John Paul II - 1978 - 2005

Less than eight months after his 1978 inauguration, Karol Wojtyla returned to Poland as Pope John Paul II for nine cathartic days.

Huge, adoring crowds met him wherever he went and were an acute source of embarrassment to the communist government.

Officially, the country was atheistic; it was also suffering from food shortages. The pope added to the authorities' discomfort by reminding his fellow Poles of their human rights.

"His secretary told me that was the great moment," says Robert Moynihan, editor and publisher of the magazine Inside the Vatican.

"There was a crowd of one million people, and he told them 'You are men. You have dignity. Don't crawl on your bellies.' It was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union."

In the winter of 1999, the pope flew to Mexico and the United States and celebrated Mass for millions of people. His visits to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Chicago and Washington took on the trappings of major holidays. The cities threw open their arms in a welcome that Current Biography said was of "staggering, unprecedented magnitude."

"...private citizens, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, flocked by the millions to glimpse the Pope," it reported. "It was only a few short years ago that such mass forgetfulness of sectarian difference would have been unthinkable (and, politically, suicidal) in the United States."

Although he draws enormous crowds, sometimes in the millions, whenever he gives public appearances, the pope's health is slowly deteriorating.

In January 2001, one of his doctors publicly acknowledged that the pontiff is suffering from Parkinson's disease. For years the pope has shown symptoms of Parkinson's -- shaking and a general unsteadiness -- although the Vatican has never officially said he has the disease.

Vibrations in the Air

Pope John Paul II may be the only Pope whose life was portrayed in a comic book. In 1983, Marvel Comics published a Pope biography.

There was more to it than forgetfulness, for John Paul has displayed that charisma during more than 170 visits to over 115 countries over the past 20 years. And as Time noted in naming him Man of the Year in 1994, he generates an electricity "unmatched by anyone else on earth."

In his book "The Making of Popes 1978," Andrew M. Greeley offers a close-up of the pope working a crowd: "His moves, his presence, his smile, his friendliness, his gestures ...have pleased everyone... He is great with crowds -- shaking hands, smiling, talking, kissing babies."

The Los Angeles Times reported that Poles waited for hours to see the Pope when he returned in 1997. At his appearance, the crowds grew silent, "some falling to their knees and weeping as John Paul parts the crowd on a path to the altar."

"Such an incredible moment," Krzysztof Gonet, mayor of Nowej Soli, told the Times. "You can feel the vibrations in the air." Not only is he the most traveled pope in history -- he speaks eight languages, learning Spanish after he became the pope -- he also has been quick to use the media and technology to his advantage. In the early years of his papacy, he steered the Vatican into satellite transmissions and producing video cassettes.

While other popes stayed close to Rome, remote and seemingly unapproachable, John Paul's wide-ranging appearances -- enhanced by an actor's sense of theater -- became worldwide news events.

When the pope visited Cuba in January 1998, hard-line Cuban leader Fidel Castro set aside his drab olive fatigues and put on a business suit to welcome him.

Castro also attended a number of functions for the pope and escorted the frail Holy Father with almost touching deference.

World Is His Business

John Paul II was by papal standards a comparatively young man when he was elected in 1978. He was only 58, making him the youngest Pope in 132 years.

Not content with tending merely to church affairs, John Paul has made the world's business his business -- especially in regard to human rights.

"His great hope is to awaken the entire world to the dignity and responsibility of defending human rights," Cardinal Roger Etchegaray told the Washington Post.

His criticism of such dictators as Alfred Stroessner in Paraguay, Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines encouraged opposition movements that eventually brought down those governments.

His support for the Solidarity movement in Poland -- priests concealed messages from John Paul to imprisoned union leaders in their robes -- was a key to the downfall of communism in Poland. When a Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope twice in an assassination attempt in 1981, Agca first told the authorities that he was acting for the Bulgarian intelligence service.

The Bulgarians were known to do the bidding of the KGB, but Agca later recanted that part of his confession. It didn't matter to the pope who was responsible, and later he visited Agca in his cell and forgave him. The astonished Agca said, "How is it that I could not kill you?"

But the pope hasn't played favorites, and the West has come in for its share of criticism, too.

During that first triumphal visit to the United States, he warned his hosts about the dangers of materialism, selfishness and secularism, and suggested lowering the standard of living and sharing the wealth with the Third World.

