Blessed John Paul II

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Blessed Mother Teresa with Pope John Paul II at Vatican

Pope John Paul II greets Mother Teresa of Calcutta at the Vatican in an undated file photo. Mother Teresa, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity who was beatified by Pope John Paul in 2003, would have celebrated her 100th birthday Aug. 26, 2010.

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Pope John Paul II places a prayer in a crevice of the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, March 26, 2000. Speaking to ecumenical leaders on the historic trip that included visits to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, the pontiff prayed that the Holy Land would be a homeland to all faiths and peoples.

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John Paul II visits assailant Agca in prison in 1983

Pope John Paul II visits with Mehmet Ali Agca in a Rome prison Dec. 27, 1983. Their meeting came two years after Agca was arrested for shooting the pontiff in St. Peter’s Square. The pope publicly forgave his assailant. In 2000 Italy pardoned Agca and returned him to his homeland, Turkey.
 

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Pope enjoys the outdoors

Pope John Paul II walks in the Italian Alps July 15, 1996. The pope, who was once an avid skier, loved to spend time in the mountains.

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Polish Sister Tobiana Sobodka, left, who ran Pope John Paul II’s household, and French Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose cure from Parkinson’s disease was accepted as the miracle that paved the way for his beatification, place a relic of the late pope near the altar during his beatification Mass.