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New memorial website honours Polish-born pope

18.05.2020 10:30
A new memorial website has been launched to pay tribute to John Paul II, the late Polish-born pope who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014.
An exhibition about St. Pope John Paul II at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the southern Polish city of Kraków.
An exhibition about St. Pope John Paul II at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the southern Polish city of Kraków.Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski

The JP2online.pl website, created by The Centre for the Thought of John Paul II, a Warsaw-based cultural institution, offers multimedia, photographs, films, documents and articles about the late pontiff.

All these have been made available to internet users as Catholics around the world on Monday mark 100 years since Karol Wojtyła, who went on to become St. John Paul II, was born in the southern Polish town of Wadowice.

The collection contains thousands of materials about the pope and his teachings, according to the centre’s Anna Olesiak.

The new website, available in Polish and English, includes sound files shared by public broadcaster Polish Radio.

John Paul II was born on May 18, 1920. He served as pope from October 16, 1978 until his death on April 2, 2005.

He was the third longest-serving pontiff in history and was declared a saint in 2014.

The pope was a strong supporter of Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement and is recognised as a key influence in helping to end communist rule in Poland in 1989.

Recently unearthed documents show that Pope John Paul II was seen as the main enemy of Poland’s communist-era rulers, according to a report.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR