Twenty years. Two decades since the day the world stopped, held its breath and mourned the passing of a man who crossed history as a giant of faith and hope. At 9:37 p.m. on April 2, 2005, John Paul II left this earth , closing his eyes for the last time, facing the window, as if he wanted to embrace once again the crowd of faithful who, under the rain of tears and prayers, kept vigil in St. Peter's Square.

Today, in that same square, his memory is more alive than ever. Time has not dented his legacy , nor has it weakened the bond that millions of people continue to feel with the Polish Pope, the pilgrim Pope, the Pope who knew how to speak to hearts.

When Karol Wojtyla appeared for the first time on the balcony of St. Peter's, on October 16, 1978, he humbly said: " If I am wrong, you will correct me." But he was not wrong. Those cardinals who had chosen a man "who came from a distant country" were not wrong, a pastor who had experienced first-hand the oppression of Nazism and Communism, and who knew that freedom is a sacred gift, to be defended at all times.

John Paul II was a revolutionary pontiff . He was the Pope who challenged the Soviet regime with the sole force of words and prayer, supporting the Solidarność movement and giving a voice to those who could not have one. He was the one who with courage and humility asked for forgiveness for the errors of the Church, who knelt at the Wailing Wall and who crossed the threshold of a synagogue, of a mosque, so that dialogue between faiths would not be just a utopia.

He spoke to young people like no one before him, with a new language, capable of warming even the most distant souls. His World Youth Day gatherings were not just any ecclesiastical events, but waves of pure energy, which dragged entire generations towards a new way of living the faith.

But he was also the Pope of pain experienced firsthand, with dignity and without hiding. His body, marked by Parkinson's disease and the consequences of the 1981 attack, became a symbol of silent testimony, of a faith that does not bend even in the face of suffering. Even when his step became uncertain, even when his voice became more fragile, his message never lost its strength.

Until the end, the world saw him fight, not against his illness, but to continue to be a guide . And when his voice was silenced, the cry of the faithful in St. Peter's Square filled that silence: "Saint immediately!"

Twenty years later, the echo of that cry has not faded. John Paul II was proclaimed a saint, but in the collective memory he had already entered the pantheon of men who changed the course of history.

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