Pope John Paul II. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution. Author:https://www.flickr.com/people/22490717@N02. License:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

On April 2, we remark the death of St Pope John Paul II who passed away ten years ago. He was the first non-Italian pope elected since the 15th century and his pontificate was the second longest in history.

Pope Francis talked about the previous Pope as “a great witness to Christ in His suffering, death and resurrection” in the way he showed sick people how to “carry the cross of suffering with joy”. Francis also invoked St John Paul II’s intercession for the faithful, the family and the Church “so that the light of resurrection may shine over all the shadows of our life and fill us with joy and peace”.
 
The anniversary falls as a new poll shows that a third of Poles believe John Paul II’s death made people better.
 

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