Pope John Paul the Great

Karol Wojtyla was born in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920. His father Karol senior, was a non-commissioned officer of the Austro-Hungarian army; his mother Emilia Kaczorowske, was a seamstress and a laundress. They were married in 1904, and the future pope was their third offspring.
Edmund, the first child, was born in 1906. Then, in 1914, the Wojtylas had a girl, Olga, who unfortunately lived only a few days. The doctors had prohibited Emilia from having other children on account of her frail constitution and poor health, a situation which had worsened with the last pregnancy. However, at the end of 1919, Emilia was again with child. The doctors were predicting a difficult pregnancy, both for herself and the newborn, and suggested an abortion, but she staunchly refused. Being a devout Catholic, she decided to keep her baby against all odds. She finally bore a healthy baby who received his father's name: Karol. Emilia's health, however, had been irreparably damaged, with problems affecting her heart and kidneys. Pain and declining health plagued the last part of her life.
Karol junior, affectionately called Lolek, grew into a happy, healthy child. He started school in 1926. Math was his problem subject, but his elder brother, who was already at university, gave him extra lessons which enabled Lolek to become one of the best students in that subject.
In the winter of 1928 Emilia's health began to deteriorate. Lolek was then 8 years old, and was already beginning to suspect the loss of his mother. One of his teachers relates that he had become pensive and melancholy. On the morning of April 13, 1929, Lolek, after having had breakfast, went to school as usual. Around midday the headmaster arrived and motioned to his teacher that he needed to speak to the boy. Full of apprehension, Lolek saw a next-door neighbour, and immediately understood that something bad had happened. He could not hold back his tears. Emilia had in fact died a little after having sent his son to school. The exposed body, the funeral and the burial, all left an enduring mark on the young boy. All of Karol's close friends agree that this bereavement shocked him so much that even as an adult he remained reticent about his mother, almost as if she were a memory too sacred even to be expressed.

Tragedy again

Karol senior was also deeply grieved by the loss of his wife. His hair had turned completely white in a few weeks. He was still young enough to remarry, but refused, and decided to dedicate his whole life to his two remaining children instead. He retired from the army with the grade of 'lieutenant', but everyone in Wadowice simply called him 'The Captain'. For the next 12 years, he would become everything for Lolek: father, mother, friend, teacher and role model of the Christian life. John Paul wrote, on page 20, of his book Gift and Mystery, Day after day I was able to observe the austere way in which [my father] lived. By profession he was a soldier and, after my mother's death, his life became one of constant prayer. Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find my father on his knees, just as I would see him kneeling in the parish church. We never spoke about a vocation to the priesthood, but his example was in a way my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary.
Lolek now directed all his affection to his father and brother. Edmund, an intelligent, healthy, deeply religious and morally upright young man, was a student of medicine in Krakow. Graduating in 1930, Edmund began his internship as an assistant cardiologist at the hospital of Bielsko, Silesia. At the end of November 1932 a young girl named Anna was admitted to the hospital with scarlet fever, a highly infectious disease which in those days could be fatal as antibiotics did not exist. Needless to say, no one wanted to take the risk of treating her. Dr Edmund Wojtyla, however, thought it was absurd and cowardly for doctors to leave sick people to themselves, and freely offered to help the young girl. But Edmund himself was infected and after a few weeks followed the girl to the grave at the young age of 26. This heroic sacrifice did not pass unnoticed, and one newspaper headline read Death of a Doctor in the Line of Duty.
This second tragedy came upon Lolek while he was still recovering from the loss of his mother. He was now left with only his father, and the two became inseparable. Their days were set to a rigid scheme: wake up at 6:00 am, breakfast, Mass in the parish, then school for Lolek and the house chores for the Captain. After lunch, Lolek had two hours of fun and games with his friends, and then the late afternoons and the evenings were dedicated to studying with his father, a very learned man with a special interest in literature and history.
Despite these sufferings, Karol junior was becoming a strikingly handsome young man. He became the idol of all the girls. He began acting for the theatre, and was a great success. He wrote poems, loved dancing and wrote songs. Like Francis of Assisi, he was a 'king of feasts'.
Karol junior graduated from high school with flying colours, and decided to pursue his education at the university of Krakow. Bringing his father along, they rented a dark and damp basement apartment, which their friends called 'the catacombs'. In Krakow, Karol's passion for poetry and the theatre received new stimuli, and he started to make contact with groups of young intellectuals, especially poets and young actors. As an actor his fame began to spread.

