JOHN PAUL II'S PONTIFICATE IS FOURTH LONGEST IN HISTORY

VATICAN CITY, APR 30, 2003 (VIS) - Pope John Paul II, when he was elected to the papacy on October 16, 1978, became the 263rd successor to St. Peter, the first Pope. As of today, John Paul's pontificate becomes the fourth longest in the two millennium-old history of the Catholic Church at 24 years, 6 months and 8 days, having just surpassed Pius VI. The date is calculated as of October 22, 1978, the official start of his papacy.
Only three Roman Pontiffs have now reigned longer than Pope John Paul. In ascending order they are: Leo XIII (25 years, 5 months), Pius IX (31 years, 7 months, 21 days) and St. Peter (precise dates unknown).

In this almost-quarter-of-a-century reign, the Holy Father has amassed unparalleled statistics, including 98 foreign apostolic trips (the May 3-4 trip to Madrid will be his 99th), and 142 within Italy, not including those to various institutions in his diocese of Rome, for a total of nearly three-quarters of a million miles. He has written 14 encyclicals, 13 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 42 apostolic letters and 28 Motu proprio.

John Paul II has proclaimed 1,314 Blesseds in 138 ceremonies and, as of Sunday, May 4, will have proclaimed 469 Saints in 48 liturgical celebrations. He has held eight consistories for the creation of cardinals and has named a total of 201 cardinals. The last consistory was February 2001. The current College of Cardinals is comprised of 168 members, of whom 112 are eligible to vote in a conclave.

Over the years the Pope has held 1,083 weekly general audiences, including today's audience, and has welcomed nearly 17 million faithful from every part of the world. Other audiences, including various groups and heads of State and government, total just over 1,500.

In addition to these figures, Pope John Paul II has achieved many "firsts" in his long reign. To name but a few, he is the first Pope to ever visit a synagogue (Rome, April 1986); to visit a mosque (May 2001, Omayyad Great Mosque of Damascus); to hold press conferences in airplanes and one in the Holy See Press Office (January 24, 1994); to publish books of prose and poetry; to stay at a hotel instead of residing in the apostolic nunciature during his travels (Irshad Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2002); to add five new mysteries to the Rosary (October 2002); to say Mass in an airplane hangar (December 1992, Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport); to call for a Day of Pardon (Jubilee Year 2000).

As the most peripatetic Pontiff in history, John Paul II has visited 133 countries, the overwhelming majority of which were welcoming a Pope for the first time.

He is also the first Pope: to visit a prison cell (when he spoke in December 1983 with Ali Agca, the Turk who made an attempt on his life in 1981 in St. Peter's Square); to say Mass in the northernmost Catholic community in the world, over 350 kilometers north of the Arctic Polar Circle (Tromso, Norway 1989); to use a letter (the letter "M" for Mary) on his papal crest (normally heraldic rules allow words around a crest, but not on it).

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