On 11 June 2011, priest cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz ceremonially erected the Sanctuary of Blessed John Paul II, created as part of the John Paul II Centre “Do not be afraid!” on the so-called “White Seas” in Cracow.
On that very day, the official worship of John Paul II began in this place. The first Custodian of the Shrine was the President of the John Paul II Centre “Do not be afraid!”, Bishop’s Vicar, Prelate Priest Jan Kabziński.
Upon the beatification, the relics of John Paul II were offered to the Sanctuary. The most valuable of these is the blood that physicians from the Gemelli University Hospital in Italy donated to the personal secretary of the Pope, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz. The vial with the Pope’s blood, enclosed in a glass casket, was placed inside a marble altar standing in the centre of the octagonal Church of the Relics. The papal pastoral cross, the vestment with the mitre and the cross before which John Paul II prayed in his private chapel during the Stations of the Cross in the Roman Colosseum in 2005, the last in His lifetime, also arrived from Rome.
In the Sanctuary, the faithful can see a slab from the tomb of John Paul II originating from the Vatican Grottoes below St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The slab is located in the Priestly Chapel designed in the style of the crypt of St. Leonard on the Wawel, where priest Karol Wojtyła has celebrated his first Holy Mass. There is a shrine on the slab, created at the pattern of the open Gospel Book, the pages of which has been turned over by the wind during the Pope’s funeral.
On 23 June 2013, in the presence of the Polish Episcopate, priest cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz ceremonially consecrated the upper part of the temple. The interior of the church is decorated with the mosaics authored by the world-renowned artist Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik SJ, author of mosaics, inter alia, in the crypt of the new church in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.
On the 34th anniversary of the attempted assassination of the Holy Father John Paul II, his personal secretary, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz donated a priceless relic to the Sanctuary. It is a cassock marked with blood in which Saint John Paul II was dressed on 13 May 1981. On that day, during the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the assassin, Mehmet Ali Ağca, tried to kill the Pope. Currently, the priceless relic is in a glass case in the Upper Church.
On 16 October 2016, on the 38th anniversary of the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła to the Capital of St. Peter, as well as on the date when Poland celebrates a public holiday established by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and dedicated to the Holy Pope, the Church of St. John Paul II was ceremonially consecrated and entrusted to the care of Almighty God.
The ceremony was presided over by the Metropolitan of Cracow, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz with the concelebration of many bishops and priests from Poland and abroad. In the Holy Mass participated the Prime Minister – Mrs. Prime Minister Beata Szydło, Minister in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister – Beata Kempa, Minister of Infrastructure and Construction Andrzej Adamczyk, Mayor of the City of Cracow, Voivode of Lesser Poland and many Members of Parliament, representatives of the municipal office and the voivodeship.