JOHN PAUL II CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY AS POPE.

Byline: Associated Press

Marking his 20th anniversary as pope, John Paul II on Friday reminisced sentimentally with fellow Poles and asked for prayers so he can keep doing God's work ``right to the end.''

``I thank God for having given me the grace to announce the good news of salvation to many peoples and many nations on all the continents, and among them also my compatriots on Polish soil,'' John Paul said, speaking slowly but steadily from an armchair placed under a canopy on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.

About 20,000 Poles, many of them journeying overnight on buses from their homeland, streamed into St. Peter's Square for a Mass in Polish celebrated by Warsaw Cardinal Jozef Glemp in the pope's honor.

``I ask you again to pray so that I can carry out right to the end the work that God entrusted to me, for his glory in the service of the church and of the world,'' said John Paul, who after the Mass came out to greet the crowd.

At 6:44 p.m. Oct. 16, 1978, word was delivered in that same cobblestoned square that Karol Wojtyla, the 58-year-old archbishop of Krakow, had been chosen to lead the Roman Catholic Church.

At the same time Friday, John Paul appeared at the window of his private apartment and looked down at the square, where a large screen was set up to broadcast a film clip of that announcement 20 years ago.

``After 20 years, I'd like to thank divine providence, and also those of you present in St. Peter's Square for recalling this moment, so important in the life of the Church of Rome, of the universal church and, naturally, in my life,'' the pontiff told the crowd.

The announcement two decades ago that the church had its first non-Italian pope in 455 years astonished the world.

John Paul used his moral stature to help Poles stay the course during a communist military crackdown against the Solidarity free-trade movement in the early 1980s.

John Paul has charmed crowds since right after he was elected, when he told the faithful: ``If I make a mistake (in Italian), you will correct me.''