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Father Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II, is pictured in the early 1950s surrounded by young people. Father Wojtyła would regularly go on mountain excursions with a group of young married couples and students that called itself Środowisko, meaning environment or milieu. (Archival Collection of Adam Bujak)Karol Wojtyła, the man who became St. John Paul II, regularly escaped from two of the worst totalitarian regimes in history: German Nazism, and later, Soviet Communism. By “escaped,” I do not mean that he ran away. Rather, as a priest and bishop, he escaped only by going deeper.As the...

LIMA — It was more than just an answer to prayer. A US military mission that cornered and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was nothing short of a miracle, said Peru's President Alan Garcia, who attributed the divine intervention to newly beatified pontiff John Paul II. "His first miracle has been to rid the world of this incarnation of evil, this demon of hatred and criminality," the Peruvian leader said, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader. The late John Paul II showed uncanny timing, with his miracle falling on the very same day as a Rome ceremony beatifying him. Pope...

The John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct 26, 2010 / 02:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- To accommodate their rapidly growing community, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist announced today that they will purchase the financially beleaguered John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. near the Catholic University of America.The center, which was the brainchild of the now retired Archbishop of Detroit, Cardinal Adam Maida, has been beset by numerous financial difficulties over the years. Intended to be a museum and Catholic intellectual hub, the center borrowed heavily from the Archdiocese...

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger tried to persuade Pope John Paul II to mount a full investigation into a cardinal who abused boys and young monks, one of the Church’s most senior figures revealed yesterday. But Ratzinger’s opponents in the Vatican managed to block the inquiry. As the future Benedict XVI put it: “The other side won.” The pervert cardinal was the late Hans Hermann Groer, removed as Archbishop of Vienna in 1995 following sex allegations. The source for the story is Groer’s successor in Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, an intellectual whom some commentators have tipped as a possible future Pope.The source...

The late Pope John Paul II, who has been put on the fast track to sainthood by the Vatican, regularly whipped himself as an act of penance to feel closer to God, and signed a secret document saying that he would step down as pontiff if he became incurably ill, according to a new book. "Why a Saint?" by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican "postulator" in charge of the canonization process, says the Polish-born Pope performed self flagellation as a bishop in Krakow and continued to do so in the Vatican after being elected Pope in 1978. "In his wardrobe,...

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator for the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul II, presents his new book on the late pope in Rome Jan. 26. (CNS/Paul Haring) VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II always took penitence seriously, spending entire nights lying with his arms outstretched on the bare floor, fasting before ordaining priests or bishops and flagellating himself, said the promoter of his sainthood cause. Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pope's cause, said Pope John Paul used self-mortification "both to affirm the primacy of God and as an instrument for perfecting himself." The monsignor spoke...

  Last week, I chronicled something of the bafflement that ensued as I was confronted with the weirdly malleable term "neo-Catholic." Judging from the combox discussion that followed, many readers share the tremendous confusion surrounding the term. Did it denote converts or those who loathe converts? Was it code for "neocon" or for non-neocon? Was it meant to denote a political or theological group? Was it a floor cleaner or a dessert topping? So many questions!   In response to my bafflement over the meaning of the term, one of my readers finally replied:   In the past, when...

ANKARA, Turkey - The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II is applying for Polish citizenship because he wants to live in the country of the late pontiff, whom he called his "spiritual brother." But the Polish Foreign Ministry said the chances of Mehmet Ali Agca getting citizenship are "minimal" since he hasn't provided any "good service" to John Paul's mostly Catholic homeland. Agca also wants to be transferred to a prison in Poland to serve the remainder of his sentence on a different conviction, lawyer Haci Ali Ozhan told The Associated Press. "He has chosen Poland...

Doctors assisting Pope John Paul II in his final days never suspended medical treatment and the pontiff did not ask them to do so, his personal physician said. Pro-euthanasia activists in Italy have said the pope refused medical treatment such as artificial respiration and feeding because he wanted to be allowed to die. The Catholic Church forbids euthanasia, which has been at the centre of a heated debate in Italy in recent months. However, the church's Catechism says medical procedures that are "burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary or disproportionate to the expected outcome" can be discontinued with the permission of the patient...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Under Pope John Paul II's 26-year papacy, the Catholic Church grew by 45 percent, struggled to replace priests and religious, and experienced a significant "graying" of its hierarchy, according to statistics released recently by the Vatican. In a sense, the statistics complete a by-the-numbers portrait of Pope John Paul's pontificate. They cover the period from 1978, the year of his election, through the end of 2004, three months before he died. The worldwide Catholic population increased by 342 million during that time, from 757 million to just under 1.1 billion. That sounds huge, but it was...

