What Can I Learn About Pope John Paul II?

Pope John Paul II, born in Wadowice, Poland (May 18, 1920) and passed away in Vatican City (April 2, 2005)
He was born as Karol Jozef Wojtyla.

His papacy began in October 16, 1978, succeeding Pope John Paul I and is the second longest serving pope in documented history. He is also the first non-Italian pope since the 1520’s when Pope Adrian VI had been named as Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

He has visited 129 countries during his term and was fluent in thirteen languages.

His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, had proclaimed him “Venerable” on 2009.

He established the World Youth Day in 1984 to help strengthen the faith of younger generations.
There had been three major assassination attempts on his life. The first attempt, which took place at St. Petersburg’s Square in 1981, required the pope to undergo five hours of surgery.

The pope had long been suspected of having Parkinson’s disease but this has only been confirmed in 2003. His death, however, was attributed to heart failure.