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"The opportunity that God sends does not wake up
the one who is asleep." - Sengalese Proverb
Karol Wojtyla. Many people love or admire him.
Some people dislike him or despise his positions. However, other people do
not know him or notice his work. This last group is asleep. Karol Wojtyla is
unarguably one of the true moral giants of the twentieth century. He shares
the same heroic stature with men and women such as Mahatma Ghandi, Martin
Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Nelson Mandela.
Karol Wojtyla holds numerous titles: Bishop of
Rome; Primate of Italy; Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province;
Patriarch of the West; Sovereign of the Vatican States; Successor to Saint
Peter; Prince of the Apostles; Vicar of Jesus Christ; and the Supreme
Pontiff of the Universal Church. He holds one other title that is perhaps
the most descriptive. Karol Wojtyla is the Servant of the Servants of God.
 Karol Wojtyla is widely known as Pope John Paul
II. He celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate on October
16, 2003. Although his story is awe-inspiring, some hard statistics place
his pontifical service into perspective.
Pope John Paul II is the 264th Pope. He is the
first non-Italian Pope since 1522. His pontificate is the longest papacy of
the twentieth century and currently the 4th longest in papal history. His
ministry exceeds 9120 days. He shepherds 1,070,000,000 billion Catholic
Christians worldwide!
He has made 102 apostolic trips to 129 different
countries; visited 616 different towns in Italy; and visited 301 out 333
parishes within the Archdiocese of Rome. His trips currently constitute
nearly 9% of his pontificate! Indeed, his trips exceed more than 720,284
miles, which is around 28 times the planet's circumference or roughly 3
times the distance between the earth and the moon.
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