The message didn't play well, and still doesn't. But that hasn't stopped the pope from insisting that materialism -- he regards capitalism and communism as flip sides of the same coin -- is not the answer.

"This world," he says, "is not capable of making man happy."

Prayer and faith can make man happy, he believes, and he leads by example. Indeed, he is so often in prayer that he is said to make his decisions "on his knees."

He has been found kneeling on the ground in the middle of winter before a statue, and deep in prayer with his head resting on an altar.

Even when not interacting with others, he has been seen moving his lips, apparently in prayer.

'A culture of death'

Pope John Paul's papacy has not been without conflict.

Buddhist priests boycotted a trip to Sri Lanka after he described their religion as a largely "atheistic system."

After the visit the Pope tried to make amends, by declaring he had "profound respect and sincere esteem" for Buddhism, but the tensions still persisted.

The Catholic church John Paul II inherited in 1978 was in shambles.

Reforms begun by the Vatican Council II shook the church to its foundation, and the tumult within the church could be compared to the turmoil in the outer world during the 1960s' era of peace, love and protests over the war in Vietnam.

"The church went through a tremendous crisis," says Moynihan. "It knocked the church to its knees. It lost one-third of its priests and a tremendous number of nuns."

John Paul II embarked on nothing less than a restoration of the church, one grounded in its conservative tradition. His rejection of contraception and abortion has been absolute and unbending, and his almost dictatorial manner has not always played well.

People magazine observed that the pope -- who has had no qualms about silencing those within the church family who disagree with him -- is "more given to self-discipline than self-doubt."

"It's a mistake to apply American democratic procedures to the faith and truth," the pope has said. "You cannot take a vote on the truth."

Hans Kung, a liberal Catholic theologian who has crossed swords with the pope, told Time, "This Pope is a disaster for our church. There's charm there, but he's closed-minded."

The Economist magazine reported that another troublesome theologian, Bernard Haring, compared the questioning he underwent at the Vatican "to the treatment he once received under Hitler."

Margaret Steinfels, the editor of the Catholic magazine Commonweal and a more moderate critic of the pope, accuses him of polarizing issues. In his opposition to contraception, abortion and euthanasia, for example, he has accused the industrialized world of fostering "a culture of death."

"I don't deny that there are many problems in the U.S. and the West," she said, "but I don't think that calling it a 'culture of death' and the church the 'church of life' is a useful way of dealing with things. I disagree with his metaphors."

The pope also has confounded Steinfels and many others with his insistence that church doctrine prohibits the ordination of women. In affirming his position in a letter to bishops in 1994, he wrote in uncompromising fashion, "this judgment is to be definitively held by all the church's faithful."

'A man of integrity and prayer'

"A nation that kills its own children has no future."-The pope's reaction to the liberalization of the abortion law in Poland in 1996

The pope has often explained himself with dense, closely reasoned and deeply philosophical encyclicals. His encyclicals, letters and other writings fill more than 150 volumes.

"It's first-rate prose, and work that will last," says Jude Dougherty of Catholic University in Washington, D.C. "Trouble is, they're not all that easy to read. His book is a very good document, too."

In 1994, the pope wrote answers to written questions posed to him by Italian journalist Vittorio Messori. Messori then edited them into "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," a book that became a best-seller in many countries.

Many observers say John Paul's record is mixed. Although the church has expanded in Africa and Latin America -- the latter accounts for about half of the estimated one billion Catholics -- it has lost followers in the industrialized world, including Poland.

His inflexibility on issues with international ramifications -- birth control in Africa, for example -- has drawn strong criticism.

"The church's refusal of condoms even for saving lives is absolutely incomprehensible," French journalist Henri Tincq told Time. "It disqualifies the church from having any role in the whole debate over AIDS."

Nevertheless, said Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the Catholic magazine First Things, "This pope has the church in a stronger position than it's been in since the Protestant division in the 16th century. When has the Catholic church had as much respect as it does today?"

It is doubtful there has ever been a pope who has so successfully translated his strength, determination and faith into such widespread respect and goodwill. In a world of shifting trends and leaders of questionable virtue, John Paul II has been a towering figure at the moral center of modern life.

"This is not a pope who looks at the public opinion polls," says Father Thomas Reese, editor of America magazine and author of the book "Inside the Vatican."

"He says what he thinks is right and wrong from conviction. And that's why people admire him. He's a man of integrity and prayer, even if they don't agree with him."

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