VATICAN CITY - An elderly man stood alone in St. Peter's Square May 13, using his wooden rosary beads to pray by a simple plaque marking the place where St. John Paul II was shot exactly 40 years earlier.

As the Ontario bishops completed their ad limina visit to Rome last week, I couldn’t help but recall one of my favourite stories about one of Ontario’s favourite bishops.

VATICAN CITY – Recent popes have had a special affection for Our Lady of Fatima, but no pope's connection can match that of St. John Paul II.

ROME, Italy – The archdiocese that once sent St. John Paul II to the papacy has a new archbishop: Marek Jedraszewski. The archbishop has special memories of the sainted Pope and the Divine Mercy devotion he brought to the world.

CHICAGO, Ill. – Two Emmy Awards have gone to a documentary that shows St. John Paul II’s central role in the end of communism.

KRAKOW, Poland – Archbishop Marek Jedraszweski has been named the new shepherd of Poland's Krakow archdiocese by Pope Francis, following the retirement of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.

ASSISI, Italy – Religious leaders celebrating the 30th anniversary of St. John Paul II's Assisi interfaith peace gathering in 1986 called on people from around the world to continue its legacy to combat today's indifference and violence.

VATICAN CITY – As World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow wrapped up, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, the retired success to St. John Paul II as archbishop of the host city, died Aug. 2 at the age of 89.

On Saturday morning, at the Sanctuary of St John Paul II in Krakow, Pope Francis offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for priests, religious men and women, consecrated persons, and seminarians.

KRAKOW, Poland – Catholic priests and nuns must renounce their personal interests and create a church that "goes into the world" with "living writers of the Gospel," Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis said he looks forward to his upcoming visit to Poland for World Youth Day and that his visit will be inspired by mercy during this Jubilee Year.

Clarity, joy, relief, purpose, fire, blown minds, singing hearts. According to Sr. Helena Burns these are just some of the things that participants will be guaranteed to leave with after taking her Theology of the Body course.

Two recent papal-related events highlighted that Catholicism is meant to be a religion of culture. Every culture, as St. John Paul II taught, answers the fundamental questions of life and different cultures are differentiated by their response to the mystery of God.

VATICAN CITY - A French court has told authorities in Ploermel, France, to remove the small town's statue of St. John Paul II on claims the statue's placement in a public square violated the separation of church and state.