60 Fun Facts About Pope John Paul II

What was Pope John Paul II's birth name?

He was born in 1920, the youngest of three children of a former army officer and a schoolteacher.

John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since which 16th-century pontiff?

The gap was 455 years; the run of Italian popes he ended had begun with Clement VII in 1523.

In which small Polish town was John Paul II born?

His mother, a schoolteacher, died when he was eight, and his elder brother Edmund, a doctor, died of scarlet fever.

As a schoolboy, the future pope played football in which position?

School games were often Jews against Catholics, and he frequently played on the Jewish side.

During the Nazi occupation, Wojtyła avoided deportation by working where?

A lorry accident in the quarry left him with one shoulder higher than the other and a permanent stoop.

Wojtyła studied for the priesthood in a clandestine wartime seminary run by which Archbishop of Kraków?

Sapieha ordained him in November 1946 and sent him to Rome to study.

On what feast day in 1946 was the future pope ordained a priest?

He left for Rome three weeks later to study under the Dominican Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange.

Wojtyła's Rome doctoral thesis examined the doctrine of faith in which Spanish mystic?

The Angelicum still preserves the original typewritten copy.

Which stigmatic friar reportedly told Wojtyła in 1947 he would one day hold 'the highest post in the Church'?

Wojtyła reportedly believed the prophecy was fulfilled when he was made a cardinal.

From which saint did Wojtyła borrow his gesture of kneeling to kiss the ground?

The village was Niegowić, 24 km from Kraków, and he arrived at harvest time.

What nickname did the young priest have his student hiking companions use so outsiders would not know his job?

In Stalinist Poland priests were forbidden to travel with student groups; the name stuck for life.

Under what pen name did Wojtyła publish some of his poetry and plays?

He used pseudonyms so his literary work would be judged on its own merits, separate from his religious writing.

What was Wojtyła doing when he learned in July 1958 that Pius XII had named him an auxiliary bishop?

At 38 he became the youngest bishop in Poland.

Which pope appointed Wojtyła Archbishop of Kraków in 1964 and made him a cardinal in 1967?

He also helped draft Humanae vitae, the 1968 encyclical on birth control.

How long had John Paul I reigned before his death triggered the conclave that elected Wojtyła?

Wojtyła took his predecessor's double name in tribute to him.

Which cardinal proposed Wojtyła as a compromise when the October 1978 conclave deadlocked?

Wojtyła won on the eighth ballot on the third day, 16 October 1978.

Which Polish saint's name did the new pope reportedly want, before the cardinals talked him out of it?

They told him it was not a Roman name.

How old was John Paul II when elected, making him the youngest pope since Pius IX in 1846?

Pius IX had been 54.

According to the chronological list of popes, John Paul II was pope number what?

He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

How many countries did John Paul II visit during his pontificate?

He covered more than 1.1 million kilometres, making him one of the most-travelled world leaders in history.

The largest papal gathering ever, up to four million people, took place in January 1995 in which city?

The Al-Qaeda-funded Bojinka plot had planned to kill him during that same visit.

Which US president welcomed John Paul II in October 1979 as the first pope ever to visit the White House?

Full US-Vatican diplomatic relations were only restored under Reagan in 1984, for the first time since 1870.

In 1982 John Paul II was the first reigning pope to visit which country, meeting Elizabeth II?

He knelt in prayer with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the spot where Thomas Becket was killed.

In 2001 John Paul II became the first pope to enter and pray in a mosque. In which city?

The Umayyad Mosque is a former Byzantine church believed to hold the head of John the Baptist.

In March 2000 John Paul II became the first pope in history to visit and pray at which site?

The same year he made Egypt the first modern papal visit and met the Coptic Pope Shenouda III.

John Paul II's June 1979 trip to Poland is credited with inspiring which movement founded the next year?

The union was born at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in August 1980 and Lech Wałęsa credited the pope with giving Poles courage.

Which Soviet leader said the Iron Curtain could not have fallen 'without John Paul II'?

The two men met at the Vatican in December 1989 and expressed mutual admiration.

Which recurring Catholic youth event did John Paul II pioneer, presiding over nine of them?

He launched it in 1985; the press nicknamed it 'the Catholic Woodstock'.

How many papal encyclicals did John Paul II write?

They ranged from Redemptor hominis in 1979 to Ecclesia de Eucharistia in 2003.

What is the title of John Paul II's second encyclical, on divine mercy as God's greatest attribute?

The theme ran through his whole pontificate and shaped the feast he created in 2000.

John Paul II's teaching on human sexuality, delivered in general audiences, is known by what name?

