Diocese of São Carlos
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Apr 2, 2024
19 years since the death of Pope Saint John Paul II
(ACI Digital)
Today (2), marks 19 years since the death of Saint John Paul II, the Polish pope who was at the head of the Catholic Church for 26 years and 5 months. He is remembered as the “pilgrim pope”, was a great defender of families and loved by young people.
Saint John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, at 9:37 pm, the night before Mercy Sunday, which he himself instituted and to which he was very devoted.
A few minutes after the death, Dom Leonardo Sandri, who at the time was the deputy of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, announced the news to the thousands of people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square and to the rest of the world, who were following the last hours of the death. pope through the media.
From that night until April 8, the day on which the late pontiff’s obsequies were celebrated, more than three million pilgrims paid homage to the Polish pope, even queuing for 24 hours to enter St. Peter’s Basilica.
On April 28, Benedict XVI waived the five-year waiting period after death to begin the cause of beatification and canonization of John Paul II. The cause was officially opened by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the bdiocese of Rome, on June 28, 2005.
Benedict XVI beatified him on May 1, 2011 and he was canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014, along with Saint John XXIII.
Saint John Paul II led the third longest pontificate in the more than 2,000 years of the Church’s history, carrying out 104 apostolic journeys outside Italy and 146 in this country.
He promoted the World Youth Days, in which he met millions of young people from all over the world, and inaugurated the World Meetings of Families.
