In the light of the Risen Christ, the 2nd of April in the year of the Lord 2005, at 21:37 in the evening, while it turned toward the end of Saturday, and having already entered into the Lord's Day, the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday, the beloved Pastor of the Church John Paul II passed from this world to the Father. The entire Church, especially the youth, has accompanied his passage in prayer.  

John Paul II was the 264 Pope.  His memory remains in the heart of the Church and the entirety of mankind.  

Karol Wojtyła, elected Pope 16 October 1978, was born at Wadowice, a city 50 kilometers from Kraków, on 18 May 1920 and baptized two days later in the parish church by Fr. Francis Zak.  

At age nine he received his first Holy Communion, at eighteen years, the Sacrament of Confirmation. Interrupted in his studies, because the Nazi army of occupation had closed the University, he worked in a quarry, and subsequently, in the Solvay chemical factory.  At the end of 1942, sensing that he was called to the priesthood, he attended the course of formation of the clandestine seminary of Krakow.  On 1 November 1946 he received priestly ordination by the hand of Cardinal Adam Sapieha.  Then he was sent to Rome where he pursued the licentiate and doctorate in theology with the thesis entitled Doctrina de fide apud Sanctum Ioannem a Cruce.  

He returned next to Poland, where there would be some pastoral ministry and the teaching of sacred discipline. On 4 July 1958 Pope Pius XII named him auxiliary bishop of Kraków, and by Paul VI, in 1964, he was destined to the same see as Archbishop. As such he intervened in the Second Vatican Council.  Paul VI created him Cardinal 26 June 1967.  

In the Conclave he was elected Pope by the Cardinals on the 16 October 1978, and took the name John Paul II.  On 22 October, the Lord's Day, he solemnly began his Petrine ministry.  

The Pontificate of John Paul II has been one of the longest in Church history   In this period, under various aspects, many changes have been seen. Numbered among them the fall of some regimes to which he himself contributed. For the purpose of announcing the Gospel, he completed many journeys in various nations.  

John Paul II has exercised the Petrine ministry with a tireless missionary spirit, dedicating all his energy, urged on by solicitude for the entire Church and by a charity opened to the entirety of humanity. More than each predecessor, he has encounter the People of God and the responsible leaders of nations, in celebrations, in general and in special audiences and in pastoral visits.  

In his love for youth he pushed to begin World Youth Days, calling together millions of young people in various parts of the world.  

He successfully promoted dialogue with the Jewish people and with representatives of other religions, calling them together sometimes in an encounter of prayer for peace, especially in Assisi.  

He has notably enlarged the College of Cardinals creating 231 (1 more in pectore). He has convoked 15 Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, 7 general and 8 special. He has erected numerous dioceses and administrations, in particular in Eastern Europe.  

He reformed the Western and Eastern Codes of Canon Law, created new institutions and reorganized the Roman Curia.  

As "high priest" he exercised the liturgical ministry in the Diocese of Rome and throughout the globe, in full fidelity to the Second Vatican Council. He promoted, in an exemplary manner, life and liturgical spirituality and contemplative prayer, especially Eucharistic adoration and the prayer of the Holy Rosary (cfr. Ap. Let. Rosarium Virginis Mariae).  

Under his guidance the Church has approached the Third Millennium and has celebrated the Great Jubilee of 2000, following the lines indicated with the apostolic letter Tertio millennio adveniente. She then entered into the new era, receiving indications in the apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte, in which was shown to the faithful the way to the future.  

With the Year of the Redemption , the Marian Year and the Year of the Eucharist, he promoted the spiritual renewal of the Church. He gave an extraordinary impulse to canonizations and beatifications, in order to show innumerable examples of sanctity today, that it would be an inducement to men of our time. He proclaimed St. Therese of the Child Jesus a Doctor of the Church.  

The doctrinal Magisterium of John Paul II is very rich. Custodian of the Deposit of the Faith, he did his best with wisdom and courage to promote Catholic doctrine, theological, moral and spiritual, and to oppose during all of his pontificate tendencies contrary to the genuine tradition of the Church.  

Among the principle documents are numbered 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions, 45 Apostolic Letters, in addition to Catecheses proposed in the general audiences and the allocutions delivered in every part of the world. With his teaching John Paul II has confirmed and illuminated the People of God on the theological doctrine (above all in the first three great Encyclicals – Redemptor hominis,  Dives in misericordia, Dominum et vivificantem), anthropological and social (Encyclical Laborem exercens, Sollicitudo re socialis, Centesimus annus), moral (Encyclical Veritatis splendor, Evangelium vitae), ecumenical (Encyclical Ut unum sint), missiological (Encyclical Redemptoris missio), mariological (Encyclical Redemptoris mater).  

He has promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the light of Tradition, authoritatively interpreted by the Second Vatican Council. He also published some volumes as a private Doctor.  

His Magisterium culminated in the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia and in the Apostolic Letter Mane nobiscum Domine.  

John Paul II has left to all an admirable testimony of piety, of a holy life and of universal fatherhood.

Unofficial translation.