St. John Paul II Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland, on 18 May 1920. He was elected Pope on 16 October 1978. Pope John Paul II made 146 pastoral visits in Italy and, as the Bishop of Rome, he visited 317 of the current 322 Roman parishes. More than 17.6 million pilgrims attended his Wednesday General Audiences. His international apostolic journeys numbered 104 and were expressions of the constant pastoral solicitude of the Successor of Peter for all the Churches. Pope John Paul II died in the Apostolic Palace at 9:37 PM on Saturday, 2 April 2005, the vigil of Sunday in albis or Divine Mercy Sunday, which he had instituted ”