Bleak times ahead

On September 1, 1939, however, life for the Wojtylas and for every Pole changed dramatically. On that day Krakow was devastated by the first of a series of merciless bombardments. The Nazi invasion had begun in earnest and life for the Poles became hell.
To avoid deportation, Karol junior was forced to find work. With the help of friends he became a common labourer at the Solvay chemical factory, which was run by the German invaders. But he never gave up acting whenever he could.
He became one of the leading actors of the Rhapsodic Theatre Company which, because of its patriotic tendencies, had to work underground. The rehearsals and the performances were held in private apartments. All the actors had established close friendships, and some of them went on to become famous actors, such as Halina Krolikiewicz, who was then first-actress, and regarded by many as Wojtyla's girlfriend.
The ever growing hardships of the war, the damp apartment were very uncongenial for the Captain's health. Karol assisted his father whenever he could, and always left for work in apprehension for his father's safety. On Febryary 18, 1941, Karol returned from work only to find that he was now completely alone: his father had died of a heart attack. Witnesses say that no one was able to restrain his cries and tears. John Paul said once to a writer, At 20 I had already lost all the people I loved, and even those I might have loved, like my older sister who died six years before I was born.

Father Wojtyla

To ward off his terrible feelings of loneliness, Karol plunged headlong into his acting and writing, but he was beginning to feel a certain dissatisfaction. His country was occupied by enemies, and many of his friends and schoolmates were either dead or interned in concentration camps. What was the point of pursuing his passion for the theatre and his dreams of glory? He began to feel a call to the priesthood and, after a few days of deep meditation, he decided to change his life. He broke the news to his astonished co-workers of the Rhapsodic Theatre, who spent a whole night in the useless attempt to dissuade him.
Karol Wojtyla then approached the archbishop of Krakow, who received his request with delight. The Germans, however, were hell-bent on extirpating the Catholic faith in Poland, and had closed all the seminaries, so the archbishop told the young man that he had to prepare himself in a clandestine seminary. Karol began studying theology while he was still working at the Solvay chemical factory . He was connected to the resistance movement, and was in constant danger of execution. On a number of occasions the Germans came very close to arresting him.
The war ended in 1945, and Wojtyla was at last able to attend the seminary without fear and wear a habit. His training however, was to last only one year. He was ordained on November 1, 1946 and immediately sent to Rome for graduate studies at the Pontifical Angelicum University, where he earned a doctorate in ethics.
While in Rome, the young priest learned of the existence of a humble Capuchin friar called Padre Pio, who was living in San Giovanni Rotondo, in Puglia, a region in southern Italy. This friar was blessed by God in many mysterious ways, the most dramatic was the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, impressed on his body. Father Wojtyla, a passionate scholar of Christian mysticism, would not miss this opportunity and went to Padre Pio during the 1947 Easter vacations. Karol, like thousands of other pilgrims, queued up to make his confession to the friar.
After becoming pope some people maintained that Padre Pio had prophesied his election to the papacy, but this rumour has never been proved. What we can be sure of is that the Capuchin friar left such a lasting impression on Karol Wojtyla, that he often sought to his spiritual advice, and pushed forward his beatification.

