His faith and his life changed the world

With the death of John Paul II at 84, the Roman Catholic Church loses a historic and beloved world figure who survived an assassination attempt, lived to see his native Poland freed from communist tyranny and urged Catholics to reject the modern “culture of death.”

John Paul became the most traveled pope in history during his 26-year pontificate as the 264th man to hold the office that Catholic tradition traces to the apostle Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples.

He was the first modern pope to visit the Holy Land, the first to apologize for Catholic wrongs against other religions and the first to be mass-marketed as a cultural and spiritual icon.

John Paul was applauded by conservatives both inside and outside the Catholic faith for his stout defense of orthodox theology and traditional morality, especially his opposition to abortion. But he also took stances considered liberal in the context of U.S. politics, such as criticizing the death penalty, the excesses of capitalism and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Born Karol Josef Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920, John Paul II served as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics for 26 years — longer than all but two other popes. Only St. Peter’s 34-year reign in the 1st century and Pius IX’s 31-year reign in the 19th century were longer.

Upon being invested as pope on Oct. 21, 1978, he became the first non-Italian since the election of the Dutchman Adrian VI in 1522, and at 58, he was the youngest pope in a century.

His long reign means that John Paul “has appointed men who agree with him on the major issues that face the church,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America. “As a result … with the next pope, we will see more continuity than change.”

Renaissance mystic

He was a Renaissance man — a student, actor and industrial worker during the Nazi occupation of Poland, then blooming into a translator, poet, playwright and philosopher, before advancing in his calling as professor, priest and finally, pope and global leader.

In 1978, John Paul was a sturdy 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 175 pounds. He would continue for some years to pursue the fabled athleticism of his youth — when he had been known to swim flooded rivers on a dare — by skiing, hiking and kayaking.

Before his priesthood, he wanted to study literature and become an actor, his love of acting dating back to impersonations of his teachers. He wrote six plays, the best known being “The Jeweler’s Shop” and “Job.” A lover of the Polish language, he translated Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” into that tongue.

The pope’s health began to decline after he was shot in the chest in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk whom some accused of being hired by the Soviet secret police. The bullet missed his heart by a few millimeters.

In his last book, “Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums,” the pope said he didn’t recall much of what happened after he arrived at the hospital because “I was almost on the other side.”

The pope endured many accidents and operations in the mid-1990s and turned, some chroniclers have said, to mystical introspection. In 2000, Vatican officials said one of the Virgin Mary’s prophecies at Fatima foretold of the assassination attempt. In Polish Catholic tradition, John Paul focused his devotion on Mary, whom he often credited with saving his life that day.

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