John Paul II, 1920-2005

The life of John Paul II.

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1922

Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920, near Krakow, Poland. He would become Pope John Paul II, the spiritual leader to approximately one billion Roman Catholics and one of the most influential people of the 20th century. In this 1922 photograph, he sits with his father, Karol Wojtyla, a noncommissioned officer in the Polish army, and his mother, Emilia Wojtyla. Most of Wojtyla's family died whem he was young. His mother died in 1929, his brother Edmund in 1932 and his father in 1941.

Raymond Darolle / CORBIS/SYGMA

1971

Karol Wojtyla became interested in becoming a Roman Catholic priest in 1942. During World War II, he worked in a quarry and a chemical factory in Nazi-occupied Poland to avoid deportation to Germany. The Nazis forbade seminary studies, so Wojtyla pursued his calling to the priesthood in secret. He was ordained in Krakow on Nov. 1, 1946.

/ AP

1967

Pope Paul VI anoints Karol Wojtyla as a cardinal, declaring him the archbishop of Krakow, on June 26, 1967. Cardinal Wojtyla was described as an important contributor to the Vatican Council II, which modernized the church and granted parish priests greater autonomy. As Pope John Paul II, he would later recentralize the church's teaching under the Vatican, which provided unpopular with many in America's progressive clergy.

/ AP

1978

In his first public appearance, newly elected Pope John Paul II greets the crowd from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. John Paul II became the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian pope elected since 1523. He is with Virgilio Cardinal Noe.

/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

1979

Pope John Paul II, left, prays in Oswiecim-Brzezinka after he placing a wreath in the death block cell at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The is his first visit to his native Poland since becoming the pontiff.

/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1981

Pope John Paul II was wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca on May 13, 1981. The pope was attacked as he was being driven through a crowd of worshipers in Saint Peter's Square. The pope had emergency surgery and was hospitalized for 77 days.

/ AFP FILE

1983

On Dec. 23, 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Mehmet Ali Agca, in a prison in Rome. The pope forgave the man who attempted to kill him in 1981.

ARTURO MARI / AP

1982

Pope John Paul II meets with President Reagan and Nancy Reagan during a visit to the Vatican. The two world leaders were said to have collaborated on a plan to end communism in Poland and Eastern Europe, according to a 1996 biography of the pope by Carl Bernstein, a former reporter for The Washington Post.

/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

1985

Pope John Paul II had a private audience with Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana at the Vatican on Aug. 29, 1985.

ARTURO MARI / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1986

Pope John Paul II was the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit a synagogue, touring a Jewish house of worship in Rome, and meeting with a group of rabbis in April 1986.

/ STF/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1986

A one-year-old kangaroo received some papal attention in Adelaide, Australia.

JEAN-CLAUDE DELMAS / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1986

Pope John Paul II looks at "Opening the Eye of New Awareness," written by the Dalai Lama, while two meet in New Delhi in February 1986.

/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES/VATICAN POOL

1986

Pope John Paul II visits Mother Teresa at her hospice for the destitute and dying in Calcutta, India. The Albanian nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity order and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work tending to the indigent "untouchables" and lepers in Calcutta. She died on Sept. 5, 1997.

LUCIANO MELLACE / REUTERS

1987

Pope John Paul II hugs Lech Walesa, a Polish shipyard worker and union leader. The pope was instrumental in helping to end communism in his native Poland, championing the cause for Walesa and his party at the United Nations and in Washington. Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and, in 1990, became Poland's first non-Communist leader since World War II.

AFP / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1989

Pope John Paul II welcomes Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in the first visit by a Kremlin chief to the Vatican. The following year, the Vatican and Moscow established formal diplomatic relations.

Massimo Sambucetti / AP

1993

Pope John Paul II, on his way to celebrate an outdoor mass, walked by the "Hill of Crosses" in newly independent Lithuania. The crosses had be erected in defiance of the Communist Soviet regime.

