John Paul Ii Pope

One of Roman Catholicism's most tantalizing secrets came to an anticlimactic end Monday as the Vatican unveiled a 62-line handwritten account by Lucia de Jesus dos Santos of what she saw as a 10-year-old shepherd in a pasture near Fatima, Portugal, on July 13, 1917. The text describes a radiant Virgin Mary, a flaming sword and a "Bishop dressed in White," presumed to be a pope, who leads a sad procession of priests and nuns up a mountain through a half-ruined city strewn with corpses.

After nearly 30 years behind bars, the Turkish man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II walked out of a prison a free man Monday and promptly predicted the end of the world. Now a gray-haired 52-year-old, Mehmet Ali Agca declared himself the "Christ eternal" and prophesied that humanity would be wiped out this century, in a statement passed out to a scrum of television cameras and waiting reporters in Ankara, the Turkish capital. Later, the hollow-cheeked Agca, who has spent more of his life in prison than out, was declared mentally disturbed by doctors who exempted him from mandatory military service, the Associated Press reported.

Soon after he died two years ago, Pope John Paul II was practically declared a saint by vox populi. Banners demanding "Santo Subito!" (Sainthood Now!) crowned the crowds of people who filled St. Peter's Square to mourn the pontiff. Today, on the second anniversary of his death, John Paul will take a significant step closer to sainthood.

As a young boy in Poland before World War II, Karol Jozef Wojtyla possessed an uncommon warmth for an often reviled group of outsiders -- Jews. Like most others in his hometown, Wojtyla was Catholic. But he counted Jewish children among his friends -- attending school with them, even playing goalie on their soccer team. Wojtyla was speechless when one of them, a fellow actor in drama club, informed him that she was leaving to escape looming anti-Semitism.

For some it may have been Super Bowl Sunday, but for others in African squalor, World Leprosy Day counted more. For Pope John Paul II, Sunday proved a day as physically and emotionally challenging as any 69-year-old man-with-a-mission could pray for. The indefatigable Pope labored for 15 hours in 10 events Sunday on the fourth day of his journey through some of the world's poorest countries on the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert.

A jubilant sea of captivated immigrants embraced Pope John Paul II with thunderous acclaim Wednesday as the red-robed pontiff crowned his pastoral visit to Los Angeles with the festive pageantry of a Dodger Stadium Mass.

When he heard that Pope John Paul II had died, Massimo Signoracci crossed himself, murmured a prayer and waited for a call that never came. The Signoracci clan, a dynasty of morticians and embalmers whose roots go back to an old Roman cemetery on an island in the Tiber River, has ministered to the last three popes and hoped to be asked to tend to this one as well. But for reasons that were unclear, no Vatican summons came.

Pope John Paul II has awarded papal knighthood to comedian Bob Hope, news magnate Rupert Murdoch and entertainment executive Roy Disney--all non-Catholics--along with 64 prominent Los Angeles-area Catholics. Among the Catholics named were actor Ricardo Montalban, longtime Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro and hotel executive Barron Hilton. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will induct the men and women into the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great in a ceremony Jan. 11 at St.

Felled by a would-be assassin's bullet, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church lay close to death as he was rushed to a hospital. Floating near unconsciousness, Pope John Paul II forgave his attacker, yet somehow remained confident that he would live. "Oh, my God! It was a difficult experience," the pope recalled. Finally passing out in the hospital as doctors frantically gave him blood, he nearly died: "I was practically on the other side," John Paul said.

A tracheostomy like that undergone by Pope John Paul II on Thursday is a relatively common procedure among the elderly who are sick and having difficulty breathing, experts said Thursday, and it can be even more beneficial to Parkinson's disease patients, such as the pontiff, whose breathing is already impaired. "The immediate benefit is that it reduces the amount of air you have to move [with your lungs] with every breath by 50%," said Dr.

Soon after he died two years ago, Pope John Paul II was practically declared a saint by vox populi. Banners demanding "Santo Subito!" (Sainthood Now!) crowned the crowds of people who filled St. Peter's Square to mourn the pontiff. Today, on the second anniversary of his death, John Paul will take a significant step closer to sainthood.

Tens of thousands of people clutching candles filled St. Peter's Square to mark the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death with a prayer vigil that culminated with a blessing by the current pontiff. Polish flags fluttered in the cool evening breeze, the candles twinkled, and a choir sang hymns during the vigil, which ended with the blessing by Benedict XVI at 9:37 p.m. -- the moment that John Paul, a Pole, died a year ago.

Pope John Paul II played down his ailments and was often reluctant to receive medical treatment, according to a book by some of his closest aides, including his personal physician. The book, which hit the stands here Wednesday, also shows the Vatican knew that the late pope had symptoms of Parkinson's disease in 1991 but kept quiet about it for five years.

It has persisted as one of the most mysterious cases of international intrigue in recent times: Who shot the pope? A committee of Italy's Parliament investigating the 1981 attempt to assassinate John Paul II released its conclusion Thursday that "beyond any reasonable doubt" the Soviet Union ordered the attack that seriously wounded the pope as he greeted crowds in St. Peter's Square. The Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, was long ago condemned in the shooting and served 19 years in jail.

A military hospital pronounced the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II unfit for military service, ending days of speculation over whether 48-year-old Mehmet Ali Agca would be forced to serve. Agca hid behind a beret as he entered the grounds of the military hospital in a car, his first public appearance since he vanished after his release from a high-security prison last week.

The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 will be released from prison this week after a court decided he had completed his sentence for the attack on the pontiff and other crimes. The ruling on Mehmet Ali Agca, who had served almost 20 years in Italy before being extradited to Turkey in 2000, took the Vatican by surprise. Agca shot the pope in the abdomen in St. Peter's Square in Rome on May 13, 1981. His motive remains unclear.

At 3:11 p.m. Wednesday, the 11 boys and 10 girls seated in Room 7 of Immaculate Conception School abruptly stopped their nervous drumming of fingers and their fervent, last-minute prayers. "He's coming. He's coming. He's coming," 12-year-old Herbert Barrios frantically whispered. "Oh, my God," gasped one of the girls. All motion stopped. The parochial schoolchildren held their breath and, eyes wide, listened to the sounds of footsteps advancing up the stairs toward the second-floor classroom.

John Paul II, the Pope who never stops, goes back on the road again today, this time to nearby Spain for a firsthand view of a typically European struggle between old-time Catholicism and new-found secular freedoms. For the 73-year-old pontiff, the trip, his fourth to Spain and his 59th abroad since 1978, is a milestone of sorts. It is just a year since John Paul, a pain in his belly, grimly endured an exhausting week's visit to Angola. In July, he had an intestinal tumor removed.

Pope Benedict XVI attended a Vatican screening Thursday of a television miniseries on the life of Pope John Paul II. Benedict said "Pope John Paul II," which CBS will broadcast Dec. 4 and 7, provided an important service in spreading the message about the life and works of the late pope.

ABC has moved to beat CBS to the punch in presenting a dramatization of the life of Pope John Paul II, who died in April. CBS announced weeks ago that it would unveil the two-part TV movie "Pope John Paul II" on Dec. 4 and 7, with Cary Elwes and Jon Voight playing the former Karol Wojtyla of Poland at different stages of his life. Then ABC came along Wednesday and said it had selected Dec. 1 to show "Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II," with Thomas Kretschmann in the title role.