PART III - Pope John Paul II's Legacy: The 21st century Pope
ever one to shrink from controversy, John Paul II led his church through a transformation. He used his youth, charisma and media-savvy to turn his followers back to the church's traditional roots.
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Wojtyla might never have become the Pope, if Vatican voting is any indication. It took eight ballots for the cardinals to choose him.
On October 16, 1978, Karol Joseph Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, with 99 of the 111 cardinals voting in his favour. While he was hesitant to leave his flock in Poland, he accepted the posting with tears in his eyes.
He took the name of John Paul II in honour of his predecessor, and added another Roman numeral in honour of him becoming the first Slavic pope. The new pontiff was the first Pole ever to lead the Roman Catholic Church and the first non-Italian to do so in 455 years. Add to this the fact he was the youngest Pope in modern history at 58.
While the name Wojtyla was virtually unknown outside Poland, his appointment was celebrated across his homeland with the ringing of church bells and lighting of candles.
In his first mass, on Oct. 22, Pope John Paul II signaled to Catholics around the world that he was a different kind of Pope. He spoke in nearly a dozen languages, and then entered the crowd of more than 200,000 people to shake hands and kiss babies.
"Be not afraid," he said during his inaugural mass at St. Peter's Square. "Open up, no, swing wide the gates of Christ."
The challenges facing John Paul were, from the beginning, monumental. Church leaders worldwide had been troubled by declining membership and emerging disputes regarding the church's core values. The new pope pushed for a return to traditional family values and campaigned against birth control, saying it devalued women.
In the church, he championed celibacy for priests and refused to allow them to take a bride, arguing they were to marry the church. He also said women should not be ordained because Jesus chose men to preach the word of God.
For John Paul II, these issues were unchangeable. He often invoked the Latin phrase Roma locuta, causa finita est - when Rome speaks, the matter is closed.
From the very beginning, he did not shy away from controversy. His first official visit abroad was to Latin America where almost half the world's Roman Catholics live. He chastized bishops in the region for compromising the church's beliefs by attempting to find political accommodation with Marxist political leaders.
That same year, the Pope returned to his native Poland for an emotional visit. Throngs of people took to the streets to catch a glimpse of him, much to the chagrin of the communist government. Within a year, the Solidarity movement would become a serious political force threatening the power of the Communist Party.
John Paul II was not challenged or threatened in any way by communist authorities on his visit. But religious leaders, particularly ones as powerful as the Pope, will always be targets for violence.
On May 13, 1981, the pontiff was at St. Peter's Square in Rome when he narrowly escaped death. A Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, shot John Paul in the stomach from close range. For days, the Pope's survival was in doubt as millions prayed around the world.
He later told a journalist he was certain he would survive. "At the very moment I fell in St. Peter's Square, I had this vivid presentiment that I should be saved and this certainty never left me, even at the worst moments."
He visited the would-be assassin in jail in 1983 and offered his forgiveness.
While he survived that assassination attempt, he would suffer several injuries, such as a fall in 1994 that required a hip replacement. In later years, he suffered from symptoms of Parkinson's disease, was treated for cancer and had arthritis in his knees.
None of this slowed the most traveled Pope in history. The pontiff visited more than 130 countries at the time of his death.
In a historic visit to Cuba in 1998, the Catholic faith, which had existed behind closed doors for 40 years, was celebrated out in the open. While President Fidel Castro urged people to welcome the Pope, the papal masses only drew tens of thousands, not millions.
Despite the warm welcome by Castro, who dressed in a suit rather than his trademark fatigues, the Pope listed Cuba's failings, including widespread abortion and divorce.
John Paul's staunch defense of church doctrine created a great deal of discord, but his most poignant pilgrimage to the Mideast in March 2000 offered a tone of reconciliation.
During a seven-day tour, the pontiff visited with Israel's chief rabbi and Jewish political leaders and met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Bethlehem. He visited sites sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims.
During the trip, the pontiff made a much-anticipated speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Jews have long resented what they see as a lack of leadership from the Catholic Church in standing against Nazi aggression during the Second World War.
John Paul said the church was "deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place."
The pontiff took great pleasure in the spiritual significance of his Mideast journey. He felt privileged to stand on Mt. Nebo in Jordan where it's said Moses first glimpsed the Holy Land. John Paul's journey represented just a few days of his life, but it was the pilgrimage of a lifetime.
In his later years, he faced one of the biggest scandals in the Catholic church - allegations of sexual abuse by priests. In an unprecedented act, John Paul II sent an e-mail to churches around the world in 2001 apologizing to victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.
"Sexual abuse by some clergy and religious has caused great suffering and spiritual harm to the victims," John Paul II said in the document.
Throughout his life, John Paul II has been a fierce defender of church doctrine, but an equally brave champion of political change that benefitted people of all faiths. He travelled the world with a message of hope. And though controversial for his stands on many issues, he stood as a rare figure in history: a man respected by both supporters and opponents alike for an unflinching dedication to his beliefs.
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