Pope Celebrates 20 Years

Pope John Paul II is celebrating two decades as leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics. CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

In St. Peters Square, the faithful gathered on Friday morning to celebrate 20 years of the papacy of John Paul II; 20 years of a papacy that has been both remarkable and unpredictable.

When on Oct. 16, 1978, puffs of smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel to announce that a non-Italian was to be pope for the first time in centuries, it shocked the Catholic world.

The selection of Karol Wojtyla, the bishop of Krakow and a kindly, personable, and intellectual figure, was considered a shrewd one. His political skill and worldliness gave him a dominant role in influencing the dismantling of communism in Europe. He made friends and enemies. There was even an attempt on his life.

John Paul's traditionalism has sometimes divided his church. His unyielding stances on birth control and women priests have led to a falloff in observance among Catholics in the West.

Friday's mass was a celebration of a pope who no one will deny has been one of the dominant figures of our time.