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14 October 2011, 17:18Monument to John Paul II unveiled in Moscow
Moscow, October 14, Interfax - A monument to Pope John Paul II was unveiled in a ceremony at Moscow's National State Library of Foreign Literature on Friday.
Deputy Marshal of the Polish parliament Marek Zukowski spoke at the ceremony, an Interfax correspondent reported.
Catholics of the world loved John Paul II, who was a Pole, he said.
John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla before he was enthroned) was born in Wadowice near Krakow on May 18, 1920, and died on April 2, 2005, in the Vatican. He was the head of the Holy See between October 16, 1978 and April 2, 2005. He was beautified on May 1, 2011, by Pope Benedict XVI.
In 1978, the 2634th pope, John Paul II, became the first Roman pope of non-Italian origin to have been elected over the past 455 years (Adrian VI, elected in 1523, was Dutch). And he was one of the youngest pontiffs in history and the first pope of Slavic ethnicity.
The length of his tenure is only second to that of Apostle Peter and Pope Pius IX (1846-1878). John Paul II was succeeded by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who assumed the name Benedict XVI.
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