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 the Popes. He was lowered into a tomb created in the same alcove previously occupied by the remains of Pope John XXIII. The alcove had been empty since John XXIII's remains had been moved into the main body of the basilica after his beatification. Upon the death of John Paul II, a number of clergy at the Vatican and laymen began referring to the late pontiff as "John Paul the Great" — in theory only the fourth pope to be so acclaimed. Cardinal Angelo Sodano specifically referred to John Paul as "the Great" in his published written homily for the