NEWS
March 25, 2000 | RICHARD BOUDREAUX and REBECCA TROUNSON, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Tracing the footsteps of Jesus in the land of biblical miracles and modern-day conflicts, Pope John Paul II stood Friday on a gentle slope overlooking the Sea of Galilee and appealed to thousands of young people to act for good in the world, warning them against the "voice of evil" that glorifies pride, hatred and war.
NEWS
June 27, 2000 | RICHARD BOUDREAUX, TIMES STAFF WRITER
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.
WORLD
April 7, 2005 | Laura King, Times Staff Writer
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 3, 1998 | JOHN DART, TIMES STAFF WRITER
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.
WORLD
January 19, 2010 | By Henry Chu
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.
WORLD
April 12, 2005 | Larry B. Stammer and Richard Boudreaux, Times Staff Writers
The scandal over sex abuse by American priests intruded on the mourning for Pope John Paul II here Monday as all but one U.S.-based cardinal avoided a Mass led by Boston's disgraced former archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law. Three of the seven cardinals -- Edward M. Egan of New York, Francis George of Chicago and Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles -- snubbed the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica out of concern over Law's notoriety, three American church sources said.
NEWS
September 14, 1987 | RUSSELL CHANDLER, Times Religion Writer
Pope John Paul II will meet with 16,000 Catholic American Indians at the Arizona Memorial Coliseum today in what organizers hope will mark a step forward in the sometimes stormy relations between Indians and Catholicism. The gathering, in which representatives of more than 200 tribes will pray with the pontiff, dance and sing, will incorporate Indian customs only recently permitted as a part of worship by the nation's 285,000 Catholic American Indians. Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, N.M.
WORLD
April 9, 2005 | Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer
On Friday, the pallbearer's heart was heavy. But his back and his faith were strong. As he pulled on the white gloves, adjusted the long-tailed formal jacket and draped the ceremonial medallion around his neck, he felt himself in the powerful grip of history and ritual. Like his father and his grandfather before him, the pallbearer belongs to the sediari pontifici: the pope's footmen.
WORLD
February 25, 2005 | Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
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.
WORLD
April 6, 2005 | Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writer
The air is filled with hymns and gridlock and the staccato rage of taxi drivers. This city, which has known pilgrims for centuries, is playing host again to the masses: At least 2 million international mourners are converging toward Friday's funeral for Pope John Paul II. Unfolding maps and following flags, they resemble an ecclesiastical army camped amid the ruins and umbrella pines.