Three years ago...

Three years ago we learned that a great man had passed on. John Paul II was, until that time, the only pope I had ever known. His life and leadership were inspirational.

Some quick facts about this truly amazing man:
- He was fluent in his native Polish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Croation, Portuguese, Russian, and Latin.
- In February 2004 Pope John Paul II was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize honoring his life's work in opposing Communist oppression and helping to reshape the world.
- In January 1945 Karol Wojtyła (the future Pope John Paul II) personally helped a 14-year-old Jewish refugee girl named Edith Zierer who had run away from a Nazi labor camp in Czestochowa. Zierer was attempting to reach her family in Kraków but had collapsed from cold and exhaustion on a train platform. No one helped but Wojtyła, who gave her some hot tea and food, personally carried her to a train and accompanied her to Kraków. Zierer credits Wojtyła for saving her life that day. She would not hear of her benefactor again until she read that he was elected as the Pope in 1978.
- Two days after Christmas 1983, John Paul II visited the prison where his would-be assassin was being held. The two spoke privately for 20 minutes. John Paul II said, "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust."
- In 1986 he became the first known pope to visit a synagogue. In March 2000 made history by praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, placing a letter inside it (in which he prayed for forgiveness for the actions against Jews in the past).
- In May 2001 he became the first pope to visit a mosque, in Syria, where he gave a speech saying, "For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and to offer each other forgiveness."
- In his 2003 State of the World address the Pope declared his opposition to the invasion by stating, "No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity."

There's so much more.