<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:John_Paul_II" class="extiw" title="w:en:John Paul II">Pope John Paul II</a> (Jan Paweł II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła, reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523. John Paul II was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century. He was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion.
In June 1979, Pope John Paul II traveled to Poland, and during his visit consecrated the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Krzeptówki, Zakopane (less than 100 Km from Wadowice where he was born). The trip uplifted the nation's spirit and sparked the formation of the Solidarity movement in 1980, which later brought freedom and human rights to his homeland. (Totus Tuus was Pope John Paul II's apostolic motto, meaning "totally yours" in Latin).<br><span style="color:blue;"><i>The <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist/Poland" class="mw-redirect" title="User:Scotch Mist/Poland">Scotch Mist Gallery</a> contains many photographs of historic buildings, monuments and memorials of Poland.</i></span>
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist" title="User:Scotch Mist">Scotch Mist</a>
CC BY-SA 3.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>