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LIFE OF JOHN PAUL II

May 2, 2011 at 5:07AM

LIFE OF JOHN PAUL II

May 18, 1920: Born in Wadowice near Krakow, Poland, to devout Catholics parents; baptized Karol Jozef Wojtyla.

1939: Goes underground after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.

Nov. 1, 1946: Ordained as a priest.

Sept. 28, 1958: Appointed as auxiliary bishop in Krakow.

March 8, 1964: Installed as archbishop of Krakow

June 28, 1967: Consecrated as cardinal by Pope Paul VI.

Oct. 16, 1978: Elected as the 264th pope of the Catholic Church under the name John Paul II. He is the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian to fill the post in more than 450 years.

June 2, 1979: Visits Poland for the first time as pope and gives impetus to the movement that leads to the establishment of Solidarity, the first independent labor union in the Soviet bloc.

Nov. 15, 1980: Visits Germany, where he begins a reassessment of Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. The trip is one of many that will take the pontiff to 129 countries during his pontificate.

May 13, 1981: John Paul is shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by a Turkish right-wing extremist, Mehmet Ali Agca.

Sept. 15, 1982: Meets Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat at the Vatican, provoking criticism from Israel and Jewish groups.

April 13, 1986: Becomes the first pope in modern times to enter a Jewish house of worship when he visits Rome's main synagogue.

Dec. 1, 1989: Receives Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Vatican in the first meeting between a pope and a Kremlin chief.

May 1, 1991: Issues first encyclical on social issues since the fall of communism in Europe, giving qualified support to capitalism but denouncing the exploitation of the poor.

Dec. 30, 1993: Agreement signed to establish formal diplomatic relations between Israel and the Vatican.

March 25, 1995: Issues encyclical titled "Gospel of Life," in which he condemns the spreading "culture of death," including abortion, euthanasia and experimentation on human embryos.

March 16, 1998: Vatican issues document on the Holocaust, expressing remorse for the cowardice of some Christians during the Nazi persecution of Jews but defending the actions of the wartime pope, Pius XII.

March 2000: Makes first pilgrimage to Holy Land, leaving a note at Jerusalem's Western Wall expressing sorrow for the suffering of Jews at the hands of Christians.

May 6, 2001: Become the first pope to visit and pray in an Islamic house of worship when he visits a mosque in Damascus, Syria.

April 2, 2005: Dies at 84 after a long illness.

DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR