POPE JOHN PAUL II
Papież Jan Paweł II
Pope John Paul II is the most
famous man of Polish. He’s
sometimes called Blessed John
Paul or John Paul the Great, born
Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 1920
– 2 April 2005), reigned as Pope
of the Catholic Church from 1978
until his death in 2005. He was
the second-longest serving Pope
in history and the first non-Italian
since 1523.
JOHN PAUL II
Karol Józef Wojtyła
was born in the
Polish town of
Wadowice and was
the youngest of three
children of Karol
Wojtyła and Emilia
Kaczorowska. On 13
April 1929, Wojtyła's
mother died in
childbirth.
CURRICULUM VITAE
In mid-1938, Wojtyła
and his father
moved to Cracow,
where he enrolled at
Jagiellonian
University. He was
studying such topics
as philology and
various languages.
In 1939, Nazi German
occupation forces closed the
university after invading
Poland. Able-bodied males
were required to work, so from
1940 to 1944 Wojtyła variously
worked as a messenger for a
restaurant, a manual labourer
in a limestone quarry and for
the Solvay chemical factory, to
avoid deportation to Germany.
After his father's
death, he started
thinking seriously
about the priesthood.
In October 1942, while
the war continued, he
knocked on the door of
the Bishop's Palace in
Cracow and asked to
study for the
priesthood.
On finishing his studies at the
seminary in Cracow, Wojtyła
was ordained as a priest 1
November 1946, by the
Archbishop of Cracow,
Cardinal Sapieha. He then
studied theology in Rome,
where he earned a licentiate
and later a doctorate in
sacred theology.
He returned to
Poland in the
summer of 1945
with his first
pastoral
assignment in
the village of
Niegowić,
fifteen miles
from Crakow.
In March 1949, Wojtyła was
transferred to the parish of
Saint Florian in Kraków. He
taught ethics at Jagiellonian
University and subsequently
at the Catholic University of
Lublin. In 1954, he earned a
second doctorate, in
philosophy.
In October 1962, Wojtyła
took part in the Second
Vatican Council (1962–1965),
where he made contributions
to two of its most historic
and influential products, the
Decree on Religious Freedom
and the Pastoral
Constitution on the Church
in the Modern .
On 13 January 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed him
Archbishop of Kraków. On 26 June 1967, Paul VI
announced Archbishop Karol Wojtyła's promotion
to the Sacred College of Cardinals. Wojtyła was
named Cardinal-Priest of the titulus of San
Cesareo in Palatio.
In August 1978, following the
death of Pope Paul VI,
Cardinal Wojtyła voted in the
Papal conclave which elected
Pope John Paul I, who at 65
was considered young by
papal standards. John Paul I
died after only 33 days as
Pope, triggering another
conclave.
The second conclave of 1978 started on 14
October, ten days after the funeral. It was split
between two strong candidates for the papacy:
Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, the conservative
Archbishop of Genoa, and the liberal Archbishop
of Florence, Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, a close
friend of John Paul I.
A very charismatic figure, John
Paul II was acclaimed as one of
the most influential leaders of the
20th century. He was instrumental
in ending communism in his native
Poland and eventually all of
Europe. John Paul II significantly
improved the Catholic Church's
relations with Judaism, Islam, the
Eastern Orthodox Church, and the
Anglican Communion.
He was one of the most-
travelled world leaders in
history, visiting 129 countries
during his pontificate. As part of
his special emphasis on the
universal call to holiness, he
beatified 1,340 people and
canonised 483 saints, more
than the combined tally of his
predecessors during the
preceding five centuries.
He named most of the present
College of Cardinals, consecrated or
co-consecrated a large number of the
world's past and current bishops,
and ordained many priests. A key
goal of his papacy was to transform
and reposition the Catholic Church.
His wish was "to place his Church at
the heart of a new religious alliance
that would bring together Jews,
Muslims and Christians in a great
[religious] armada".
On 19 December
2009, John Paul II
was proclaimed
venerable by his
successor Pope
Benedict XVI and
was beatified on 1
May 2011.