Pope John Paul II and his papacy

Pope John Paul II

The man who has had perhaps the most profound impact on me is the same Holy man who had an enormously positive effect on the world. He is Pope John Paul II. A kind man, a generous, brilliant and compassionate man, John Paul II spoke eight languages fluently but his message was always the same in any language: the people of the world, especially the children, have dignity and their human rights must be defended and honored.

John Paul II made many pilgrimages during his time as Holy Father. But it is likely that none of his travels was as dramatic as his visit to his homeland, Poland, less than eight months after his inauguration in 1978. CNN reports that "Huge, adoring crowds met him wherever he went" in Poland. And just the fact that he was there - a man of God embracing all the believers in a nation where the official government policy towards spirituality was atheistic - was a profound embarrassment to the communist leadership.

This hugely popular pope transcended his position as leader of the Roman Catholic Church and held his hands and arms out to all the people in the world. Of course his job and his position required of him to promote the Roman Catholic theology. And certainly he issued declarations that defined his vision of how Catholics should behave. He objected vigorously to birth control, and he spoke out against materialism. But beyond the guidelines that he extended to his own denomination, John Paul II concerned himself with those in the world of all faiths who were poor, homeless, without enough clean water or food for sustenance.

And to the children on a New Year's day, he wrote: "Dear children, dear young people...at the beginning of a new year we cannot forget all those of your own age who are suffering hunger or violence, and those who are victims of hideous forms of exploitation." At another time John Paul II wrote, "Dear young people, you are humanity's hope..."

Indeed John Paul II was a bright beacon of hope for humanity, and a strong man he was. He made over 170 visits to 115 countries in the twenty years between 1979 and 1999, and in those visits he reached out to people of all ethnicities and all political beliefs, including Fidel Castro of Cuba.

In May 1981, John Paul II was shot and critically wounded in St. Peter's Square by a Turkish gunman named Mehmet Ali Agca. By the time John Paul II was rushed to the hospital he had lost about three-quarters of his body's blood and was unconscious. The bullets that struck him narrowly missed his mesenteric artery and his abdominal aorta. The Pope required five hours of surgery to stop the bleeding. He survived thanks to the Grace of God and in a gesture that followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, he forgave his attacker.

Indeed, two days after Christmas, 1983, John Paul II visited the prison where Mehmet Ali Agca was serving his life term. He spoke privately with Agca for about twenty minutes, and when he emerged from this meeting the Pope said that he "spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust."

Later it was revealed that the attempted assassination - in John Paul's opinion - had been the work of the Soviet Union. And there would be a second and a third assassination attempt, but those too were unsuccessful.