Pope John Paul II (miniseries) 1959, he ends the decade by holding Nowa Huta's first ever mass on Christmas Eve, then leads a public religious procession of the Black Madonna's empty picture frame through Krakow, attends all Vatican II sessions and becomes Krakow's archbishop before the sessions end. In 1967, he becomes a cardinal by Pope Paul VI, returns to Poland and heals a friend from the Polish Home Army of bone marrow cancer by praying to Padre Pio. Pope Paul VI dies in August 1978 and Albino Luciani succeeds him as Pope John Paul I, only to die late the following month after only
Pope John Paul II Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin as a titled Yoruba chieftain on 20 December 2008, the reigning Ooni of Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Olubuse II, referred to Pope John Paul II as a previous recipient of the same royal honour. John Paul II had good relations with the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1996, he brought the Catholic Church and the Armenian Church closer by agreeing with Armenian Archbishop Karekin II on Christ's nature. During an audience in 2000, John Paul II and Karekin II, by then the Catholicos of All Armenians, issued a joint statement condemning the Armenian genocide. Meanwhile, the pope gave