St. John Paul II (1981-1985)

Series: On the life of John Paul II

From 1981 - 1985 A.D.

Involvement with Poland's politics

For John Paul II, the decade of the 1980s was the decade of Poland. The rise in food prices prompted the union called Solidarity, to call a general strike. So, under pressure from Moscow, General Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland and arrested the leadership of the Solidarity movement. The Pope longed to return to his native Poland at this time, but was thwarted in 1982 A.D. from celebrating the 600th anniversary of Our Lady of Jasna Gora, because of the martial law imposed by Jaruzelski. Although the Pope was able to return to Poland in June of 1983 A.D., for a week's visit, his movements were heavily controlled by the regime. And he also felt sorrowful because Lech Walesa, one of Poland's leaders opposed to Communism, and leaders of Solidarity, were all in jail. Moreover, his relationship with the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, was strained.

The attempt on his life

But before the Pope became very involved with Poland and the eventual fall of Communism, he unsuspectingly was being targeted for assassination. The man who was planning to assassinate him arrived in Rome in December 1980 A.D. This information comes from counterespionage experts. It was on the afternoon of May 13, 1981 A.D., that the Turkish assassin Ali Agca, positioned himself near the place where the Pope was to lead a service. As the Pope was being driven through the crowds of pilgrims in his Popemobile, Ali Agca fired two shots from a pistol at a range of about nine feet from where the Pope was. A bullet tore through the Pope's abdomen, and a second one grazed his elbow and hit two American pilgrims.

In gratitude for Mary's protection

In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, the Pope said on October 12, 1981 A.D.: "Again I have become indebted to the Blessed Virgin...(since the date of the attempt to kill him, May 13, was the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima). A year to the day after the attack, the Pope traveled to Fatima and placed the bullet that almost killed him, in Mary's crown at the shrine. He spoke of how one hand had guided the trigger, while another, "a motherly hand," had guided the bullet so as to miss vital organs.

Back on the road again as missionary Pope

As the Pope's health improved, he was back in his global ministry again. He was truly a missionary Pope for the world: the universal pastor. After the success of his trips to Mexico, Poland, Ireland, and the United States in 1979 A.D., there had been trips to Hungary, Africa, France, Brazil, and West Germany in 1980 A.D. In February 1981 A.D., he had set off on his first Asian pilgrimage - Pakistan, the Philippines, Guam, Japan - then stopping over at Alaska as he flew back to Europe. Having recovered from his bullet wounds by the spring of 1982 A.D., he embarked on a visit to Britain in May, followed by a trip to Argentina.

The Pope's missionary itinerary from May 1984 A.D. - September 1985 A.D.

The years 1981-1985 proved to be the Pope's most busiest years in travel. During these years, he visited more than 150 cities all over the world.

• On May 2-12, 1984 A.D., he visited Korea, Papua-New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Thailand
• On June 12-17, he visited Switzerland
• On September 9-12, he visited Canada
• On October 10-13, he visited Zaragoza, Spain; Sto. Domingo, Dominican Republic; and San Juan, Puerto Rico
• On November 2-4, he visited northern Italy (Milan, Varese, Pavia, Varallo, and Arona)
• On January 26, 1984 A.D. - February 1985 A.D., he visited Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Trinidad-Tobago
• On May 11-21, 1985 A.D., he visited Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium
• On August 8-19, he visited Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Republic of Central Africa, Zaire, Kenya, Morocco
• On September 9, he visited Kloten, Switzerland; and Liechtenstein

The Pope's mission of evangelization through Saints and Blesseds

The papacy of John Paul II will also be remembered for the enormous numbers of saints and blesseds that he all raised in the altar of the Church. It was evidently part of his strategy of evangelization - to demonstrate to the world the heroic sanctity that could be achieved by the faithful in every quarter of the globe. Traditionally, it took decades -sometimes even centuries - for the making of a saint or a blessed. This Pope, reduced the process to a few years. In January 1983 A.D., he published an Apostolic Constitution which abolished the "Devil's Advocate" - a lawyer probing the claims of the 'servant of God', as a candidate for sainthood. This lawyer's adversarial methods evidently slowed down the process. In place of the "Devil's Advocate", it was the writing of a positio, where the merits of a servant of God is established well in the writing of the candidate's biography or hagiography.

The year 1985 A.D. concluded

The most meaningful and significant event in which the Pope concluded the year 1985, was the Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on: "The Twentieth Anniversary of the Conclusion of the Second Vatican Council" (November 25 - December 8, 1985 A.D.). Before this, the Third Plenary Meeting of the College of Cardinals on the reform of the Roman Curia was held (November 21-23); the Pope received the official visit of President Francesco Cossiga of Italy (October 4); and the Pope sent a personal message to President Ronald Reagan of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia, for the Geneva summit. And this was only the 7th year of his papacy.

Edited from the following books and references

• The Pope Coming from the East, by Teresio Bosco, S.D.B.
• An Intimate Portrait: John Paul II, by Mark Bakermans
• The Pontiff in Winter, by John Cornwell
• Pope John Paul II: Champion of Faith, by TV Guide Magazine Group, Inc.
• Special Report: The 25 Years of Pope John Paul II, Vatican Information Service
• John Paul II: A Great Pope Passes into History, Readers Digest (June 2005)
• John Paul II: 1920-2005, Newsweek Special Double Issue (April 11/April 18, 2005)