Anecdotes of John Paul II
84 years of life give for many anecdotes. Some of them can be read below:
During his childhood, his friends called him Lolek (Carlitos). That diminutive was still used by his relatives and some close friends from Poland.
As a young woman, Carol Wojtyla was hit by a truck and remained in a coma for 9 days.
He showed great interest in Polish theater and literature. He was a stage actor.
Later, he worked hard as a laborer in a quarry.
At the age of 25, he helped a 13-year-old Jewish girl, a concentration camp survivor, by feeding her and carrying her four kilometers through the snow to catch the train home.
John Paul II would not have become Pope if, in the year 1945, in Krakow, an officer of the Red Army of the Soviet Union, cultured and a lover of history, had not decided to save his life, despite the orders of Stalin, to a young seminarian named Carol Wojtyla, who had helped him translate books on the fall of the Roman Empire.
On May 29, 1967, at the age of 47, he became the second youngest cardinal in the Catholic Church.
On the day of his election, the car carrying John Paul II broke down. He hitchhiked and a truck driver took him directly to Saint Peter’s Square, just in time to enter the conclave. In fact, he was the last Cardinal to enter.
On October 16, 1978, after the death of Pope John Paul I, he became the youngest Pontiff of the 20th century and the first non-Italian Pope since the election of Hadrian VI in 1522.
On May 13, 1981, after being wounded in an attack, he was admitted to a hospital. At that time, the president of Italy was Sandro Pertini, who remained by the Holy Father’s side until two in the morning. He did not want to leave before the Pope left the operating room. The President’s behavior was exemplary.
His love for young people led him to create the “World Youth Encounters”. His interest in highlighting the value of the family also led him to create the “World Family Meetings”.
In 1993 he met with the Japanese emperor Akihito, being the first interview in history between a Japanese sovereign and a Pope.
In the 1997 Polish presidential elections, he supported the candidacy of Lech Walesa, who managed to come to power.
In January 1998, he visited Cuba for the first time, being the only Pope to set foot on that Cuban land since the beginning of the Castro revolution.
John Paul II was the first Pope to enter a Jewish synagogue, a mosque and speak in an Islamic assembly.
On October 16, 2000, his pontificate became the longest of the 20th century.
He was the first pope admitted to a hospital outside the Vatican.
When he traveled, they carried several jars with liters of his blood because it was a type that was difficult to obtain.
A mountain in the South Pole bears the name of Pope John Paul II, as a tribute to his 25 years of pontificate.
He liked to have breakfast the Polish way, that is, with eggs, sausages, bread and black coffee.
Throughout his pontificate, John Paul II has made 104 pastoral visits outside of Italy; his last was to the Sanctuary of Lourdes in August 2004. He has made 146 pastoral visits in Italy, without taking into account those made to various institutions of his diocese of Rome. The last visit within Italy was to the sanctuary of Loreto, on September 5, 2004. It has traveled more than 1,300,000 kilometers, which represents almost 29 times around the Earth and almost three times the distance between Earth and Moon. He is the most traveled Pope in history with 133 countries visited, most of which received a Pontiff for the first time. The complete list of trips can be read below.
He has written 14 encyclicals, 13 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 42 apostolic letters and 28 Motu proprio.
He has proclaimed 1,320 blessed in 143 beatification ceremonies. Furthermore, he has canonized 472 saints.
It has called 9 consistories for the creation of Cardinals and has appointed 232. The last consistory was held on October 21, 2003.
It has held more than a thousand weekly general audiences, and has received some 17,000,000 faithful from all over the world. To this must be added the meetings and audiences with various groups and political figures, including heads of state and prime ministers, which exceed 1,500.
He has delivered more than 20,000 speeches. He has undergone 6 operations. In one of them they cut 2.5 meters of intestine.
The 5 longest pontificates in history have been:
Saint Peter: 35 years
Pio IX: 31 years and 7 months
John Paul II: 26 years and 5 months
Leo XIII: 25 years
Po VI: 24 years and 6 months
He is the first Polish pope, and the first to come from a communist country
When in good health, he skied and climbed mountains.
He was the first pope to be shot in the street.
He was the first Catholic pontiff to enter a public hospital.
According to a survey carried out in the diocese of Indiana (USA), what most attracted the attention of the parishioners was his smile, his Marian devotion, his mastery of several languages, the pardon granted to those who wanted to murder him and his love for children and the poor.
According to a study carried out in 22 countries in Latin America, Spain and Portugal with more than 40,000 high school students, young people mainly admire charitable characters. John Paul II ranked first and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta second.