His 1960 book Love and Responsibility had defended church teaching on marriage from a fresh philosophical angle.

In which year did John Paul II promulgate the new Code of Canon Law?

It replaced the 1917 code and came into force on the first Sunday of Advent that year.

What is the universal summary of doctrine John Paul II ordered published in 1992, the first since the 16th century?

He called it 'a sure norm for teaching the faith'.

On 13 May 1981 John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square by which Turkish gunman?

He was a member of the militant Grey Wolves and fired a Browning 9 mm pistol.

The 1981 assassination attempt fell on the anniversary of which Marian apparition?

He said he felt 'extraordinary motherly protection' that day, stronger than the bullet.

Roughly what proportion of his blood did John Paul II lose after being shot in 1981?

He underwent five hours of surgery, and asked doctors not to remove his Brown Scapular during the operation.

What did John Paul II do at Christmas, two and a half years after being shot, regarding the gunman?

They spoke privately for about twenty minutes; the pope said he spoke to him 'as a brother whom I have pardoned'.

Ağca was pardoned by Italy's president in June 2000 at whose request?

He was deported to Turkey to serve an earlier sentence and finally released in January 2010.

A traditionalist priest tried to attack the pope in Portugal in May 1982 with what?

The assailant, ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, believed the pope was an agent of Moscow; he served three years of a six-year sentence.

After the 1981 shooting, what change was made to the vehicle the media dubbed the 'popemobile'?

In 2002 the pope asked the media to stop using the word 'popemobile', calling it undignified.

Which scientist's 17th-century trial did John Paul II formally apologise for in 1992?

He made public apologies for more than 100 wrongdoings, including Catholic involvement in the slave trade.

In November 2001 John Paul II sent his first-ever what, apologising for clerical abuse?

It went out from a laptop in the Vatican.

When cardinals queried the cost of a swimming pool at his summer residence, what was the athletic pope's reply?

An Italian newspaper later called him l'atleta di Dio, 'God's athlete'.

Which long-suspected illness did the Vatican acknowledge John Paul II had in 2003?

An orthopaedic surgeon had confirmed the diagnosis in 2001.

John Paul II released music albums during his papacy. What was the title of his 1999 record?

He had earlier released The Rosary in 1994.

On what date did John Paul II die?

He died at 21:37 in his private apartment of septic shock and heart failure.

John Paul II's last words, spoken in Polish, translated as what?

He fell into a coma about four hours later and died that evening.

Who celebrated John Paul II's funeral Mass as Dean of the College of Cardinals?

Twelve days later the conclave elected him pope as Benedict XVI.

What did the crowds chant at John Paul II's funeral, demanding his immediate sainthood?

The funeral drew four kings, five queens and at least 70 presidents and prime ministers, a record for heads of state.

The Polish pope was buried in the St. Peter's grotto alcove that had previously held which pope?

The alcove was empty because that pope's body had been moved up into the basilica after his beatification.

On which feast day was John Paul II beatified in 2011 and then canonised in 2014?

He had established the feast himself in 2000 when canonising the Polish nun behind the devotion.

Which Polish nun, whose cause Wojtyła opened as Archbishop of Kraków, did he canonise in 2000?

She was the visionary behind the Divine Mercy devotion; her feast day is 5 October.

Roughly how many people did John Paul II canonise, more than all his predecessors of five centuries combined?

He also beatified 1,344 people as part of his emphasis on the universal call to holiness.

Which US president presented John Paul II with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004?

The citation praised 'this son of Poland' for helping to topple communism and tyranny.

Which private secretary, later Archbishop of Kraków, was at John Paul II's side from 1966?

He later admitted he did not burn the pope's personal notes despite being asked to in the will.

Which pope canonised John Paul II on 27 April 2014, with Benedict XVI concelebrating?

The decision had been made official in July 2013 after a miracle was attributed to John Paul's intercession.

Which philosopher's ethical system did Wojtyła examine in his 1954 doctorate in sacred theology?

Communist authorities abolished the Jagiellonian theology faculty, delaying the degree until 1957.

How many languages is Wojtyła said to have learned, nine of which he used as pope?

The list ran from Latin and Italian to Luxembourgish, Ukrainian and Esperanto.

From 1959 Bishop Wojtyła said Christmas Midnight Mass in an open field at which churchless workers' town near Kraków?

The 'model' socialist town had been built without a church; the annual Mass became an act of quiet defiance.

How many times did the 14th Dalai Lama visit John Paul II?

Both men led major religious bodies and came from nations affected by Communism, and shared many views.