Biography
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Cracow was elected Bishop of Rome and 263rd successor of St. Peter as Supreme Pastor of the Universal Church on Oct. 16, 1978. He chose the name John Paul II in honor of his predecessor, Pope John Paul I, as well as Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. He was invested with the pallium, symbol of his office, on Oct. 22 in ceremonies attended by more than 250,000 people in St. Peter?s Square.
From the start, Pope John Paul II has labored to keep the Church faithful to its
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tradition and to the teaching and spirit of Vatican Council II, while positioning it to meet the challenges of the third millennium. He is a staunch defender of the sanctity of human life ? ?from conception to natural death,? he often says ? and of marriage and the family. Opposition to totalitarianism and support for human rights make this activist, long-reigning pope a major figure on the world political scene.
Born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Wadowice, near Krakow in Poland, on May 18, 1920, he is the second son of a retired Polish army sergeant. His brother died early in his life, as did his mother, who passed away in 1929 around two years after this picture was taken to mark his first communion
He is the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI (1522-23) and the first Polish pope ever. At his election, he was the youngest pope since Pius IX (1846-78). On May 24, 1998, he became the longest-reigning pope elected in the 20th century, surpassing the 19 years, seven months and seven days of Pius XII (1939-58). (Leo XIII, who died in 1903, was pope for 25 years.) John Paul II?s pontificate is also the third longest in the history of the Church. He surpassed Pope Leo XIII (25 years, 5 months), and is now behind only Bl. Pius IX (31 years, 7 months, 21 days) and St. Peter (precise dates unknown).
He is the most-traveled pope in history. Through Sept. 2004, he had covered over 750,000 miles during 103 pastoral visits outside Italy, over 144 within Italy, and over 300 to the parishes of Rome. In all, he has visited 133 countries and has held talks with 850 heads of state or government. Certainly he is the pope most prolific in literary output, having issued by his 84th birthday (May 2004) 14 encyclicals, 14 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 43 apostolic letters and 28 motu proprio.
By July 2004 John Paul II had proclaimed 1,330 blesseds in 145 ceremonies and had proclaimed 482 (as of May, 16, 2004) saints in 51 liturgical celebrations; his 17 predecessors from Pope Clement VIII to Pope Paul VI canonized a total of 302 people. He has held nine consistories for the creation of cardinals and has named a total of 232 cardinals (not including the in pectore cardinals). The last consistory was October 2003. As of May 2004, the Holy Father has presided at 15 synods: the Particular Synod of Bishops of the Netherlands in 1980; six ordinary synods (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994 and 2001); one extraordinary (1985) and eight special (1980, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, two in 1998, and the second synod for Europe in October 1999); the most recent synod was held in October 2001.
Over the years the pope has held over 1,100 weekly general audiences and has welcomed nearly 17 million faithful from every part of the world. Other audiences, including various groups and heads of state and government, total around 1,500.
He moved to Krakow with his father in 1938 to study at the Javiellonian University, but his life changed radically when the Nazis invaded Poland a year later. His jobs over the next two years including working in a quarry and chemical factory, but he began secretly studying to become a priest in 1942. He was ordained in Krakow in 1946 after making his first trip to Rome to complete his education
He is also the first pope ever to visit a synagogue (Rome, April 1986); the first to visit a mosque (Omayyad Great Mosque of Damascus, May 2001); the first to call for a day of pardon (Jubilee Year 2000); and the first to add five new mysteries to the Rosary (October 2002).
Not a happy childhood
Karol Josef Wojtyla was born May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, an industrial town near Cracow. His parents were Karol Wojtyla, who had been an adminstrative officer in the Austrian army and was a lieutenant in the Polish army until his retirement in 1927, and Emilia Kaczorowska Wojtyla. His mother died in 1929 of kidney and heart failure. His sister died a few days after birth; his older brother Edmund, a physician, died in 1932, and his father in 1941.
He attended schools in Wadowice and in 1938 enrolled in the faculty of philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where he moved with his father. At the university he was active in the Studio 38 experimental theater group.
For young Wojtyla, as for countless others, life changed forever on Sept. 1, 1939, when World War II began. Nazi occupation forces closed the Jagiellonian University and the young man had to work in a quarry as a stone cutter and later in a chemical plant to avoid deportation to Germany. In Feb. 1940, he met Jan Tryanowski, a tailor who became his spiritual mentor and introduced him to the writings of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of ?vila. He also participated in underground theater groups, including the Rhapsodic Theater of Mieczyslaw Kotlarczyk.
Early Life
In Oct. 1942, he began studies for the priesthood in the underground seminary maintained by Cardinal Adam Sapieha of Cracow. He was struck by an automobile Feb. 29, 1944, and hospitalized until Mar. 12. In Aug. of that year Cardinal Sapieha transferred him and the other seminarians to the Archbishop?s Residence, where they lived and studied until war?s end. Ordained a priest by the cardinal on Nov. 1, 1946, he left Poland Nov. 15 to begin advanced studies in Rome at the Angelicum University (the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas).