At Christmas, I used to give some friends, the cardinals and all the Vatican workers, a bottle of wine and a lemon sweet bread with raisins.
Most Good Fridays he went to confess in St. Peter’s Basilica. He baptized in his private chapel the children of his friends or those of his most modest collaborators, for example marrying a typist to a locksmith.
He is the author of 4 books and more than 500 articles and essays
In March 2003, the Vatican presented the sixth book of mystical poems written by the pope, entitled Roman Triptych
On April 13, 1986, he made a historic gesture by visiting the synagogue in Rome, located opposite the Vatican, on the other side of the Tiber River.
In May 2002, he met in St. Peter’s Square with hundreds of former prostitutes during the general audience
That same month, after the ecumenical prayer meeting in Assisi, the pope sent a message to the heads of state, inviting them to adopt a list of ten commitments for world peace.
After the Ass meeting, for the first time after the schism between East and West in 1054, an official delegation from the Greek Orthodox Church (the most reluctant to Rome along with the Patriarchate of Moscow), was received by the pope in the Vatican.
On October 16, 2002, celebrating the 24th anniversary of his election, he proclaimed in Saint Peter’s Square that he would carry out his mission until the end.
In August 2002, he traveled to his native Poland, where he celebrated mass in Krakow before more than two million faithful; still the largest in history
On November 14, 2002, he visited the Italian parliament, the first time the head of the Catholic Church had done so in 150 years. His speech focused on international terrorism and globalization; and he was so eloquent that when Italian mobster Benedetto Marciante, boss of Cosa Nostra and accused of murder and extortion, saw him on television, he turned himself in to the Roman police
As of January 2003, the pope’s meditations, thoughts and concerns can be heard by the faithful through mobile phones in Italy
In June 2003, at the age of 83, he completed his hundredth voyage by arriving in Croatia
On July 19, 2003, the news broke that the pope had earmarked nearly eight million dollars for charitable works in numerous countries around the world. The donation was used in projects of education, health, professional training, housing, protection of women, children and the elderly
John Paul II took his name in honor of his predecessor John Paul I.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Primate of Poland, told him on the morning of his election: “If they elect you, I beg you not to refuse.” After the election he said that “This Pope will introduce the Church into the third millennium” and today we know that this was fulfilled.
John Paul II made great efforts in dialogue with other non-Christian religions, which led to the historic “World Meeting of Prayer for Peace” (1986).
He had a special devotion to the Virgin of Fatima, who appeared to three Portuguese shepherd children on May 13, 1917. He was convinced that she saved his life during the attack to which he was also a victim on May 13 (1981). ).
The projectile that seriously injured John Paul II in the attack committed in the Plaza de San Pedro on May 13, 1981 was set in the crown of the image of Our Lady of Fatima, which presides over the Sanctuary of Cova de Ira . The Pope himself delivered the bullet to Msgr. Alberto Cosme, Bishop of Leira. On May 13, Our Lady of Fatima is celebrated.
The City Council of Rome summarized the influx data for the days after the death of John Paul II as follows:
3,000,000 pilgrims came to Rome to say goodbye to the Pope.
Some 250,000 were able to participate in Friday’s funeral in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican and in Via de la Conciliaci6n.
Around 1,400,000 faithful paid homage to the mortal remains of John Paul II in the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican.
On each of those days, 1,500,000 passengers traveled on the Rome subway.
10,000 volunteers from Civil Protection, the Rome City Council, the boy scouts and other organizations guaranteed assistance.
8,963 people from the security forces guaranteed public order.
In the courtyard of the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, a statue in memory of Pope John Paul II was inaugurated on June 30, 2009.
The monument, dedicated by the Catholic University to the memory of Pope Wojtyla, was blessed by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pontiff’s private secretary for decades.
The statue is the work of the Tuscan sculptor Stefano Pierotti and is entitled “Do not be afraid!”, as the famous expression pronounced by the Polish Pope on October 22, 1978, during the homily of the inaugural Mass of the pontificate.
The statue is located in the courtyard next to the main entrance of the Gemelli Polyclinic, where John Paul II was admitted on nine occasions, between May 13, 1981 – the day of the attack in Saint Peter’s Square – and the last time it was found. I admitted him at the end of his illness, in March 2005.
Pope John Paul II leaned out of the window of the apartment on the tenth floor in this courtyard to pray the Sunday Angelus and bless the faithful. On one of those occasions, during his admission in 1996, he defined the Gemelli Polyclinic “Vatican III” as the “house” of the Pope together with the Apostolic Palaces of Rome and Castel Gandolfo.
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