{"id":771,"date":"2019-08-11T23:48:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T03:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2019-08-11T23:48:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T03:48:57","slug":"pope-john-paul-ii-pope-of-the-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"Pope John Paul II Pope of the masses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am neither a catholic nor an advocate of any of the churches fighting for\u00a0wealth on earth and the unseen thrones of the Apostles in heaven. While this\u00a0has cost me much \u2013 recognition, name, fame and honors in the Christian world, the\u00a0heavenly father chose this worm to complete\u00a0many a mighty task\u00a0for Him. It is here that Pope John Paul II comes into my life \u2013 a\u00a0relatively unknown\u00a0man from a little known communist country whom the Lord\u00a0used to attain mighty goals for Him to take up a path not treaded by his predecessors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHis election to the highest\noffice of the biggest church on earth was unique. The shocking,\nsudden and sad demise of Pope John Paul I just 33 days after he became\nPope, triggered another Papal Conclave 10 days after his funeral. While\nthere were two strong contenders for the Papacy, neither of them\ncould attain the required mandate and Polish Cardinal Karol Jozef was\nproposed as a compromise candidate and elected on the eighth ballot on the\nthird day of the Conclave having won 99 votes from the participating 111\nelectors. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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From then on he made a difference in Papacy making deviations from traditions. He was the 264th<\/sup>\u00a0pope, the first\u00a0non-Italian\u00a0pope in 455 years. At 58 years of age,\u00a0he became the youngest Pope since 1846. He took the name of John Paul II in tribute to his immediate predecessor and in honor of late Pope Paul VI. He broke tradition soon after his election by speaking to the crowd\u00a0gathered at the St. Peter\u2019s Square\u00a0when he made his appearance on the balcony\u00a0after the election. That was just the beginning. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During his pontificate Pope John Paul II travelled 1,100,000 kilometers to reach 129 countries, attracting large crowds wherever he went \u2013 some of them the largest ever assembled in human history as in X World Youth Day where an estimated five million people gathered at Luneta Park in Manila to\u00a0attend the Mass offered by him.\u00a0He met with\u00a0several heads of churches which had broken away from the Catholic Church centuries ago. It was his first trip to Poland in 1979 that sparked the spirit of freedom and led to the formation of Solidarity and forced the exit of Communism not only from Poland but also other East European Countries including Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The most fascinating attribute of Pope John Paul II\u00a0which drew me to him was the utmost value he gave for holiness\u00a0in spiritual life. Today we find many who claim holiness in titles and personal lives but make compromises to tolerate and mask the unholiness of their subordinates.\u00a0Pope John Paul II was not only holy but he made sure that the discipline of Holiness should be the watchword of his subordinates, teachings and the faithful.\u00a0 His special emphasis and encouragement on the universal call to holiness was proclaimed when he beatified\u00a0\u00a01340 and canonized\u00a0483 people which was more than the tally of all his predecessors in the last five centuries. He was inflexible and stood firm in upholding the teachings against abortion and euthanasia and made no compromises in his opposition to capital punishment.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The assassination attempt on his life\u00a0on 13th May, 1981, by Mehmet Ali Agca as\u00a0he\u00a0was entering St. Peter\u2019s Square in Vatican City once again revealed his dependence on God and the great faith he had in\u00a0the\u00a0intercessions of Mother Mary. His request to the faithful to \u201cPray for my brother Agca whom I have sincerely forgiven\u201d and his subsequent visit to Rome\u2019s Rebibbia prison where he met Agca, and his request to the Italian President to pardon Agca are all beacons of his love and compassion for humanity. He strongly believed that the two bullets were deviated away from his heart to the intestines by the precious hands of Holy Mary. The proclamation of his holiness\u00a0by the masses were evident when the crowd of more than three million\u00a0\u00a0who had assembled to bid him farewell on 8th<\/sup>\u00a0April, 2005 at the St. Peter\u2019s square acclaimed in one accord \u201cSanto Subito\u201d (Make him a Saint). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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His successor Pope Benedict just did that,\u00a0breaking the traditions of the Church by declaring the start of the proceedings\u00a0for the beatification\u00a0and canonization\u00a0\u00a0of Pope John Paul II,\u00a0just 41 days after his demise \u2013 a process that would be ordered by the church only after a minimum period of five years which could be extended to\u00a0\u00a0decades or centuries after the death of a person. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pope John Paul II himself had broken this tradition when he ordered to start the canonization\u00a0procedures for Mother Teresa just two years after her death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Almighty God in His compassion and mercy enabled me too, to experience His blessings through the prayers of His beloved saint Pope John Paul II. \u00a0Raaji\u00a0and I were also blessed with the privilege to visit his tomb at Vatican. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cPope John Paul II Vatican Arcade\u201d\u00a0set\u00a0up at\u00a0the \u201cMuseum of the Word\u201c\u00a0one of\u00a0\u00a0the greatest Bible Museums on earth,\u00a0\u00a0is the greatest attribute\u00a0\u00a0of my love\u00a0\u00a0to Pope John Paul II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am neither a catholic nor an advocate of any of the churches fighting for\u00a0wealth on earth and the unseen thrones of the Apostles in heaven. While this\u00a0has cost me… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[59,72],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.reaching-god.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}