TOM SZLUKOVENYI / REUTERS

1994

A special synod of bishops met on Oct. 2, 1994, at St. Peter's Basilica to focus on the church's evangelical mission in Africa. As pope, John Paul II made 96 trips abroad, including several to Africa. During his travels, he held outdoor masses for hundreds and thousand of Catholics at a time. It is estimated that he has been seen by more people than anyone else in history, including more than 16 million people in general audiences held Wednesdays at the Vatican.

MASSIMO SAMBUCETTI / AP FILE

1996

Pope John Paul II waves to throngs of Catholic faithful who have gathered in St. Peter's Basilica to hear his Easter Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" (Latin for "to the City and the World") message. He prayed for "those who work to strengthen peace and democracy, often obtained at the cost of great sacrifice, as in the Balkans, and especially in beloved Albania."

ARTURO MARI / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1996

In June 1996, Pope John Paul II stood in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of reunified Germany, with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Berlin's Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky.

JOCKEL FINCK / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1997

Pope John Paul II kisses the foot of a priest during a traditional ceremony at Holy Thursday Mass at Rome's San Giovanni in Laterano Basilica on April 13, 1997. In the ceremony, the pope washes and kisses the feet of 12 old priests as the Bible says Jesus Christ did for his 12 apostles before the Last Supper.

Paolo Cocco / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1998

Pope John Paul II welcomes South African President Nelson Mandela to the Vatican. Mandela thanked the pope for the Catholic Church's help with the education and heath care of black South Africans during the apartheid era.

PAOLO COCCO / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1998

Pope John Paul II met with Cuban President Fidel Castro during a visit to Havana.

DUDLEY M.BROOKS / The Washington Post

1999

Pope John Paul II spoke with President Clinton after speaking to a crowd after the pontiff's arrival in St. Louis.

VICTORIA AROCHO / ASSOCIATED PRESS

2000

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat kisses Pope John Paul II's hand prior to their talks at the Vatican. Arafat sought to regularize relations between the Palestinian Authority and the Roman Catholic churches in Jerusalem.

ARTURO MARI / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1999

Pope John Paul II celebrated a mass beatifying Anton Martin Slomek in Maribor, Slovenia. Slomsek (1800-1862) was the first bishop of Maribor.

GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

2000

From Mount Nebo in Jordan, Pope John Paul II looks across to Jerusalem. The bible says it is the site where God showed the prophet Moses the Promised Land but forbade him from entering.

ARTURO MARI / AFP

2000

Pope John Paul II stands at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. The pontiff also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the spot where tradition holds Jesus was buried and rose from dead.

/ AP/ZOOM 77

2000

Chief Rabbi Israel Lau spoke with Pope John Paul II during an interfaith meeting at Notre Dame in Jerusalem. During the forum with the pontiff, which was designed to promote religious reconciliation, Lau and Palestinian Muslim cleric Sheikh Tatzir Tamimi issued rival claims to Jerusalem.

GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

2001

The 80-year-old pontiff celebrated mass for more than 100,000 people at the Vatican, issued an 82-page apostolic letter on the new millennium, then ended the church's 2000 jubilee year by closing the holy door in St. Peter's Basilica.

ARTURO MARI / AP

2000

Pope John Paul II blesses young Catholics as he arrives for a World Youth Day ceremony in France. It was estimated that two million young people turned out to see the pope.

PAOLO COCCO / AFP

2001

President George W. Bush reads a statement during a visit to the pope's county retreat, Castel Gandolfo. Pope John Paul II commented on the growing debate over stem-cell research.

WIN MCNAMEE / REUTERS

2003

Cardinals from around the world descended on the Vatican for the biggest gathering of the Catholic Church hierarchy in years, beginning several days of celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of John Paul II's papal election.

PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

2005

Thousands of pilgrims wave goodbye to the casket of Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's square in front of the basilica during his funeral.

Andrea Bruce Woodall / The Washington Post

2005

Pope John Paul II is taken in a procession outside through St. Peter's to St. Peter's Cathedral.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

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