Catholic World News News Feature

John Paul remembered #3: the pontificate in statistics April 05, 2005

The pontificate of John Paul II lasted for 26 years, 5 months, and 17 days, or a total of 9,665 days. Among the 264 Roman Pontiffs, only two have held the Chair of Peter for a longer tenure. St. Peter himself was the Vicar of Christ for somewhere between 34 and 37 years, by the best historical estimates. And the remarkable pontificate of Blessed Pius IX stretched from 1846 to 1878: for 31 years, 7 months, and 21 days.

(The shortest papal reign in history was that of Pope Urban VII: a span of just 12 days, from September 15 to 27, 1590.)

John Paul II was, by an enormous margin, the most widely traveled Pope in history. His 104 apostolic voyages outside Italy brought him to 129 different countries, and covered more than 725,000 miles-- or roughly three times the distance between the earth and the moon. He also made 145 trips inside Italian territory (including 16 vacation trips to the Italian Alps, including every summer from 1987 through 2001, and again in 2004), in which he visited 259 different towns. Pope John Paul II spent than 1,000 days outside the Vatican: about 6 percent of his entire pontificate.

As the Bishop of Rome, John Paul II placed a high priority on visits to the parishes of the diocese. He had made personal visits to 301 of the 328 parishes currently functioning in that diocese before his declining health forced him to stop. In December 1978, just 2 months after his election to the papacy, he began his parish visits, which continued through December 2002. At that point, since he was no longer able to visit parishes, he asked parish communities to visit him, meeting with them in the Paul VI auditorium at the Vatican. Over the ensuing months, 16 parishes held such meetings with the Pontiff; if they are included in the totals, then John Paul II actually "visited" 317-- nearly 97 percent-- of the active dioceses in Rome.

Although he made a clear choice that he would not be confined to his office at the Vatican, John Paul II nevertheless managed to produce an enormous body of teaching. He promulgated 14 encyclicals, 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 45 apostolic letters, and 28 motu proprios.

During his pontificate he held 1,165 general public audiences, and these Wednesday audiences drew a total of 17.7 million people. He also received approximately 1,000 state and government leaders in private audiences at the Vatican.

During the pontificate of John Paul II, 83 countries established diplomatic relations with the Holy See. There are now a total of 174 countries that enjoy diplomatic relations with the Vatican, along with the Order of Malta, the Russian Federation, and the Palestinian National Authority.

Within the Church, Pope John Paul II presided over 6 "ordinary" assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, 1 "extraordinary" session that was held in 1995 to mark the 20th anniversary of Vatican II, a series of 7 special assemblies for each continent (the European Synod met twice), one special synod for Lebanon, and a special synod in 1980-- the first of his pontificate-- for the bishops of the Netherlands.

The College of Cardinals was convened on 6 different occasions to provide advice and counsel for Pope John Paul II. He also called 9 consistories, at which he created 231 new cardinals (plus one cardinal who was named in pectore, and whose name is not yet known). Of these, 170 cardinals are still alive, and 117 are under the age of 80, and thus eligible to vote for the next Pontiff.

During his pontificate John Paul II presided at the ordination of 321 bishops, including his longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.

In what may be the most spectacular record of record-setting pontificate, John Paul II also presided at 147 beatification ceremonies and 51 canonizations. He recognized more saints than the combined total of all the previous Popes since the Council of Trent closed in 1563. Since that time, when the standards for beatification and canonization were set, there have been 2,343 people beatified, and 785 canonized as saints; more than half-- 1,342 and 483, respectively-- were raised to the altars during the pontificate of John Paul II.

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