Pope John Paul II

Former Supreme Pontiff
of the Catholic Church
(1978-2005)

As the most widely-travelled Pope in history and the second longest serving, John Paul II spread the word of God to more places than anyone before him. Born in Poland in 1920, he began his journey by studying for priesthood in a secret seminary run by the Archbishop of Krakow during the Nazi occupation of the city. He was ordained as Pope in 1978, the first non-Italian to hold the position in over four hundred years, and during his twenty-seven year spell visited over one hundred countries as well as surviving an assassination attempt in St Peters Square in 1981.

He died in April 2005 at his Vatican City residence and his funeral was attended by over three million people. Many see Pope John Paul II as a unifying figure. His apologies for the Catholic Church’s historical cruelties to Jews, Galileo, women and Muslim victims of the Crusades heralded a new age of reconciliation with people of other beliefs. But he has also been a controversial figure; under John Paul II, the Vatican firmly opposed homosexuality, contraception and divorce; it held outdated views on female subservience and it was intolerant of dissent.