Confronting Communism

From 1948 to 1951 Father Wojtyla served as parish priest in Poland's Krakow diocese and then returned to study philosophy at the Jagiellonian University, earning a master's and doctorate in theology. During this period as an assistant at St. Florian's in Krakow, he also served as chaplain to the university students and to health workers.
After the war, Poland had been incorporated into Communist block of Eastern Europe, and was under the yoke of Stalin's brand of atheistic Communism. The Stalinists were waging an all out war against religion, especially Catholicism. Their attempts were strategically directed at eradicating all religious feelings from the younger generation, in order to forge a new and Godless humanity of mere will and intellect. To counter this, the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Sapieha, had decided to entrust the young people of his diocese to Father Wojtyla.
At St. Florian, Wojtyla held classes, lectures, spiritual retreats and cultural and artistic activities. This enabled him to exert a deep influence on the young. He had to come up with new ways of making contact with them. He thus originated that avant guard movement for which he became famous. These young people, on reaching adulthood, became in their turn the leaders of that revolt known as the Solidarnosc movement which eventually toppled the Communist regime in Poland.
Alongside this activity, Wojtyla began teaching at the Catholic Lublin University. He published poems and plays under the pseudonym of Andrezj Jawien and Stanislaw Andrzej Gruda. His literary output was enormous, and his activities eventually brought him to the notice of Pope Pius XII, who appointed him to the episcopacy in 1958. While serving in this capacity he continued to teach and provide pastoral care for university students.The most momentous event of the 1960s for Bishop Wojtyla was the Second Vatican Council. He attended all of its sessions beginning in October 1962.
An important and enigmatic event occurred in that same year. Informed that one of his friends in Krakow, Wanda Poltawska, a 40-year-old medical doctor, had been diagnosed with a hopeless case of malignant cancer, Wojtyla immediately sought the aid of Padre Pio. He had not heard from him since 1947, but his admiration for the Capuchin friar had remained unaltered. He wrote to Padre Pio to beseech his intervention in favour of Dr. Poltawska. Padre Pio, after having read the letter, pronounced the following mysterious words, It's impossible to say 'no' to this man. After ten days, Wojtyla sent another letter to Padre Pio to express his gratitude for Dr. Poltawska's miraculous healing, which occurred just moments before entering the operation room.
In that year the Archbishop of Krakow died, and Bishop Wojtyla was designated to replace him by Pope John XXIII. However, because of tensions with the Communist regime, he could not be officially appointed until January 1964 by Pope Paul VI. Eventually. on May 29, 1967, the Pope named him a cardinal, elevating him to that honour on June 28.

A new course

After his election as Cardinal, Karol Wojtyla intensified his battle against the Communist regime. He was now an official representative of the Church. He represented the Pope. His clash with atheist materialism grew to colossal proportions.
Orders from Moscow to the Polish Communist Party were that they had to stop the activity of that Cardinal. But they never could. Wojtyla had incredible charisma. He organized religious manifestations, pilgrimages to historical Polish shrines with hundreds of thousands of participants. And in front of those crowds he would give fiery speeches defending the rights that were trampled upon by communist ideology.
He became a thorn in the side of Communism. The Soviet secret services received the order to eliminate him. But in the meantime, extraordinary events were taking place in Rome which were to give Wojtyla's life a new course.
On August 6, 1978, while Cardinal Wojtyla was vacationing in the Polish mountains, he heard of the death of Paul VI on the radio. He quickly returned to Krakow and left for Rome. The pope's funeral was on August 12, and on the 28 the cardinals entered the Conclave. It was a very short conclave, only one day, and Albino Luciani was elected. He took the name John Paul I. Wojtyla was Cardinal Luciani's friend, so he returned to Poland very satisfied with the results of the Conclave.
On the morning of September 29, after having celebrated Mass, the cardinal of Krakow was having breakfast. The telephone rang. One of his secretaries went to answer it and came back with the news that Pope John Paul I had died. Wojtyla grew pale and dropped his spoon. He didn't say a word, but withdrew to his private chapel for hours.
When he returned to his office, he wrote what is referred to as his last poem before being elected pope. It was a short passage entitled Stanislaw. The poem's theme is martyrdom and is a farewell to Krakow. It is said that while he was writing it, the pen broke in his hand.

