Pope John Paul II

=== Social and political stances ===
{{Main|Social and political stances of Pope John Paul II}}
John Paul II was considered a conservative on [[doctrine]] and issues relating to human [[sexual reproduction]] and the ordination of women.<ref name="Spiegel2" /> While he was visiting the United States in 1977, the year before becoming pope, Wojtyła said: "All human life, from the moments of conception and through all subsequent stages, is sacred."<ref name="Pope John Paul II Visits the US, 1977 Year in Review" />

A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work titled ''[[Theology of the Body]]'', an extended meditation on [[human sexuality]]. He extended it to the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and virtually all capital punishment,<ref name="pbs" /> calling them all a part of a struggle between a "[[culture of life]]" and a "culture of death".<ref>John Paul II. (1995). Evangelium Vitae. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, §95</ref> He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and [[social justice]].<ref name="Memory" /><ref name="Spiegel2" /> He coined the term "[[social mortgage]]", which related that all private property had a social dimension, namely that "the goods of this are originally meant for all."<ref>article 42, Solicitudo Rei Socialis</ref> In 2000, he publicly endorsed the [[Jubilee 2000]] campaign on African [[debt relief]] fronted by Irish rock stars [[Bob Geldof]] and [[Bono]], once famously interrupting a [[U2]] recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono.<ref name="Pope phones Bono" />

John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the 1962–65 [[Second Vatican Council]], affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished that he would embrace what has been called a progressive agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. In fact, the Council did not advocate progressive changes in these areas; for example, they still condemned abortion as an unspeakable crime. John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, along with Joseph Ratzinger (future [[Pope Benedict XVI]]), opposed [[liberation theology]].

Following the church's exaltation of the marital act of sexual intercourse between a baptised man and woman within sacramental marriage as proper and exclusive to the [[sacrament]] of marriage, John Paul II believed that it was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a 'second' marriage, and by homosexual acts. In 1994, John Paul II asserted the church's lack of authority to ordain women to the priesthood, stating that without such authority ordination is not legitimately compatible with fidelity to Christ. This was also deemed a repudiation of calls to break with the constant tradition of the church by ordaining women to the priesthood.<ref name="VaticanOrdinatio" /> In addition, John Paul II chose not to end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although in a small number of unusual circumstances, he did allow certain married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests.