Karol Józef Wojtyła (1920-2005) was elected Pope on 16 October 1978 — the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years and the first from Poland. His twenty-six-year pontificate witnessed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the establishment of World Youth Day, the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the canonization of more saints than any pope before him. Canonized by Pope Francis in 2014.