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The 20 years of John Paul II |
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The 20 years of John Paul II |
VATICAN CITY, OCT 13, 1998 (VIS) - At 4:45 in the afternoon of October 14, 1978, ten days after the funeral of Pope John Paul I, 110 cardinal electors, and 88 persons selected to assist them, entered into conclave, sealed off from the world, to elect his successor.
At 6:18 p.m., on October 16, white smoke appeared from the small chimney of the Sistine Chapel, thus signalling that the cardinal electors had chosen a new Roman Pontiff. Twenty-seven minutes later, Cardinal Pericle Felici appeared on the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica and announced the election of Pope John Paul II to the See of Peter with the words:
"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum Habemus Papam Carolum Wojtyla, qui sibi nomen imposuit Ioannem Paulum II."
At 7:15 p.m. the new pontiff, clad in the traditional papal white, appeared on the same balcony and spoke in Italian the words now familiar to tens of millions of people around the world: "Praised be Jesus Christ!"
"Dear brothers and sisters," he continued, "we are still all very saddened by the death of the very dear Pope John Paul I. And now the most eminent cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They called him from a far-away country, ... far, but always near in the communion of faith and the Christian tradition. I was afraid in receiving this nomination, but I did it in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord and with total trust in his Mother, the Most Holy Madonna.
"I don't know if I can express myself well in your - in our - Italian language. But if I make a mistake, you will correct me. And so I introduce myself to you all, to confess our common faith, our hope, our trust in the mother of Christ and of the Church, and also to begin again on this path of history and of the Church with the help of God and with the that of men."
John Paul II, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Cracow, was elected as the 264th Pope on the second ballot of the second day of the second conclave of 1978, just five months after his 58th birthday. Six days later, on October 22, 1978, his pastoral ministry was inaugurated. Today, October 13, marks day 7,300 of that pontificate.
His is the 11th longest pontificate in the history of the papacy. The longest was that of Pope Pius IX (1846-78: 31 years, 7 months, 17 days), and the second longest was that of his successor, Leo XIII (1878-1903: 25 years, 4 mos. and 17 days).
The next eight pontificates, in order of duration, are: Pius VI (1775-99, 24 years, 6 mos.); Pius VII (1800-23, 23 years, 5 mos.); Alexander III (1159-81, 21 years, 11 mos., 10 days); St. Sylvester I (314-335), 21 years, 11 mos.); Leo I (440-461, 21 years, 1 mos. 2 days); Urban VIII (1623-44, 20 years, 10 mos.); Leo III (795-816, 20 years, 5 mos.); Clement XI (1700-21, 20 years, 4 mos.).
In his 20 years as Pope, John Paul II has held seven consistories in which he has created 157 cardinals. The most recent consistory was February 21, 1998, in which he created 20 new cardinals (reserving, in addition, two names "in pectore"). As of today, there are 157 members of the College of Cardinals, 128 of whom have been created by John Paul II.
Of these 157 members of the college, 115 are under the age of 80 and therefore can enter into conclave to elect a new Pope: of these 115, 101 were created by John Paul II.
From the start of his pontificate to today, the Holy Father has named over 2,650 of the world's nearly 4,200 bishops. He has met each of them a number of times over the years, particularly when they fulfill their quinquennial obligation of a visit "ad limina Apostolorum."
He has written 12 encyclicals (the 13th will be published on October 15) dozens of apostolic letters, exhortations and constitutions and hundreds of messages and letters. In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul wrote the Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio Adveniente," dated November 10, 1994, and published four days later. He also created the Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
The 78 year-old Pope has also presided over 12 synods of bishops: five ordinary (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1995), one extraordinary (1985) and six special synods (1980, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998). Three more synods are on his agenda: Oceania (November 22 to December 12, 1998), Europe (spring, 1999) and an ordinary synod (fall of 1999).
Over the years, the Holy Father has undertaken 84 pastoral visits outside Italy, the latest of which was October 2-4 to Croatia where he beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac. He has made 134 trips within Italy and nearly 700 within the city and diocese of Rome, including visits to 274 of the 325 parishes of the diocese of which he is bishop, in addition to religious institutes, universities, seminaries, hospitals, rest homes, prisons and schools.
He has made four apostolic trips outside of Italy this year: Cuba (January 21-26), Nigeria (March 21-23), Austria (June 19-21) and Croatia (October 2-4).
With his 218 foreign and Italian pastoral visits, Pope John Paul II has reached the 1,118,130 kilometer mark (670,878 miles), that is, just over 27 times the earth's circumference or 2.8 times the distance between the earth and moon. He has made 3,078 speeches his 720 days (9 percent of his pontificate) of travel.
