Challenger

Pope John Paul II’s reign over the Roman Catholic Church has come to an end. Born in Poland as Karol Wojtyla he was elected Pope on October 16th, 1978. He became the Catholic Church’s first non-Italian pontiff in over 450 years and was history’s first Slavic pope. He decided to take the name Pope John Paul II as a nod to his predecessor John Paul I who was only the Pope for one month. He was Pope for 26 years and died on Saturday from what was believed to be from septic shock and a cardio-circulatory collapse as well as a long time battle with Parkinsons disease. The Pope passed away at 84.

His disease become a major problem in 2000, the ailing and tired Pope pondered on whether or not to resign as Pope. He wasn’t sure if he should be the one to lead the Roman Catholic Church into the next millenium.

The Pope had a love for young people. He felt that they were the leaders of tomorrow with all the power in the world to accomplish anything they wanted. The Pope made many visits all over the world. He made 104 pastorial visits outside Italy and 146 visits within Italy.

The pontiff has presided at 147 beatification ceremonies and 51 canonizations ceremonies proclaiming 482 saints. He held 9 consistories in which he created 231 cardinals.

No other Pope has encountered as many people as Pope John Paul II. More than 17,600,000 pilgrims have participated in the General Audiences from his window in the vatican.

The Pope made a visit to the United States in 1999 to St. Louis. In his speech he thanked the American people for their warm welcome and their hospitality.
The pope was not embalmed like average disceased people of the United States. Instead he was placed inside of a wooden coffin, then the coffiin was placed into a zinc coffin, then the two coffins were placed inside of yet another wooden coffin. The Pope was then taken to his final resting place under the Basilica.

The selecting of the Pope’s successor will consist of 117 cardinals from almost every continent of the world. It is highly likely that the new Pope will be between the ages of 60-75. When voting on the next Pope they will burn the ballot papers twice a day and must take a vow of secrecy.

More than likely, the new Pope will not be Italian, although most of the cardinals selecting the next pope are italian. There are at least 25 cardinals on the ballot to be the next pontiff.

The Cardinals will be in general sessions discussing the guidelines they will use to select the next pontiff.

They will begin to work on choosing the next Pope 15-20 days after the burial of the pope. The only cardinals that are eligible to vote for the new pontiff must be under the age of 80.

Two ballots will be held each morning and two each afternoon. If no one gets the two-thirds majority within about 12 days, Cardinals may change the procedure and elect a Pope simply by majority. As long as there is black smoke coming from the Sistine Chapel the cardinals will still be in deliberation on selecting a new pontiff. The world will know about the new pontiff when white smoke comes from the Chapel.