On 13 May 1981, the Pope was shot twice in the abdomen by a Turkish national, Mehmet Ali Ağca. The pope was gravely injured. He barely survived the assassination attempt, and had to be treated in hospital for 20 days. The pope later visited Ağca in prison. He had forgiven him already. Exactly one year later he traveled to Fatima to thank Mary, Mother of God for saving his life.
On this trip there was a second attempt to his life. A follower of the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre tried to hurt the Pope with a bayonet. He was overpowered by the bodyguards of the Pope. Lefevbre and his followers were against the decisions of the Second Vatican Council. After this the Pope often travelled in a bullet-proof trailer known as the "popemobile."
John Paul died on Saturday, on the eve of the Divine Mercy Holiday, 2 April 2005. The official time of death on his death certificate was 9:37 pm, but a few sources reported 9:33 pm. The death certificate stated that when the Pope died, he had Parkinson's disease, with serious breathing difficulties. The Pope had tracheotomy surgery in mid February but it did not help and he lost weight. He also had an enlarged prostate, urinary infection and other problems. The cause of death were that his kidneys failed, causing blood poisoning and infection brought by septic shock. John Paul II spoke his final words, “pozwólcie mi odejść do domu Ojca”, (“Let me depart to the house of the Father”), to his aides, and fell into a coma about four hours later.
The Pope's medical team used heart-monitoring machinery for more than 20 minutes, so his real and true time of death was around 9:15 PM Vatican time. As tradition demands, his name was called three times. When there was no reply, his papal ring was broken, which meant the end of John Paul II's papacy (reign as pope).
Many people claimed to have been specially blessed by the reign of Pope John Paul II. Many people thought he should be given the title "Blessed". This usually takes at least five years (and may take hundreds of years). On 13 May 2005, Pope Benedict XVI cut short the usual 5-year wait for the beatification process to begin. The only other time (in recent history) that this has happened was for Mother Theresa, who was made Blessed Mother Theresa by John Paul II.
It was announced on 14 January 2011, that John Paul II would be beatified on 1 May 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday).
According to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II's remains (which will not be exhumed and exposed) will be moved from the grotto beneath St. Peter's Basilica, where he is presently buried, to a marble stone monument in Pier Paolo Cristofari's Chapel of St. Sebastian, which is where Blessed Pope Innocent XI is currently buried; Blessed Pope Innocent's remains will likely be moved. This more prominent location, next to the Chapel of the Pieta, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and statues of Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, will increase the number of pilgrims capable of viewing his memorial.
“ It will be a great joy for us when he is officially beatified, but as far as we are concerned he is already a Saint. ”
—Stanisław Dziwisz [189]
On 30 September 2013, Pope Francis said that John Paul, together with Pope John XXIII, would be made saints on 27 April 2014. This was the first time two popes have been made saints on the same day.
His feast day is celebrated on 22 October.
John Paul II was generally against communism. He was also a critic of capitalism that was not controlled and he did not want people's basic rights to be oppressed by world governments. He officially condemned aspects of Liberation theology. He was against abortion and contraception in general. As head of the largest Christian group, John Paul II taught a conservative theological view of human sexuality. On the subject he wrote 130 topics called the Theology of the Body. He was against homosexuality, and in favour of people starting families as one husband and one wife. But he said that homosexuals have the same inherent dignity and rights as everybody else. On 30 April 2000, John Paul instituted a Divine Mercy Holiday, according to the teachings of Saint Faustyna Kowalska and on that day she was also proclaimed a Saint of the Catholic Church. The Feast of the Mercy of God is continuously growing worldwide. John Paul is also remembered for his devotion to the Consecrated Holy Communion, the Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
During John Paul's time as pope, the church was involved in a large number of claims about child sexual abuse by priests. There are many people who believe that the Church, and therefore the Pope, knew about these claims and tried to cover them up. For example, in 1996 the Irish bishops decided that priests suspected of child abuse must be reported to the police. The Vatican sent a letter to the bishops that they were not to report such cases. The letter was from future Pope Benedict XVI - whom John Paul II had asked to handle such cases. John Paul II is also claimed to have got a cardinal to send a thank you letter to a French bishop who had refused to report a priest to the police. In 2001 John Paul II sent out a special letter saying that the abuse of children by priests was a very serious crime, and should be strictly punished. Some Catholics wanted the process for making John Paul II a saint stopped, until there was an investigation into his role in keeping secret information about bad priests.
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics (created in 1939 as Marvel Worldwide Inc., then Marvel Publishing, Inc. and later Marvel Comics Group) is an American comic book company that makes "superhero" comic books. Its top rival is DC Comics. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel for US$4 billion. Its comic book characters were created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others.
The company is widely known for featuring iconic and well-known characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Deadpool, Thor, Wolverine, Hercules, the Hulk, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, the Falcon, the Winter Soldier, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Ms. Marvel, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Black Widow, War Machine, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Howard the Duck, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Nick Fury, Silver Surfer, the Punisher, Blade, Daredevil, and Elektra.
The majority of its publications takes place with the fictional Marvel Universe and its most well-known teams include the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Dark Avengers, the Eternals, the Defenders, the Inhumans, the Thunderbolts, the Runaways, the Sinister Six, the S.H.I.E.L.D., and the X-Men.
It also features a wide variety of fictional supervillains including Green Goblin, Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Ultron, Venom, Thanos, the Sandman, Galactus, Enchantress, Black Cat, Loki, Shocker, Mephisto, Morbius, Blackheart, the Lizard, Blackout, Electro, Vengeance, Mysterio, Lilith, Annihilus, Vulture, Kang the Conqueror, Scorpion, Abomination, Mister Negative, Magneto, Hobgoblin, Red Hulk, Rhino, Barracuda, Kingpin, Jigsaw, Kraven the Hunter, Copperhead, Chameleon, Red Skull, Tinkerer, the Mandarin, Tombstone, MODOK, Jackal, Bullseye, Prowler, Dormammu, Mystique, and Apocalypse.