John Paul II

On July 4, 1958, Pius XII appointed Karol Wojtyła auxiliary bishop of Krakow; he received episcopal consecration on September 28, 1958. Having become Archbishop of Krakow in 1964, he participated actively in the Second Vatican Council. Paul VI created him a cardinal in June 1967. On October 16, 1978, following the death of John Paul I, he was elected pope and took the name John Paul II: he was the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries and the first Polish pope in history. His pontificate, one of the longest ever known, was marked by intense doctrinal work—fourteen encyclicals, including Redemptor hominis and Veritatis splendor—and by unprecedented missionary activity, with numerous apostolic journeys on all continents. He instituted World Youth Day and played a recognized role in the fall of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, notably in Poland. On May 13, 1981, he survived an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square, perpetrated by Mehmet Ali Ağca, whom he would publicly declare he had forgiven.

Throughout his pontificate, John Paul II manifested a deep spiritual life, structured by long daily prayer and a Marian devotion expressed by his motto Totus tuus ("all yours," addressed to the Virgin). He attributed his survival of the assassination attempt on May 13, 1981, the liturgical feast day of Fatima, to the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima. The final years of his life were marked by Parkinson's disease, the effects of which he did not hide: he turned his physical weakness into a public testimony on the Christian meaning of suffering and the dignity of the elderly and the sick. His death, on April 2, 2005, sparked considerable global emotion, and the crowd gathered for his funeral demanded his proclamation as a saint with the acclamation "Santo subito" ("saint immediately"). His reputation for holiness, already widespread during his lifetime, led Pope Benedict XVI to open his cause for beatification within an exceptionally short period.

The cause for John Paul II was opened in 2005. The miracle accepted for his beatification was the unexplained healing of the French nun Marie Simon-Pierre, who suffered from Parkinson's disease and was cured during the night of June 2 to 3, 2005, shortly after the Pope's death; this miracle was recognized by Benedict XVI in January 2011. John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011, Divine Mercy Sunday, by Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square. The second miracle, accepted for his canonization, was the healing of the Costa Rican Floribeth Mora Díaz, who suffered from a cerebral aneurysm deemed incurable and was cured after invoking John Paul II on the very day of his beatification. Pope Francis canonized John Paul II on April 27, 2014, on the Feast of Divine Mercy, during the same celebration as John XXIII, in the presence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and an immense crowd. The liturgical feast of Saint John Paul II is set for October 22, the anniversary of the inauguration of his pontificate in 1978.

The legacy of John Paul II is one of the most vast in the recent history of the Church. Author of fourteen encyclicals and numerous major documents, he left a lasting mark on the Church's teaching regarding the dignity of the human person, the family, work, and the defense of life. He promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992 and instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy in 2000, closely linked to the spirituality of his compatriot Saint Faustina Kowalska, whom he canonized the same year. World Youth Day, which he founded, has since brought together millions of young people across the world. A great traveler, he undertook more than a hundred international apostolic journeys and multiplied gestures of interreligious dialogue and reconciliation. His remains rest in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, where his chapel is a place of pilgrimage. His hometown of Wadowice and the city of Krakow remain major sites of his memory, and numerous parishes, schools, and institutions bear his name throughout the world.