Karol Wojtyla was elected pope in 1978, succeeding Paul VI and the short-lived John Paul I, and has been pope since that year.1 He chose the papal name John Paul II to express his intention to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps,2 and was born on 1920-05-18.3 He declared that he wanted to become a Marian pope,4 later announcing that he would use the letter M for Mary on his papal seal.5 He was one of five popes - along with Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul I - who kept the Third Secret of Fatima under lock and key.6 John Paul II said he regarded himself as the Fatima pope, a title originally given to Pius XII.7
The Assassination attempt on John Paul II took place on 1981-05-13 in St. Peter’s Square - the same day that marks the first of the six days on which the Virgin appeared before the children of Fatima Portugal in the Fatima apparitions (1917).8 Over forty thousand people were waiting for him there9 when, at exactly 5:17 PM, shots were fired.10 He was struck and his white robe was stained with blood.11 Mehmet Ali Ağca aimed from a squatting position to be sure of hitting his target,12 having announced his intention to kill the pope during a papal visit to Turkey in 1980.13 An ambulance took John Paul II to hospital ten minutes after he was given first aid beside the basilica.14 Three surgeons operated on him for five hours and twenty minutes, during which his blood pressure fell so low his pulse was barely perceptible,15 though his carotid artery escaped damage by only a small margin and no vital organs were hurt.16 His first words on regaining consciousness were “I forgive him."17 He said he believed the Mother of God had saved him because he had moved his body while handing a little girl back to her parents, causing the bullet to miss his heart.18 According to The Fatima Secret, KGB files handed to the Italian government in November 1999 showed that Russia’s attitude toward the pope in 1979 had been severe, advocating extreme measures against the pontiff, and a memorandum dated 1979-11-13 advised the KGB to take all possible measures against the Polish pope if necessary.1920
John Paul II was released from hospital on 1981-08-14, going first to the Crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica to pray at the tombs of his predecessors.2122 He later had the bullet that had nearly killed him placed in the crown of a Statue of Our Lady of Fatima.23 During his convalescence he asked Bishop Pavel Hnilica to bring him the complete documentation on Fatima,24 which Hnilica brought - some of it original texts - and which the pope read carefully.25 He then ordered a small church built in a forest bordering the Soviet Union, with a statue of Our Lady of Fatima installed facing it,26 and told Hnilica that he had come to understand the only way to save the world from war was to save it from atheism through the conversion of Russia.27 Early in 1982 he had the Third Secret brought to him from the Holy Office and opened the envelope sealed by Paul VI in the presence of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.28 He decided to go on his first pilgrimage to Fatima to meet Sister Lúcia (Fatima seer) on 1982-05-13, the first anniversary of the assassination attempt.29 He arrived in Lisbon Portugal on the afternoon of 1982-05-12,30 meeting President António Ramalho Eanes at Belém Palace before travelling on to Fatima by helicopter.31 At the shrine he said he had come because a year earlier, on the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, an attempt had been made on his life, and that he recognised in that a specific call to come.32 He spoke with Lúcia alone for almost half an hour;33 she told him that the consecration of the world he had already performed, though an act of good faith, was not in accordance with the Virgin Mary’s instructions and therefore not valid,34 and he promised to perform the correct ceremony at the earliest opportunity.35
On 1983-12-08, John Paul II sent a letter to all bishops inviting them to join him in an Act of Consecration of Russia and the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on 1984-03-25.36 The letter contained the text of the consecration prayer, which he composed after consultation with Lúcia.37 In the prayer itself he said, “Most especially we entrust and consecrate to You those individuals and nations which need this help most,” adding almost inaudibly “particularly Russia,"38 and asked for protection “from atomic war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of warfare."39 On 1984-03-25 he performed the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.40 He eventually carried out the consecration as commanded by the Lady of Fatima, first in secret and then openly, after the Church had earlier hesitated out of fear of Russia’s power.41
On 2000-05-07, John Paul II held an extraordinary ceremony at the Ceremony honoring 20th-century martyrs at the Roman Coliseum in Rome Italy, honouring what he called the “new martyrs,” including members of the Protestant and Orthodox churches.42 He said a final prayer after three hours had passed and darkness had fallen, in heavy rain.43 He arrived at the sanctuary of Fatima on the evening of 2000-05-12, appearing exhausted as he stepped from the military helicopter that had brought him from Lisbon,44 where he had earlier been met by Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio.45 About a hundred children, some from the same hospital where Jacinta Marto had died eighty years earlier, greeted him,46 and half a million people gathered at Fatima to welcome him.47 There, in 2000, he presided over the Beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, beatifying Jacinta and her brother Francisco Marto.48 An hour before his 2000-05-13 visit to the shrine, he met Lúcia, then ninety-three years old, in the sacristy of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.49 The statue of Our Lady of Fatima was carried in procession to the front of the basilica, followed by John Paul II and Lúcia entering to an enthusiastic crowd;50 over 600,000 people were packed into the rotunda when he entered the sanctuary in his Popemobile at precisely 8:30 a.m. that day, according to researcher Michael Hesemann.51 Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s secretary of state, announced that John Paul II had directed him to tell the crowd that the pope had asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to reveal the third part of the Secret of Fatima after preparing a commentary,52 and those close to the altar observed a look of satisfaction on the pope’s face.53 The text was published on 2000-06-26, as John Paul II had ordered;54 he had already informed Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation, of his plan to release it with a commentary in February 2000.55 On 2000-06-14, Ağca was pardoned by Italy’s president;56 the pardon had been discussed with the Vatican beforehand and was supported by John Paul II.57
Hesemann considers that the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union began within a year of the election of John Paul II, the first pope from a country under Communism.58 When John Paul II saw pictures of the night of 1991-12-31 in Moscow, his eyes filled with tears,59 and he considered that the Virgin Mary had kept her promise when the Soviet era ended.60 During a papal visit to Mexico City from 1999-01-22 to 1999-01-26, thousands of witnesses saw and filmed large formations of luminous craft.61