The JP II generation? The commemorations of the death of John Paul II re-ignited some of the atmosphere of social solidarity that Poles experienced this time last year. But is there anything deeper to these manifestations of religious fervor? Report by Michal Kubicki 03.04.06 As millions of Catholics around the world commemorated the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death, in his native Poland the nation paused for a weekend of religious services, prayers and concerts in tribute to one of the greatest figures in Polish history. The atmosphere of unity was very much reminiscent of what we witnessed...

WARSAW, Poland - Pope John Paul II's longtime private secretary said Saturday he did not burn the late pontiff's notes as his will demanded, arguing that the papers contain "great riches" and should instead be preserved. Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who worked with the pope from 1966 until his death earlier this year, told Polish state radio there are "quite a lot of manuscripts on various issues," but he offered no details. "Nothing has been burned," Dziwisz said. "Nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for the future generations — every single sentence." "These are...

Tom Booth and Fr. Stan Fortuna join forces to make a music video that tells the history of Pope John Paul II.

As I have noted in several brief commentaries in the past three weeks since the election of Pope Benedict XVI, each Catholic must pray fervently for the Successor of Saint Peter. We are neither pessimists (sad idiots) or optimists (happy idiots). Catholics are called to grow in the Supernatural Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity with every beat of their hearts, consecrated as they must be to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Although we must be concerned about the state of the Church in her human elements at present, we have to understand that...

Mourning for pope continues in Poland Sunday, April 10, 2005 Associated Press Warsaw, Poland - Hundreds of Poles packed the cathedral in Pope John Paul II's hometown of Wadowice again Saturday, keeping up their prayer vigils even after the official mourning period ended for their beloved countryman. Pastry shops in the town also were crowded, as Poles stood in long lines to buy kremowki, a cream-filled pastry that the pope once mentioned he used to buy as a boy - and that have since become known as "pope pastries." Prayer vigils in the pope's hometown cathedral and in churches across...

Polish life ‘has undergone a transformation’Published: Sunday, 10 April, 2005, 11:56 AM Doha Time WARSAW: After a week spent in the glare of global spotlights following the death of John Paul II, the Pope’s Polish compatriots stepped out of the limelight yesterday and back into normalcy, but not without the feeling that life has changed indelibly. Since the death of John Paul II - born Karol Wojtyla in the southern Polish town of Wadowice in 1920 - life in Poland has been moving at slow motion, punctuated by tributes at the hour of the Pope’s death, 9.37pm, by the closure...

The following is an English translation of the official Vatican Italian translation of the text of Pope John Paul II's last will and testament, which was originally written in Polish with successive additions. Dates have been written according to European convention, which makes "6.3.1979" represent March 6, 1979. The document begins with a Latin phrase that reads, "I am completely in Your hands," and follows with a citation from the New Testament. The testament of 6.3.1979 Totus Tuus ego sum In the Name of the Holiest Trinity. Amen. "Keep watch, because you do not know which day when the Lord...

Boyhood friend holds good thought for pontiff LAKES OF THE FOUR SEASONS: Karol Hagenhuber attended school with the man who would be pope This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, April 1, 2005 12:57 AM CST Times Staff Report LAKES OF THE FOUR SEASONS | Karol Hagenhuber, 85, of Lakes of the Four Seasons, did not have to seek out news on the pope's illness, the news came to him. The boyhood friend of Karol Wojtylya, who later became Pope John Paul II, found his phone ringing Thursday afternoon. "Channel 9, WGN called me first," said Hagenhuber, who has been...

<p>We hope to serve ... earlier initial state of consciousness AT 7:30 a.m. we celebrated of Mass with the Pope he is breathing, labored or slightly...</p> <p>Pope had in mind young people...</p> <p>This is difficult ...</p> <p>Pope seemed to refer to young people when he repeatedly seemed to say "I've been looking for you and now you've come to me... "</p>

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul's condition was "very grave" on Friday, the Vatican said in a statement, adding that the Pontiff had suffered shock and cardio-circulatory collapse. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Pope had been given the Holy Viaticum -- communion reserved for those close to death -- and had decided himself not to go to hospital for treatment. The statement said the Pope had received cardio-respiratory assistance on Thursday and on Friday morning was still "conscious, lucid and tranquil."