For more than a quarter
century, Karol Wojtyla was the world's spiritual superpower.
As Pope John Paul II, his
decisions shaped the lives of more than 1 billion Catholics around the world --
by far, the largest organized religious group on Earth.
The Vatican announced in
an e-mail Saturday that Pope John Paul II, 84, has died..
"The Holy Father
died this evening at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) in his private apartment. All
the procedures outlined in the apostolic Constitution `Universi Dominici
Gregis' that was written by John Paul II on Feb. 22, 1996, have been put in
motion."
A Mass was scheduled for
St. Peter's Square for Sunday morning.
The pope died after
suffering heart and kidney failure following two hospitalizations in as many
months. Just hours earlier, the Vatican said he was in "very serious"
condition but had responded to members of the papal household.
He used his personal
charisma in a tireless campaign for a Catholic vision of human rights that
helped topple communism, defend the poor and build bridges to other faiths,
especially Judaism. He brought a sharp sense of discipline to the Vatican,
honed in his native Poland during years under Nazi and later Soviet oppression,
and wielded his power as pope to punish wayward Catholic theologians and shore
up traditional church teachings.
His followers did not
always agree with him, but their affection and respect were obvious during more
than 100 tours, when vast crowds around the world were drawn to his outdoor
masses. He was the first pope to regularly pack up, hit the road and carry the
banner of the church into his members' backyards, and his talent for languages
allowed him to address national constituencies in their native tongues.
Catholics worldwide loved
him for this -- and his critics in places like Cuba and the former Soviet bloc
feared him for it.
"He brought the
human face of the Vatican to people of every culture in every part of the
world," said Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida. "He showed that the pope is
not someone who is locked up in the Vatican, but is truly a man whose mission
is bringing the gospel message to the people of the world."
In 26 years of travels
and Vatican public events, John Paul spoke in person to more people than any
other human in history.
"This is the
greatest Christian witness of our time," said papal biographer George
Weigel.
Historians ranked John
Paul as either the second or third longest-serving pope, depending on how many
years they credited to St. Peter 2,000 years ago. John Paul's impact on the
church will be felt for many years to come. He appointed nearly all of the
church's top leaders, modernized and clarified the entire code of church laws
and supervised a complete revision of the catechism, the official summary of
Catholic doctrine.
Though raised in an era
of horse-drawn carts, he ended his life recording messages on CD-ROM, hosting a
vast Web site -- www.vatican.va -- and joining passionately in scientific
debates on genetic engineering and cloning.
Against all odds, in
1978, he became the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years, elected at the
relatively young age of 58.
It seemed that nothing could stop him. When Mehmet Ali Agca shot him in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, he survived and then turned the near-fatal incident into a moral lesson by visiting his attacker in prison and forgiving him.
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