When the doors opened on the balcony above St. Peter's Square on Oct. 16, 1978, it was the dawn of a new era.
Karol Wojtyla made history with his ascension to the world stage as the first Polish universal pastor of the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II was the 264th pope, shepherd to the world's Catholics; he was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and one of the youngest popes ever named.
Before his papacy was over, he transformed his church and helped hobble the monolith of communism – all despite an assassination attempt and years of failing health.
Born May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, Wojtyla was an excellent student and athlete. The young Lolek, as he was called, lost his mother at age 8, his brother at age 12. He grew to be a passionate and gifted actor and a fine singer, possessing a charisma he used to inspire and even amuse in his years as pope.
He worked briefly as a stonecutter in Nazi occupied Krakow before beginning his studies for the priesthood in 1942 in an underground seminary.
He later earned a doctorate in philosophy and two master's degrees.
By 1962, Wojtyla was named archbishop of Krakow, then under communist rule. Within five years, he was named a cardinal. And when Pope John Paul I died, the 58-year-old cardinal from Krakow was elected Pope -- after seven ballots.
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Biography
The life of Pope John Paul was an amazing journey.
 
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Months later he returned to Poland preaching to a million of his countrymen reminding them they were men, not meant to crawl on their bellies. The speech is considered to have given great strength to the Solidarity movement there and signaled the beginning of the end of communism.
John Paul II traveled more than any other pope, visiting more than 120 countries, championing the human rights of his flock. He spoke eight languages, adding his last, Spanish, to the list after he became pope.
With his flair for the theater, he was also the first media saavy pope -- steering the Vatican into satellite transmissions and producing videocassettes.
But he was also a very traditional Pope. His opposition to contraception, abortion and euthanasia was absolute and unbending, though it did not play well in the United States and other industrialized nations.
The pope also insisted church doctrine prohibited the ordination of women. In 1994 he sent a demanding letter to bishops making that judgment to the church's faithful.
To ensure his philosophy survived him he named upwards of 160 conservative cardinals, more than 80 percent of all living cardinals.
The pope also was a man with great capacity for forgiveness. In 1981, a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Agca shot him twice in an assassination attempt.
The pope visited Agca in his cell, and forgave the man who tried to take his life.
In January 2001, one of the Pope's doctors publicly acknowledged he had Parkinson's disease, but the effects of the disease on his frail body had long been apparent.
Biography/Photo Galleries
His health
Books and publications
These are books by and about Pope John Paul II:
