Elaine Krenzer, age 13, of Santa Rosa, Calif., for her question

HOW OLD IS POPE JOHN PAUL II?

John Paul II is the first non Italian Pope of the Roman Catholic Church since 1523. He was born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920. He reached the age of 65 in 1985. He was 58 years old when he became Pope in 1978. He became a cardinal when he was 47.

John Paul's energetic, active approach to his office, was unprecedented world travel and his firm religious conservatism have enhanced the importance of the papacy in both the Roman Catholic and the non Catholic world.

Worldwide pastoral visits took John Paul to five continents. At the United Nations in 1980 he called for world peace, human rights and a moral revival. He gave explicit support to Solidarity, the Polish labor movement, and condemned the suppression of workers' rights in his native land.

Pope John Paul II  resisted secularization in the church.