constitution 'Universi Dominici gregis' promulgated by John Paul II on 22 February 1996 have been set in motion," it
concluded.
Most popular and recognizable pope in
history
News of his death touched not only Catholics
from his native Poland to the Americas, from Africa to Asia, but untold numbers of other admirers of one of the most popular and
recognizable popes in history.
During his pontificate -- the third longest
in 2,000 years of Christianity -- he was a master at reaching the masses through the media, displaying public relations skills unknown to
his predecessors while at home at the Vatican, as well as on his visits to 129 countries.
The voice which had given hope to
millions...
But, after he was rushed to hospital on
February 1 with breathing problems, his final illness silenced the voice which had given hope to millions living under oppression while
frustrating those who rejected his deeply conservative moral views.
In one of the most poignant moments of his
pontificate, he was unable to give his traditional message to worshippers in Saint Peter's Square outside the Vatican on Easter Sunday and
could barely raise his hand in silent blessing.
After that, his health worsened quickly. A
few days later he was given the Viaticum, popularly known as the last rites.
His health continued to deteriorate. He
slipped in and out of consciousness and his heart weakened. His blood pressure fell, but Vatican officials said he remained
"serene" accepting his fate.
The first non-Italian pope
The first non-Italian pope in
four-and-a-half centuries, and the first ever from eastern Europe, Karol Wojtyla was the 263rd successor to Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome.
A warm and earthy figure, he was immensely
popular, imposing his own style and agenda on the papacy, eschewing the pomp that surrounded his forebears and seeking contact with ordinary
people.
The orphan who rose to the Church
hierarchy
Born in a small town near Krakow, in
southern Poland, the son of an army officer, on May 18, 1920, he was brought up by his father after the death of his mother when he was
eight. His elder brother, a doctor, died in 1932 during an outbreak of scarlet fever.
He became a parish priest and rose steadily
through the Church hierarchy until, as bishop of Krakow, he became widely known to Western ecclesiastical authorities during the Second
Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.
When Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope in
October 1978, he was 58, a robust sportsman and a relative outsider amid the vast bureaucracy of the Holy See.
"Do not be afraid"
The advent of a Polish pope provided an
immeasurable boost to his countrymen, and the upshot was a reinvigorated anti-communist working class movement, the birth of the communist
bloc's first independent trade union, Solidarity, and the steady thaw of the communist glacier that lay over eastern Europe.
Perhaps his finest hour came when he stood
before fellow Poles in 1979 and said "Do not be afraid", prompting millions to rally to the cause of Lech Walesa whose "Solidarnosc"
movement was fighting to end communist rule in Poland.
Surviving an assassin's bullet...
In 1981 the pope was nearly killed in an
assassination attempt by rightwing Turkish fanatic Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot him at close range in Saint Peter's Square. He survived after
extensive surgery, but his health was badly affected thereafter.
Unyielding Orthodoxy
At the same time, Church reformers, the
young, and Third World congregations in the grip of a devastating AIDS epidemic became dismayed at his refusal to give ground on
contraception and the use of condoms.
"For the Catholic Church, this
pontificate, despite its positive aspects, has really been a disaster," said Swiss theologian Hans Kung in 2003.
"Many women have turned away from the
Church because of the pope's position on contraception and the ordination of women," he added.
"Zero tolerance" towards
immoral priests
In the United States, high-profile scandals
involving several pedophile priests shook the foundations of the Catholic Church until the Vatican belatedly sanctioned a policy of
"zero tolerance" toward such behavior.
"There is no place in the priesthood
and religious life for those who would harm the young," John Paul said at the height of the scandals.
Christ's diplomat par excellence...
During two and a half decades as pope, John
Paul met almost every significant head of state or government, from US presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to Kremlin leaders Mikhail
Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, from emperor Hirohito of Japan to Queen Elizabeth of Britain, from the Israeli leadership to Arab monarchs and
presidents.
Under his leadership, the Vatican opened
diplomatic relations with Israel in 1993 and he was the first pope to pray in a synagogue in 1986.
But Vatican policy-making assumed an
increasingly authoritarian stamp. He issued 13 encyclicals, including three on socio-economic questions, and wrote several best-selling
books.
In the mid-1990s he became increasingly
frail, suffering from Parkinson's disease, arthritis and other ailments.
Despite his infirmities, he continued
traveling as widely as possible, making a historic visits to Cuba and embarking on a grueling program of events for the Church's Jubilee
year in 2000. |
