Pope John Paul II Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Health == {{Main|Pope John Paul II's health}} [[File:PapstJPII20040922.jpg|thumb|An ailing John Paul II riding in the [[Popemobile]] in September 2004 in [[St. Peter's Square]]]] When he became pope in 1978 at the age of 58, John Paul II was an avid sportsman. He was extremely healthy and active, jogging in the [[Gardens of Vatican City|Vatican gardens]], weight training, swimming, and hiking in the mountains. He was fond of football. The media contrasted the new pope's athleticism and trim figure to the poor health of John Paul I and Paul VI, the portliness of [[Pope John XXIII|John XXIII]] and the constant claims of ailments of Pius XII. The only modern pope with a fitness regimen had been [[Pope Pius XI]] (1922β1939), who was an avid mountaineer.<ref name="Ratti" /><ref name="Ratti2" /> An ''[[Irish Independent]]'' article in the 1980s labelled John Paul II the ''keep-fit pope''. However, after over twenty-six years as pope, two assassination attempts, one of which injured him severely, and a number of cancer scares, John Paul's physical health declined. In 2001 he was diagnosed as suffering from [[Parkinson's disease]].<ref name="Parkinsons2001" /> International observers had suspected this for some time, but it was only publicly acknowledged by the Vatican in 2003. Despite difficulty speaking more than a few sentences at a time, trouble [[Hearing (sense)|hearing]], and severe [[osteoarthrosis]], he continued to tour the world although rarely walking in public. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page