Pope John Paul II ~ We love you, and we will miss you incredibly. Thank you for your marvelous service to Jesus and His Church. We trust that Jesus has thrown open the doors of Heaven to you, and that you are reveling in the loving arms of our Lord, and His mother. Well done, you good and faithful servant...

(From the EWTN website) A Brief History:

- Born: May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland
Birth name: Karol Joseph Wojtyla (voy-tee-wah); renamed John Paul II when he took the office of pope in 1978

- Family: Mother Emilia, died in childbirth in 1929; father Karol, retired army recruiter; brother Edmund died of scarlet fever in 1932

- Education: At boys' school, studied German, Latin, Greek; has doctorate in philosophy, master's degree in theology

- Sports: In his youth, enjoyed playing soccer, skiing, kayaking and swimming in Poland's Swaka River

- Wrote: First poem in 1940, titled "The Ballad of the Gates of Wawel"

- Worked as: Actor, stone cutter, chaplain, teacher, bishop, archbishop, pope

- Languages: Fluent in eight diffrent languages

- Health: Had benign intestinal tumor removed in 1992; injured shoulder after falling in 1993; broke thigh bone in 1994

- Survived assassination: In 1981, shot in St. Peter's square by Turkish national Mehmet Ali Agca; later pope visited him in prison and publicly forgave him

- Ordained: In 1946; became professor of moral theology in Lublin and Kracow
Archbishop: Of Kracow, Poland,from 1964 to 1978; became a cardinal in 1967
Became pope: In 1978, after Pope John Paul I died two months after taking office; John Paul II is the first non-Italian pope since 1523, and 264th pope in history

- Authorized: New Catholic catechism -- a list of official Catholic beliefs -- in English, the first since the 16th century

- Travel: Having visited 117 countries and every continent but Antarctica, he is the most traveled pope in history; first visited United States in 1979; returned in 1987, 1993 and 1995 and will return again in 1999

- Solidarity: Supports human rights and democracy; Verbally supported the Polish anti-communist movement

- Against: abortion, birth control and euthanasia; In the   Persian Gulf War; in 1990 before war broke, wrote letters to both President George Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urging a peaceful solution

- Time Magazine: Declared him 1994 "Man of the Year"