Pope John Paul II

I think everyone has a "my hero" in their life. And I have my own hero as an ordinary human. As a matter of fact, when my English teacher, Mr. D, ordered us (me and my classmates) to publish "my hero project", I couldn't think of anybody who will be my hero. Mr. D showed us a lot of "my hero projects" that had been published. At that time, I thought of many people too. Musicians, book authors, presidents, and any others. At the first time, I was deciding on the 4th president of Indonesia, Mr.Abdurahman Wahid. But when I had been searching for his biography, I was reminded about someone who was the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II. He is peacemaker and the wise person for me.

Pope John Paul II at 12 years old (www.wikipedia.org)

Pope John Paul II had a real name Karol Josef Wojtyla. He was born on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice, Southern Poland. He was the youngest of three (3) children of Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. Before he became a priest, he lost everyone in his family--mother, father, sister and brother.

Pope John Paul II (www.wikipedia.org)

Pope John Paul II reigned as the 264th Pope and sovereign of the State of Vatican City from 16 October 1978. He led for 27 years, the second-longest pontificate after Pius IX (31 years). Pope John Paul II is the Polish pope--the first non-Italian Pope since the Dutch Adrian VI in the 1520s. He was opposed to communism, and he was notable for speaking against war, fascism, dictatorship, abortion, contraception, materialism, relativism, capitalism, euthanasia, human cloning, and the culture of death. Pope John Paul II visited over 100 countries during his reign, one of the most-traveled world leaders in history.

And then, on 13 May 1981, there's someone who tried to kill him named Mohammad Ali Aqsa, a Turkish gunman. Pope John Paul II had lost almost three-quarters of his blood and was hospitalized at Gemelli Hospital. Aqsa was caught and restrained by a nun and other bystanders until police arrived. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Pope John Paul II saved and recovered--and two days after Christmas 1983 he visited the prison and spoke privately with Aqsa for 20 minutes. Now guess what happened--Pope John Paul II said that he had already forgiven Ali Aqsa. Oh my God--I think that's very cool. And after I knew about that I really respected him. In my opinion he was a wise person. What do you think ?

St. Peter's Basilica, 6 April 2005 (www.wikipedia.org)

Unfortunately, his health was getting down and "on 31 March 2005, Pope developed a very high fever and profoundly low blood pressure, but was neither rushed to the hospital nor offered life support. Instead, he was offered medical monitoring by a team of consultants at his private residence. This was taken as an indication that the pope and those close to him believed that he was nearing death; it would have been in accordance with his wishes to die in the Vatican. And on 2 April 2005, he returned to Father in Heaven. Four hours before his death, he spoke his final words, "Let me go to the house of the Father," to his aides in his native Polish and fell into a coma. He died in his private apartment, at 21:37 CEST on 84 years old,46 days short of his 85th birthday."

The world cried. Many paid their respects to John Paul II: President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, former Presidents Bush and Clinton came to St. Peter's Basilica. Not only them, but many people from other countries too.

Pope John Paul II was not just a peacemaker, but he had many good predicates. He was an extraordinary person. Until now, his kindness, his wisdom, and his tolerance to others was never forgotten by everyone in the world. I made this story for gratitude to Pope John Paul II, the hero in my heart. Let his kindness and his love to be our inspiration.