Farewell – Pope John Paul II (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005)

Vatican City – The head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope John Paul II died on Saturday, April 2, 2005, after a long and bitter struggle against a crippling infirmity, ending a tumultuous 26–year reign that shaped world politics and plunging 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into mourning.

The 84–year old pontiff died at 19.37 GMT, according to a Vatican statement, barely two days after suffering a heart failure brought on by two months of acute breathing problems and other infections.

“The Holy Father died this evening in his private apartment,” a brief statement released by the Holy See said. “All the procedures foreseen by the Apostolic Constitution ‘Universi Dominici Gregis’ promulgated by John Paul II on February 22, 1996 have been set in motion,” it concluded.

News of the death of the third longest reigning pontificate in the history touched not only the Catholics from his native Poland to the Americas, from Africa to Asia, but also untold numbers of admirers of the pontiff who was a master at reaching the masses through the media, displaying public relation skills unknown to his predecessors while at home at the Vatican, as well as on his visits to 129 countries.

But after he was rushed to hospital on February 1, his final illness crippled the voice which has given hope to millions living under oppression while frustrating those who rejected his deeply conservative moral views.