CET ON-LINE 08-MAY-96
Almost 18 years after he was elected leader of the Roman
Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II was finally made an
honorary citizen of Warsaw, the capital of his Polish
homeland. A group of dignitaries from Warsaw bestowed the
honour on the 75-year-old Pontiff yesterday at a ceremony at
the Vatican.
The Pope was born in Wadowice, near Krakow, in 1920. John Paul,
elected in 1978, is the first non-Italian Pontiff in 450
years. Historians say his influence was a key factor in the
fall of communism in Poland in 1989.
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