The Pilgrim Pope

"I come as a pilgrim of love, and of truth, and of hope." Pope John Paul II told the Cubans during his landmark first visit to Cuba in January 1998. "I come to this beautiful land to share your profound religious spirit, joys, and sufferings. I come to celebrate, as one big family, the mystery of Divine Love."

If John Paul II's selection as Pope was a surprise, what the new Pope gave his people was more of a surprise. Setting aside protocols and barricades, John Paul II travelled from country to country and mingled with the commonest of the common people, along the way winning many a heart and surprising many a faithful, needless to mention the embarrassment the communist leaders felt at the religious leader's flair for winning people.

When it comes to the length of the papacy, Pope John Paul II stood third behind St Peter and Pope Pius IX. However, in the department of reaching out to the world, he beat every other Pope. Pope John Paul II travelled more and talked to more people than any other Pope. On the way, he beatified more blessed's than did any other pope in history.

Statistics speak volumes of Pope John Paul II's world travel. He travelled to more than 120 countries; that is to say that he visited almost every country in the world. As a result, he was popularly known as the "Pilgrim Pope". No wonder the faithful loved to call him the "People's Pope".

Pope John Paul II delivered more than 2,000 powerful public addresses, each of which drew tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of people into the audience.

Pope John Paul II had a novel way of honouring every country visited - by kissing the ground on his alighting from the airplane.

When the pope visited Cuba in 1998, the country's communist leader Fidel Castro greeted him and attended his functions.

Pope John Paul II visited India twice - in 1986 and in 1998. In his 1986 visit, the pope visited Kerala and attended several gatherings across the state.

It was in the year 2002 that Pope John Paul II last visited his homeland Poland.

Always a close friend of the world's youth, the pope had pledged to attend the World Youth Day in Cologne in Germany in August 2005, a promise that will now be fulfilled by his successor Pope Benedict XVI.

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