October marks the 25th anniversary of John Paul II's papal election

October 16, 2003, marks the 25th anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II as the Bishop of Rome. The observance in Rome will be combined with the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta on October 19. Here in the United States, there will be a variety of celebrations, exhibits, pilgrimages and special publications to mark this celebration. The last pope to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his pontificate was Pope Leo XIII on February 20, 1903.

Pope John Paul II ranks among the most important leaders in the history of the Catholic Church. He has served longer than all but three of his predecessors (including St. Peter himself). He is by far the most widely traveled of all popes, as well as the most prolific.

Karol Wojtyla was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. His mother died when he was 9, and his only brother a few years later. He spent most of his early years living with his father, a retired military officer. Father and son moved to Krakow when Karol enrolled as a student at the famed Jagiellonian University there.

World War II interrupted his education, and he worked as a laborer - first in a stone quarry, later in a chemical plant - during the days, while active with an underground theater troupe in the evenings. It was also during World War II that he began secretly studying for the priesthood, eventually hiding in the archbishop’s residence when the Nazi occupation began arresting seminarians.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1946. After completing studies in Rome and Krakow that eventually brought him two doctoral degrees, he settled in to his duties as a parish priest, combining that pastoral work with a successful career as a theology professor at the Catholic University in Lublin.

In 1959 Father Wojtyla was named an auxiliary bishop, and in 1964 he became Archbishop of Krakow. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Paul VI in 1967. The young Polish prelate was an enthusiastic participant in the work of the Second Vatican Council, taking a particularly active role in drafting Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

The autumn of 1978 was a turbulent time at the Vatican. Pope Paul VI succumbed to a lengthy illness and died in office. His immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul I, died suddenly after just 33 days in office. Gathering for a second conclave in barely over a month, the College of Cardinals selected Cardinal Wojtyla, then 58 years old, to be the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years.

Pope John Paul II has had a stimulating impact on the Catholic world. The young Pontiff showed a remarkable ability to communicate directly with large crowds.

His 25 years as pope has had many achievements. Among the most significant:

- He played a pivotal role in the development of the Solidarity movement in his native Poland, and eventually in the collapse of the Soviet empire.

- The Pope, who nourishes a fervent personal devotion to the Virgin Mary, has strongly encouraged the same devotion among the faithful. In 2002 he added five new mysteries to the most popular traditional Marian prayer, the Rosary.

- Since his days as a parish priest, working with young couples, he has labored to help the faithful understand marriage as a Christian vocation and a reflection of divine love. His weekly meditations on "the theology of the body" helped Catholics to understand human sexuality in a profound new way. At the same time, Pope John Paul ceaselessly exhorted Christians to preserve the "culture of life" in the face of attacks such as abortion, euthanasia, divorce, and contraception.

- A trained philosopher, the Pontiff insisted that religious faith could and should be reconciled with rational argument and scientific logic. His encyclical Veritatis Splendor (1993) underlined the claims of absolute truth, and in Fides et Ratio (1998) he argued forcefully that Western culture has been damaged by the unnatural divorce of faith from reason.

Pope John Paul’s years in office have taken a heavy toll on his health. In 1981 he barely survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot at point-blank range by a Turkish assailant. (After his recovery, the Pope made a point of visiting his would-be assassin in prison, offering him his forgiveness, and providing one of the most memorable photographic images of his pontificate.) In 1992 surgeons removed a tumor from his intestine, and in 1996 his appendix was removed.

By the mid-1990s, Pope John Paul was clearly exhibiting the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease: an increasing hesitancy in movement, rigidity of expression, trembling in his hands, and occasional difficulty in speaking clearly. Although these symptoms grew progressively more obvious, it was only in 2001 that a Vatican spokesman formally confirmed that the Pontiff was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Medication has eased the symptoms, but the Pope has been forced to cut back sharply on his physical activity.

Vatican Preparation for Jubilee

The Vatican has scheduled a program of events for Pope John Paul II’s 25th anniversary. Beginning on Oct. 15 there will be a four-day meeting of the 164 members of the College of Cardinals, Mass on the day of the anniversary and a concert in the Pope’s honor. During the four day meeting, six cardinals will give reflections on themes of great importance to the Church in the New Synod Hall: The Petrine Ministry and Communion in the Episcopacy; Priests, the Consecrated Life and Vocations; ecumenism; the family; missions; and The 25 Years of Pontificate in Service to Peace.

The Holy Father will be present on the morning of Oct. 16, and he will sign the post-synodal apostolic exhortation for the 2001 synod held on the theme of the Episcopal

ministry. In the evening, a concert will be held in the Paul VI Hall in the Pope’s honor with the concert being offered by the choir and orchestra of Leipzig, Germany; they will perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Bruckner’s "Ecce Sacerdos Magnus." The Pope will address the cardinals in their final session on Oct. 18, receive a message from the cardinals and enjoy a lunch with all his guests. On Oct. 19, Pope John Paul will preside at the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, during which he will beatify Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Stamps to honor anniversary

The Vatican philatelic bureau will soon issue a set of 25 stamps to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Pope’s pontificate. The stamps will feature 25 different photos, each one commemorating some noteworthy event from the Pope’s pontificate. The 1981 stamp marks a Turkish gunman’s attempt to kill the Pope as he rode through St. Peter’s Square in an open car. Most of the series will be in color. The 1981 stamp will be the only one that is in black-and-white.

Spiritual Bouquet

To mark the Pope’s Silver Jubilee, Irishman Pat Ryan and his family set up a web site earlier this year to record the Jubilee celebration of Masses being celebrated around the world. At the latest count the number of parishes taking part was approaching 2,000.

Mr Ryan said: "This spiritual bouquet for John Paul has been welcomed all over the world. We have had pledges from 65 countries on all five continents, including Russia, Siberia, China, Indonesia, Tanzania, Iceland and the Solomon Islands. "There have been e-mails from large cathedrals such as Pondicherry to tiny Ashram in Suva - from familiar parishes in Rome and Poland to the less well know missions in the Comoros Islands. Participants range from school children to old folk in residential care homes; hospital chapels to defense establishments, seminaries, universities, and religious orders including the Trappists, Carmelites and Poor Clares. "Shrines such as Knock, Aylesford Priory and Banneux will be celebrating Mass for the Pope's Jubilee. There have also been pledges from the Byzantine, Maronite and Melkite communities." If your parish or community is organizing a Jubilee Mass, visit: www.jp2-jubilee.org to ensure that it is recorded in the Spiritual Bouquet.

Local Celebration

In honor of the Pope’s 25th anniversary, Bishop John C. Nienstedt will celebrate Mass at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 12 at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, New Ulm.

Vatican web site

A complete listing of the Pope’s encyclicals, speeches, apostolic letters, and other public information can be found at the Vatican web site. Visit www.vatican.va/