Protected by Jesus

In Rome Cardinal Wojtyla participated at the funeral rites of John Paul I and stayed for the conclave, which lasted only 2 days. It was 6:43 pm on October 16, 1978 when the television cameras turned to the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica from which the name of the new pope was to be announced to the public.
The square was filled with people. But millions of faithful throughout the world were following the event on the radio and television. Cardinal Pericle Felici pronounced the formula Habemus Papam, We have a pope: His Eminence Reverend Monsignor Karl, cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Wojtyla, who has taken the name of John Paul II.
He was the first Polish pope in history, and it had been 455 years since the last non-Italian ascended to the throne of Saint Peter. Moreover, Wojtyla was the first pope to come from a Communist country.
The new pope came out onto the balcony of St. Peter's at 7:20 pm. According to ritual, the ceremony consisted of the pope's apostolic blessing in Latin, without any further communication. Wojtyla felt a strange uneasiness among the crowd, an awkwardness created by the fact that he was a foreigner, and he immediately wanted to dispel any apprehension. He approached the microphone. The master of ceremony tried to keep him from speaking, but couldn't.
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ! said the new pope with a firm but pleasant voice which only slightly betrayed his emotion. He continued, Dearest brothers and sisters, we are all still grieved by the death of our most beloved John Paul I. And now the eminent cardinals have called a new Bishop of Rome. They have called him from a far away country: far, but always near in the communion of faith and the Christian tradition.
You could hear a foreign accent as he spoke Italian, but his pronunciation was perfectly clear. The words called him from a far away country revealed a hint of emotion, and the Roman crowd felt it and responded with warm applause. The Polish pope had conquered the hearts of the Italians and of Catholics the world over.

The swimming pool

With his arrival in the Vatican, change became par for the course. It seemed like a reinvigorating wind had blown through each ministry, each congregation, prefecture and office. Everywhere people were working full swing, with a rhythm that had never been seen before in those surroundings.
Not everyone was enthusiastic. The progressives called him the pope who says 'no'. During his first year as pontiff he said no to abortion, divorce, contraception, women priests, homosexual unions, married priests and premarital sex, attracting the wrath of all those groups who were fighting for those various freedoms.
The conservatives, however, also had little cause to rejoice. They were scandalized when he broke with certain traditions that were considered sacred. They criticized his personal behaviour, his method of working without bureaucracy, the fact that he often personally intervened to solve problems without using the traditional diplomatic channels. They said his work schedule was gruelling. Popes had always given audiences in the mornings, John Paul II also gave audiences in the afternoons and evenings.
In the summer of 1979 the swimming pool case exploded. The pope had asked to have a swimming pool built, and his request became a scandal in the Church. When they told him that it wasn't a good idea for a pope to spend money on sports when so many people in the world were dying of hunger, he replied, What costs more, a swimming pool or another conclave?, underlying the fact that he was building the pool for his own health and not for his enjoyment.
The leaders of the various Communist countries realised that the pope's popularity was detrimental for them, and so they decided to oppose it by spreading false information. An international news agency was founded in Rome with the aim of collecting and disseminating any news that would discredit the pontiff. One of the Polish journalists who worked in that agency confided to an Italian colleague, My job is tough. When I sit down to work, I never know what to write. My articles have to respect these three rules: I can't speak well of this pope because my government forbids it; I can't speak bad about him because that would cause a civil war in Poland; but I have to say something because he's Polish and famous throughout the world.