While in Rome, the Pope welcomes an average of one million people per year, including between 400-500,000 who attend the weekly general audiences in addition to those who come for special liturgical functions such as Christmas and Easter Masses, beatifications and canonizations. He also receives approximately 150-180,000 people per year in audiences granted to particular groups, heads of state and governments.
With tomorrow's weekly general audience (October 14, 1998), Pope John Paul II will have held 877 general audiences in which 13,833,000 people from every corner of the earth have participated.
During his pontificate, diplomatic relations at the levels of apostolic nunciature and embassy were established for the first time with 64 countries and re-established, following an interrupted period, with six other countries. The Holy See now has diplomatic relations with 170 countries.
In the past 20 years, the Pope has beatified 798 Servants of God in 109 ceremonies and has canonized 280 Blesseds in 35 ceremonies, including the October 11 canonization of Blessed Teresa Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein).
He founded the John Paul II Institute for the Sahel in February of 1984, and the "Populorum Progressio" Foundation for the Indigenous peoples of Latin America in February of 1992. He also founded the Pontifical Academies for Life and for Social Sciences. As well, he instituted the World Day of the Sick (celebrated annually on February 11) and World Youth Day (WYD). The 12th youth day was celebrated in France in August, 1997. The Pope himself chooses the theme and develops its contents in an annual Message to the Youth of the World.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla, known as Pope John Paul II since his election 20 years ago, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Cracow, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died giving birth to a third child - stillborn - in 1929. His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father, a non-commissioned army officer died in 1941.
He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at age 17. Upon graduation from Martin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a school for drama.
The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry and then in a chemical factory in Solvay to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany.
In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Cracow. At the same time, Karol Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theater," also clandestine.
After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, 1946.
Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange. He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross. At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland.
In 1948 he returned to Poland and was vicar of various parishes in Cracow as well as chaplain for the university students until 1951, when he took up again his studies on philosophy and theology. In 1953 he defended a thesis on "Evaluation of the Possibility of Founding a Catholic Ethic on the Ethical System of Max Scheler" at Lublin Catholic University. Later he became professor of moral theology and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of Theology of Lublin.
On July 4, 1958, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak.
On January 13, 1964, he was named archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI, who elevated him to the cardinalate on June 26, 1967.
Besides taking part in Vatican Council II with an important contribution to the elaboration of the Constitution "Gaudium et Spes," Cardinal Wojtyla participated in every assembly of the Synod of Bishops since it was created by Paul VI in 1969.
VATICAN CITY, OCT 13, 1998 (VIS) - Following are statistics on some of the salient aspects of Pope John Paul's 20-year pontificate, including information on his 84 pastoral visits outside of Italy, a list of encyclicals he has written and the themes and dates of the synods over which he has presided as Pope.
Encyclical comes from a Greek term used to indicate letters that princes and magistrates sent to the widest possible number of people in order to make known laws, rules, regulations. etc. The corresponding Latin term was "circularis," which referred to a letter or message intended for extensive circulation. Encyclical today has come to be associated solely with the Church.
Encyclical Letters, the most solemn documents of the ordinary and universal pontifical magisterium, are usually addressed to all the bishops and faithful of the Catholic Church, but frequently are also addressed to include "all people of good will." Encyclical Epistles are addressed to a specific group of bishops - for example those of a specific country or region - and touch upon less important matters.
Encyclicals may deal with doctrinal matters, exhort or call the faithful to public prayer for a specific reason, or be commemorative of an important Church anniversary. They are always signed by the pope, usually in Latin, and are published in the "Acta Apostolicae Sedis" and in individual books in diverse languages.
The official Latin text is prepared by the Secretariat of State and normally five copies of the Latin-language document are signed by the Holy Father. The text, in various languages, is sent to episcopal conferences worldwide through the pontifical representatives.
For many centuries, the office which prepared these documents was called the Chancery of Apostolic Letters. Dating back to the 4th century, the chancery was suppressed by Pope Paul VI with the Motu proprio "Quo aptius" of February 27, 1973.
Pope John Paul has written 12 encyclicals, 11 of which are Encyclical Letters and 1 - "Slavorum Apostoli" - is an Encyclical Epistle.
Pope John Paul's 13th Encyclical, "Fides et Ratio," is dated September 14, It will be made public on Thursday, October 15.
Following is a list of all synods (ordinary, extraordinary and special) since the Synod of BIshops was founded in 1969 by Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul II participated in every synod up to his election in 1978: after that date he presided at all synods.