Less than eight months after his 1978 inauguration,Karol Wojtyla returned to Poland as Pope John Paul II for nine cathartic days.
Huge, adoring crowds met him wherever hewent and were an acute source of embarrassment to the communist government.Officially, the country was atheistic; it was also suffering from foodshortages. The pope added to the authorities' discomfort by reminding hisfellow Poles of their human rights.

‘‘His secretary told me that was the greatmoment,’‘ says Robert Moynihan, editor and publisher of the magazine Inside theVatican. ‘‘There was a crowd of one million people, and he told them 'You aremen. You have dignity. Don't crawl on your bellies.' It was the beginning ofthe end of the Soviet Union.’‘

In the winter of 1999, the pope flew toMexico and the United States and celebrated Mass for millions of people. Hisvisits to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Chicago and Washingtontook on the trappings of major holidays

The cities threw open their arms in awelcome that Current Biography said was of ‘‘staggering, unprecedentedmagnitude.’‘

‘‘...private citizens, Catholic andnon-Catholic alike, flocked by the millions to glimpse the Pope,’‘ it reported.‘‘It was only a few short years ago that such mass forgetfulness of sectariandifference would have been unthinkable (and, politically, suicidal) in theUnited States.’‘

Although he draws enormous crowds,sometimes in the millions, whenever he gives public appearances, the pope'shealth is slowly deteriorating. In January 2001, one of his doctors publiclyacknowledged that the pontiff is suffering from Parkinson's disease.

For years the pope has shown symptoms ofParkinson's -- shaking and a general unsteadiness -- although the Vatican hasnever officially said he has the disease.