JPII’s birth centenary marked
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President Andrzej Duda, Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher and Sejm (lower house of the Polish parliament) Speaker Elzbieta Witek paid tribute to the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II on the centenary of his birth on May 18.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis said at the ceremony in the Vatican to celebrate the former pope’s birth, that John Paul II was a man of prayer who was close to the people and loved justice.
Karol Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, southern Poland, on May 18, 1920. He was elected pope on October 16, 1978. He died on April 2, 2005. JPII was beatified on May 1, 2011, and canonized on May 27, 2014.
However, it has been reported that “lawsuits by victims, numerous prosecutions and news coverage of bishops who enabled abuse are the shadow story of John Paul II’s twenty-six-year pontificate, during which time he responded to continuing allegations of clergy abuse with denial and inertia.”
