Page 49 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - Maggio 2020

dopo soli due mesi per la morte di presenze in Vaticano per le di Pietro apostolo dal 33 al 67,
prematura dell’appena eletto udienze pubbliche e 1475 capi e Pio IX dal 1846 al 1878 – finì
Papa, ma fu proprio in quella di Stato in quelle private. Per dopo 26 anni e mezzo, quella
sede che la fumata bianca del non parlare di quanto i numeri sera del 2 aprile di quindici anni
comignolo della cappella Sistina si moltiplichino nel rimbalzo fa. Erano le 21.37. All’annuncio
comunicò al mondo la scelta del crossmediale voluto da lui, della sua dipartita, in una
successore, il primo pontefice prima ancora della diffusione piazza San Pietro già gremita di
non italiano dopo 455 anni: dei social. Anche la sua fedeli giunti da ogni dove per
Karol Wojtyla. Raccogliendo sportività è storia. Lo è anche pregare, sembrò che il mondo
il testimone di Luciani, papa la forza con cui perdonò il suo intero si fosse fermato. Il vento
Giovanni Paolo II si affacciò attentatore turco e l’abbraccio rimescola i ricordi. Si agitano
dalla loggia della basilica di San con cui riunì i giovani del ancora le pagine del Vangelo. «Il
Pietro pronunciando la celebre mondo istituendo le Giornate vento di Dio spira dove vuole»,
frase che lo legò subito al cuore Mondiali della Gioventù. disse in un viaggio a Cuba nel
di tutti: “Se mi sbaglio, mi La salute purtroppo non lo 1997. L’8 aprile del 2005 quel
corriggerete!”. Il suo ministero assistette negli ultimi anni, vento accarezzò l’umile cassa
petrino è da record: centinaia tra segnati dalla sofferenza fisica di cipresso che giaceva sulla
encicliche, esortazioni, lettere che apparve a tutti evidente terra del sagrato di San Pietro.
apostoliche, interventi minori; poiché egli continuò, nonostante Papa Giovanni Paolo II fu lì per
18 milioni di parole in 80 mila tutto, la sua missione pastorale. l’ultima volta, mentre la folla
pagine di discorsi; 300 milioni Il suo pontificato - il terzo più ne chiedeva la canonizzazione
di persone incontrate; 17 milioni lungo della storia dopo quelli immediata: “Santo Subito!”.

Paolo VI mentre impone la berretta Giovanni Paolo II allo Yankee Stadium 13 maggio 1981, ore 17.22, Ali Ağca attenta
cardinalizia a Karol Wojtyla, 26 giugno 1967 di New York nel 1979 alla vita di Giovanni Paolo II in piazza San
Pietro
The CenTenary of The Karol wojTyla birTh background there was always the belief that only Christianity could
represent the liberating force of man and peoples. His ecclesiastical
April 8, 2005. The wind rustles the paper of the Book on which service begins with the ordination as a priest in Krakow and passes
the pontificate was based, divides the chapters of an existence for teaching at the Catholic University of Lublin, the episcopate
that appears to life on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. Karol who also saw him participate in the work of Vatican Council II,
Józef Wojtyła was born into a family completely donated to God but contributing to the drafting of his most important documents,
plagued by illness, and around the age of twenty he found himself “Dignitatis Humanae and Gaudium et Spes”, as well as continuing
alone. This nourished his noblest feelings, did not prevent him from his opposition to the communist regime, and then training as a
cultivating special passions and from having an important role cardinal and participation in the conclave of August 1978 which
in the Polish Jewish community at the time of the war, of the Nazi elected Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I. No one, at that time, would
and communist invasions. His vigor and indefatigability were clear have expected a second conclave after only two months for the
from the start and emerged in the facets of his personality: Karol premature death of the newly elected Pope, but it was precisely
philosopher, theologian, politician, and still poet, actor, writer, there that the white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine chapel
man of faith, pontiff. Becoming Pope John Paul II on October 16, communicated to the world the choice of the successor, the first
1978, he remains one of the reference figures of the twentieth non-Italian pontiff after 455 years: Karol Wojtyła. His ministry as
century, the ferryman of humanity towards the new millennium. pope is record-breaking: hundreds of encyclicals, exhortations,
This year marks the hundred years since his birth and fifteen since apostolic letters, minor interventions; 18 million words in 80
his death. The feeling that prevails by reading his biographies is thousand pages of speeches; 300 million people met; 17 million
the extraordinary simplicity, the great desire to defend the most presences in the Vatican for public hearings and 1475 heads of
beautiful values in an era troubled by prevarications and pain. state in private ones. His pontificate - the third longest in history
He was a man of great humanity. After finishing high school, he after those of Peter the Apostle from 33 to 67, and Pius IX from
enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, which however 1846 to 1878 - ended after 26 and a half years, on the evening of
closed a year later due to the Nazi occupation. From that moment April 2 fifteen years ago. It was 21.37. At the announcement of his
the work in the quarry and in the chemical factory that allowed departure, in a San Pietro square already crowded with faithful
him to go ahead and avoid deportation to Germany, and theatrical who came from all over to pray, it seemed that the whole world had
(clandestine) activity as an act of cultural resistance. In the stopped.

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