Pope John Paul II was born Karol Joseph Wojtyla (pronounced Voy-tee-wah) in Wadowice, Poland on May 18, 1920. Karol proved himself to be an excellent student, developing an interest in acting and literature. During the Nazi occupation, he also worked as a stonecutter to support himself but importantly to enable him to hold a work permit to avoid deportation or imprisonment. Karol was active in a Christian democratic underground organization, which helped Jews find refuge from the Nazis. While convalescing from an accident, Karol considered a religious vocation and by 1942 he was studying for the priesthood. He was ordained as priest on November 1, 1946. In 1958 Father Wojtyla was named auxiliary bishop of Krakow and four years later he assumed leadership of the diocese. He was a visible leader, often taking a public stand against communism and government officials. In 1967 he was elevated to cardinal and on October 16, 1978, at age 58, he was elected to succeed Pope John Paul I. He was the first Polish pope and also the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI in 1522. The new pope continued his travels and in 1981 he visited the United States. Pope John Paul II was said to be the most recognised person in the world and he was certainly the most travelled Pope in the 2,000 year history of the Church, speaking eight languages! John Paul II was by papal standards a comparatively young man when he was elected. At only 58, he was the youngest pope in 132 years. John Paul was elected in Less than eight months after his inauguration, Pope John Paul returned to Poland. Large adoring crowds met him wherever he went, which caused great embarrassment to the communist government. The country suffered from food shortages and the pope added to the governments discomfort by reminding the Poles of their human rights. At the age of 61 years he suffered serious wounds during an assassination attempt as he entered St. Peter's Square to address a general audience. The pope spent two and half months hospitalized but he fully recovered from his wounds. Pope John Paul embraced technology and he steered the Vatican into satellite transmissions and producing videos. While other popes had stayed close to Rome, remote and seemingly unapproachable, John Paul's wide-ranging appearances, probably enhanced by an actor's sense of theatre, became worldwide news events. With such a sense of occasion, it was not unexpected that John Paul would lead on the world stage. Not content with tending merely to church affairs, John Paul made the world's business his business, especially with regard to human rights. His great hope was to awaken the entire world to the dignity and responsibility of defending human rights. He was openly critical of dictatorships and this encouraged opposition movements that eventually brought down governments in Paraguay, Chile and the Philippines. His support for the Solidarity movement in Poland was a key to the downfall of communism in Poland. John Paul had displayed a special charisma during more than 170 visits to over 115 countries over the past 20 years. He was said to generate a kind of ‘electricity’ that was unmatched. It was noted that when working a crowd, his moves, his presence, his smile, his friendliness, his gestures pleased everyone. Although drawing enormous crowds, sometimes in the millions, the pope's health was slowly deteriorating. When he returned to Poland in 1997, his failing health was obvious and noticeable. At his appearance, the crowds grew silent, some falling to their knees and weeping as John Paul parted the crowd on a path to the altar. Even though suffering ill health, John Paul would not depart from his demanding schedule. In 1999, the pope flew to Mexico and the United States and celebrated Mass for millions of people. The cities threw open their arms in a welcome that was said to be of staggering and unprecedented magnitude, attended by both Catholic and non-Catholic alike. In January 2001, one of his doctors publicly acknowledged that the pontiff was suffering from Parkinson's disease. For years the pope has shown symptoms although the Vatican had never officially confirmed the disease. He was struggling with increasingly poor health, visibly suffering from the slurred speech and trembling hands of condition. John Paul II received the last rites of the church on 31st March 2005, after suffering what church officials called "septic shock and a cardio-circulatory collapse" brought on by a urinary tract infection. He died in his apartments at the Vatican on 2nd April 2005. He was mourned throughout the world, with special masses, gatherings and symbolic events taking place. Tens of thousands of mourners and leaders from all over the world gathered in St Peter's Square for the ceremony. In his will, the Pope said he wanted to be buried in the bare earth, not in one of the marble papal tombs and monuments of which Roman churches boast so many fine examples. Accordingly, the Pope's coffin of cypress wood, zinc and walnut was lowered into the crypt under St Peter’s Basilica. It was covered with a simple white marble slab bearing only his name Ioannes Paulus in Latin and the dates of his birth and death.