Murder attempt

On May 13, 1981, John Paul's pontificate underwent a radical change. He had entered St. Peter's Square for the general audience as he did every Wednesday. Standing in his white jeep, he was crossing St. Peter's Square which was filled with 40,000 faithful.
At 5:17 pm he had stopped to hold a baby-girl in his arms, he had kissed the infant and was handing her back to her father when two shots were heard. The pope sank into the arms of his secretary Msgr. Stanislaw Dziewisz, moaning in pain. His white vestments were stained red.
Someone had tried to kill the pope. The images of the Holy Father, who fell backwards fatally wounded were transmitted by television stations all over the world. All over the world people were stunned in disbelief. That episode was one of the most important news stories of the twentieth century. But also one of the most mysterious. John Paul II himself revealed: One hand fired the gun, another deflected the bullet. He was trying to say that 'someone' wanted to kill him, but an invisible presence intervened to prevent the bullet from hitting any vital organs which would have resulted in death.
Medical assistance arrived immediately. The pope was at Gemelli Hospital within fifteen minutes. Blood flowed abundantly. His blood pressure had dropped and his pulse was extremely weak. The pope was dying and his secretary had given him Last Rites, but the Holy Father was no longer conscious.
He was rushed to the operating room and underwent a delicate operation. Later, Prof. Francesco Crucitti, the surgeon who had performed the operation, said he had seen something that was absolutely out of the ordinary and inexplicable. The bullet had followed a zig-zag path inside the pontiff's abdomen avoiding his vital organs.
Those words rang a strange bell in the Pope's mind. Someone reminded him that the attempt had occurred on May 13, the anniversary of the first Marian apparition in Fatima. John Paul then recalled that the original documents containing the 'third part' of the secret were in the Vatican. Only his predecessors had read it. He had the documents brought to him and read them carefully. It was the central part that impressed him most. That part contained a clear reference to an attempt against a pontiff's life. Sister Lucia, in relating the vision that she had together with Francisco and Jacinta on July 13, wrote:
And we saw in an immense light that is God something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it, a Bishop dressed in White. We had the impression that it was the Holy Father. Other bishops, priests, men and women religious were going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins, and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him...
Karol Wojtyla lingered on these words, which were then still secret. He then decided to contact with Sister Lucia, who was still alive. He saw himself in the 'Bishop dressed in White'. It began to dawn on him that certain episodes of his life had been 'planned' before his birth.

Charismatic figure

The perpetrator had been arrested; his name was Alì Agca, a 23-year-old Turkish man. The Italian magistrates and half the world's secret servicemen were conducting investigations to find out who the instigators were. Even the Vatican was involved in the researches, but the Pope wasn't interested, and refused to waste time in these matters. When asked why he took no interest in the whole affair, the Pope replied forcefully, Because that act was instigated by the Evil One. The Devil conspires in thousands of ways, none of which interest me.
After this shocking event, John Paul's pontificate took a new course. The athletic Pope became a more pensive, charismatic figure. He began to understand that his mission was to walk toward that great cross placed on top of the steep mountain. The strong, sportsmanlike, indefatigable Pope the world knew and admired became a Pope of sorrows. From that moment, John Paul's life became a painful Via Crucis. Diseases, accidents, surgical operations and admissions in hospital became recurring events. A close look was enough to reveal that he had become, as someone rightly noted, a walking crucifix.
These sufferings however, never interfered with his spiritual commitments. His mission was an all consuming act of love for the world: Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, atheists... In 1986 he visited the Synagogue in Rome. An act which no pontiff had ever done before. In 1993 he established the first official diplomatic relation between Israel and the Holy See. Historic hallmarks were his apostolic journeys to the Eastern European countries, to Cuba, Sarajevo, Beirut, his pleas for forgiveness, the World Youth Day, the Great Jubilee of the year 2000... He published 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions, 44 Apostolic Letters and even 5 books, without mentioning the thousands of speeches. He presided over 147 beatification ceremonies, in which he beatified 1,338 people and canonised 482 saints. He presided over 9 consistories, in which he created 231 cardinals, and presided over 6 plenary meetings of the College of Cardinals.
What especially characterised John Paul's pontificate, however, were his journeys. He himself revealed that, on the actual day when he became Pope, he vowed to travel tirelessly around the world to preach the Word of God. This 'Pilgrim Pope' made 146 pastoral visits in Italy alone and, as Bishop of Rome, visited 317 of the current 333 parishes of that city. He made 104 Apostolic Journeys around the world. He visited 130 different countries, 615 different localities and pronounced 2,400 speeches. This pilgrim activity was continued right to the end.
In 2003 he marked his 25th year as Pope, making him the longest-serving pontiff of the 20th century. By then, John Paul was struggling with increasingly poor health, visibly suffering from the slurred speech and trembling hands of Parkinson's Disease. In February 2005, he had a tracheotomy after being taken to Gemelli hospital with breathing problems. He received the Last Rites on March 31, after suffering septic shock and a cardio-circulatory collapse brought on by a urinary tract infection. He died in his apartments at the Vatican on April 2.
It will be the task of the next pope, and of the popes until Christ returns in glory, to draw upon and advance the prophetic humanism of John Paul the Great.