If the bullets from Mehmed Ali Agca’s gun had been just a few millimeters more accurate, we would probably be venerating Pope John Paul II as a martyr today.

Instead, the Polish Pope miraculously survived the attack on May 13, 1981. John Paul II died in 2005, almost 24 years after the assassination attempt.

Ten years ago, on April 27, 2014, he was canonized by Pope Francis.

Former Private Secretary to John Paul II, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, told EWTN Vatican, “People ask me where I saw the Pope’s holiness. Because we know that he was an incredibly talented person: a writer, a poet, an orator, an actor, but above all, a person of great prayer…. of great prayer!”

Ten years after he was canonized, this Pope remains a figure of great interest. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former Archbishop of Krakow, was John Paul II’s private secretary during his entire papacy. In a 2016 interview with EWTN Germany, Cardinal Dziwisz recounted the day the Pope nearly lost his life to an assassination attempt.

“I wasn’t just in St. Peter’s Square that day,” the Cardinal said, “I was on that jeep with the Holy Father when he was hit by the bullet. His strength was failing, and I supported him. I was also in the ambulance with him.”

“While he was still conscious,” he continued to share, “he was already praying for the person who had carried out the attack. He didn’t know him yet, but even then, he forgave him and offered up his suffering for the Church and for humanity.”

John Paul II was a politically active pope who played a significant role in ending communist dictatorships in Europe. Additionally, he was known as a pope for the youth, having established the World Youth Days, which occur every few years to engage young people globally.

The German Cardinal Joachim Meisner was a friend of John Paul II. As Archbishop of Cologne, the Cardinal, who died in 2017, prepared the World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne together with the Polish Pope.

“About four weeks before Pope [John Paul II] died,” Cardinal Meisner shared, “he had me come to the clinic. There he asked me: ‘Are you still counting on me in Cologne [for the World Youth Day]?’ And I said: ‘Holy Father, of course we are counting on you!’ Then I leaned over him in his bed and grabbed him by the sleeves and said: ‘Holy Father, I won’t let you go until you promise me that you’ll come to Cologne!’ He smiled a little and said: ‘I’ll come, but how exactly, that’s up to the Lord!’ That’s why I always say: our World Youth Day in Cologne was the first one with two popes, one down here and one up there in heaven.”

John Paul II’s former companions realized early on that this man was a saint.

“Let me put it this way,” Cardinal Meisner said, “it just shouldn’t be misunderstood: I always said that Papa Wojtyła smelled of God. He spread such an atmosphere that you always lived consciously in the presence of God. Whenever I came back from a visit with him, I realized that I had experienced God. He made God tangible, audible.”

The Cardinal continued, “He was not an actor as Pope. He was an authentic shepherd. And people sensed that, young people sensed that. He was a shepherd who gives himself for his flock.”

At the canonization of John Paul II, however, Pope Francis did not only pay tribute to him as a pope for the youth.

“In his own service to the People of God,” Pope Francis acclaimed, “Saint John Paul II was the Pope of the family. He himself once said that he wanted to be remembered as the Pope of the family.”

John Paul II gave a lot to the Church. Much more than his life.

Adapted by Jacob Stein

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