'Totus tuus' -- a pope who dedicated himself to humanity

'Totus tuus' -- a pope who dedicated himself to humanity

Early life

Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, near
Krakow. His father was a non-commissioned officer in the Polish
army and his mother died in 1929 when he was eight.

In 1938, he began studying philosophy and literature at the
university in Krakow, which the Nazis closed when they invaded in
1939. To escape death or deportation, Wojtyla worked in a quarry
and later took an office job. In 1941 his father, the last member
of his immediate family, died.

After deciding to become a priest, Wojtyla continued working
in the quarry by day but studied secretly in the evenings with
the Krakow cardinal because the Nazis had closed the seminaries.

Path to papacy

Wojtyla was ordained in 1946 at the age of 26 and went to Rome
for advanced studies. In 1948, he returned to Poland.

He became Poland's youngest bishop at 38, was promoted to
Archbishop of Krakow in 1964 and made cardinal three years later
by Pope Paul VI.

On Oct. 16, 1978, Wojtyla was elected the first non-Italian
Pope in 455 years. He was the 264th successor of St Peter and, at
58, the youngest Pope for more than a century. Immediately upon
his election he announced that his papacy would be defined by the
Latin phrase Totus tuus (All yours)

Papal milestones

His pontificate was the third-longest in the history of the
Roman Catholic Church.

He traveled the equivalent of 30 times the circumference of
the earth, making 104 foreign trips.

The pope canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people, more
than all his predecessors in the past four centuries combined.

He held 1,161 general audiences at the Vatican, attended by
about 17.8 million people.

Greatest moments
Pope John Paul fulfilled three great dreams: helping end
communism in Eastern Europe, heralding the third millennium and
visiting the Holy Land in March 2000.

He left a personal note in the cracks of the Western Wall,
Judaism's holiest site, asking for forgiveness for the sins of
Christians against Jews.

Papal documents
Pope John Paul issued 14 encyclicals -- the most authoritative
form of papal writing, which the world's 1.1 billion Catholics
are expected to obey. While some discussed moral or religious
issues, others were social writings.

Health
The man once called "God's Athlete" went from being a robust
globetrotter to a frail, pained man weighed down by Parkinson's
disease and arthritis.

Three years after his election, he nearly died from wounds to
the stomach and hand after a Turkish gunman shot him. Otherwise,
he enjoyed relatively good health until 1992, when surgeons
removed an intestinal tumor.

In 1993, the symptoms of Parkinson's disease began to appear.
Later came problems with speech and a stooped posture. By 2003,
arthritis made it virtually impossible for him to stand or walk
without intense pain.

After more than a year of better health, the Pope was rushed
to hospital twice in February 2005 suffering acute breathing
problems brought on by a bout of influenza. Doctors inserted a
tube into his windpipe to help him breathe and on March 30
started feeding him through a nasal tube.

A day later the Vatican said he was suffering from a very high
fever caused by a urinary infection and began preparing the
faithful for his death.

REUTERS

GetRTR 3.00 -- APR 3, 2005 11:09:28