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John Paul II, the Polish-born pope whose strong-willed activist papacy helped unravel the Soviet Union and redefined the office's relationship to the world as he led the billion-member Catholic Church, died Saturday (April 2) at the age of 84.

John Paul's death ended a pontificate of more than a quarter century. He was the longest-serving pope of the 20th century and the third-longest in history after St. Peter and Pope Pius IX.

He died at about 9:37 p.m. (2:37 EST). Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, Argentine deputy secretary of state and a member of the papal household, announced the death to tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square to say the Rosary prayer on behalf of their beloved pontiff.

On Sunday, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, will preside over a Mass in St. Peter's Square for the repose of the pope's soul. The Vatican said John Paul's body is expected to be taken to St. Peter's Basilica no later than Monday afternoon. That same day, the College of Cardinals will hold its first meeting to decide the date of the pope's funeral and the opening of the conclave of cardinals that will choose his successor.

Ailing from Parkinson's disease and rapidly declining health in his last week, the pope succumbed to heart and kidney failure after a bacterial infection weakened his body. His fate seemed sealed when aides administered the Sacrament of Anointing, or last rites, on Thursday (March 31).

Though John Paul had weathered ill health for several years, he took a downward turn on Feb. 1 when he was hospitalized with the flu. An emergency breathing tube inserted three weeks later allowed him to recover enough to return to the Vatican for Holy Week and Easter, although he was too weak to preside or speak.

In his 26 years in office, John Paul touched the lives of lepers and heads of state, and hundreds of millions of people in between who saw in this stoop-shouldered leader the vision of a better humankind.

Death came to John Paul after years of frailty. The world watched as Parkinson's disease and arthritis slowly changed him from the robust hiker of his early papacy to a hunched old man unable to walk and barely able to speak. Still, he was unwilling to lay down the duties of his office and the global stage he commanded so well.

A younger, more vigorous John Paul shattered the familiar image of a bureaucrat pope who merely managed the church from afar. Instead, he burst out of Rome and brought the church — and the papacy — to the world. "The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom," said president Bush, appearing with his wife, Laura, in a televised comment from the White House.

"Throughout the West, John Paul's witness reminded us of our obligation to build a culture of life in which the strong protect the weak. And during the pope's final years, his witness was made even more powerful by his daily courage in the face of illness and great suffering."

His legacy to Catholics was twofold. Admirers credit him with instilling clear direction among a divided and widely scattered church, but critics accused him of clamping down on the tides of reform unleashed by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and of being too slow to confront worldwide reports of sexual abuse by priests.

From the start of his papacy, John Paul was a pilgrim pope who traveled the world to spread the gospel. Everywhere he went, his charisma drew crowds — sometimes in the millions — to celebrations of Masses on airport runways, in sports stadiums and in city squares.

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April (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49