dici beatus ante obitum*

Childhood in Poland

Born in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920, Karol Josef Wojtyla was the son of a retired army officer and a school teacher. He studied literature and philosophy and later was a playwright and poet.

The highest order

In October 1978, Wojtyla became the first Slavic pope ever and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. He took the name John Paul II.

Forgiveness

In December 1983, the pope offered forgiveness to Agca during a meeting in prison. During the trial, Agca had claimed that East European communist agents had helped him set up the attack on the pope, but he later recanted.

The "D" day on St.Peter's Square

Thousands of the faithful gather in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, to mourn Pope John Paul II, who died Saturday April 2, 2005 at 9:37 p.m.

The First Morning after the Death of the Pope

Tens of thousands of people crowd St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for a Sunday morning Mass honoring Pope John Paul II, who died Saturday night. Nine days of official mourning -- called Novendiales -- follow the death of a pope.

* Rest In Peace *

Cardinals, archbishops and diplomatic dignitaries paid their respects today to Pope John Paul II at the Apostolic Palace after tens of thousands of mourners filled St. Peter's Square for a Mass in his honor. The Vatican announced the pope died of septic shock and cardiocirculatory collapse.

His Words

The sad spectacle of loss of human lives, with social consequences that will remain for a long time in the peoples who suffer the war, makes me think with deep sorrow in the trail of death and desolation that every armed conflict always causes.
We are not facing terrifying spectacles such as those of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but each time that we risk man's life, we start to ride along dangerous, regressive and anti-human paths. Therefore, at this moment, humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war, on whose stage of death and pain only remain standing the negotiating table that could and should have prevented it.

-- Pope John Paul II, upon arriving in Buenos Aires, June 11, 1982 (after the Falklands War)

dici beatus ante obitum *

{manusia selalu harus menunggui hari akhirnya dan tidak seorang pun dapat disebut bahagia sebelum kematiannya dan penguburannya, Ovidius 43 SM}