Wojtyla was a keen sportsman as a young man; an accomplished goalkeeper and skier. His career developed quickly after he began to lecture in philosophy and set up a student chaplaincy in Krakow following another trip to Rome in 1948. He became an assistant bishop of Krakow in 1958 and Archbishop of Krakow six years later
He subsequently earned doctorates in theology and philosophy and was a respected moral theologian and ethicist.
Bishop and Cardinal
On July 4, 1958, Pope Pius XII named him Auxiliary Bishop to Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak, Apostolic Administrator of Cracow. His book Love and Responsibility was published in 1960. (Earlier, he had published poetry and several plays.) Following Archbishop Baziak?s death in 1962, he became Vicar Capitular and then on Jan. 13, 1964, Archbishop of Cracow?the first residential head of the See permitted by the communist authorities since Cardinal Sapieha?s death in 1951.
Archbishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, from 1962 to 1965, and helped draft Schema XIII, which became Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. He also contributed to Dignitatis Humanae (the ?Declaration on Religious Freedom?) and on the theology of the laity.
Pope Paul VI created him a cardinal in the consistory of June 28, 1967, with the titular Roman church of S. Cesario in Palatio. Although scheduled to attend the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Sept. and Oct. of that year, Cardinal Wojtyla did not go, as a sign of solidarity with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw, Poland?s primate, whom the communist government refused a passport. In Oct. 1969, however, he participated in the first extraordinary assembly of the synod. Earlier that year, with approval of the statutes of the Polish bishops? conference, he became its vice president.
In 1967 he was appointed a cardinal and his influence in the Vatican was reflected when he preached the Lent retreat for the ailing Pope Paul VI in 1976. Here he meets Pope John Paul I, who became pontiff in 1978 but held office for less than a year before his death. Pope John Paul II then became the first non-Italian leader of Roman Catholics for 455 years
In 1971 he took part in the second general assembly of the synod and was elected to the council of the secretary general. He continued to participate in synod assemblies and to serve on the synod council up to his election as pope. May 8, 1972, saw the opening of the archdiocesan synod of Cracow, which he had convened and would see conclude during his visit to Poland as pope in 1979. Also in 1972 he published Foundations of Renewal: A Study on the Implementation of the Second Vatican Council.
Pope Paul VI died Aug. 6, 1978. Cardinal Wojtyla participated in the conclave that chose Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice his successor on Aug. 26. When the new Pope, who had taken the name John Paul I, died unexpectedly on Sept. 28, Cardinal Wojtyla joined 110 other cardinals in that year?s second conclave. He emerged on the second day of voting, Oct. 16, as Pope John Paul II.
Pontificate
Pope John Paul set out the major themes and program of his pontificate in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man), dated Mar. 4, 1979, and published Mar. 15. ?The Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and of history,? he wrote. Throughout his pontificate he emphasized preparation for the year 2000?which he proclaimed a Jubilee Year?and for the third millennium of the Christian era, with the aim of fostering a renewed commitment to evangelization among Catholics. He also has produced a significant body of magisterial teaching in such areas as Christian anthropology, sexual morality, and social justice, while working for peace and human rights throughout the world.
The Pope made his first trip outside Italy in the summer of 1979 when he travelled to Poland. His visit lent support to the nascent Solidarity movement, which he continued to support with other anti-communist groups behind the Iron Curtain until the USSR collapsed more than a decade later
His pontificate has been uncommonly active and filled with dramatic events. Among the most dramatic are those associated with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Many students of that complex event credit John Paul with a central role. His visits to his Polish homeland in 1979 (June 2-10) and 1983 (June 16-23) bolstered Polish Catholicism and kindled Polish resistance to communism, while his determined support for the Solidarity labor movement gave his countrymen a vehicle for their resistance.
The result was a growing nonviolent liberation movement leading to the dramatic developments of 1989?the collapse of communist regimes, the emergence of democracy in Poland and other countries, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and, in time to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
Dramatic in a much different way was the 1981 attempt on the Pope?s life. At 5:19 p.m. on May 13, as he greeted crowds in St. Peter?s Square before his Wednesday general audience, a Turkish terrorist named Mehmet Ali Agca shot John Paul at close range. Whether the assassin acted alone or at the behest of others?and which others?remain unanswered questions. Following a six-hour operation, John Paul was hospitalized for 77 days at Gemelli Hospital. He visited Ali Agca in the Rebibbia prison on Dec. 27, 1983.
Although he resumed his activities vigorously after his recuperation, the pope?s health and strength have declined over the years. In July 1992, he had colon surgery for the removal of a non-cancerous tumor; in Nov. 1993, his shoulder was dislocated in a fall; he suffered a broken femur in another fall in Apr. 1994; and in Oct. 1996, he had an appendectomy. For several years, too, the effects have been apparent of what the Vatican acknowledges to be a neurological condition (many observers take the ailment to be Parkinson?s disease). John Paul nevertheless maintains what is by any standards a highly demanding schedule.
The legacy of John Paul II
Pope John Paul II also became the first pontiff to visit Ireland in 1979 and his pontificate has been notable for his readiness to travel the world: he has visited more than 100 countries during his time in the Vatican. Here he is welcomed by the crowds in Co Mayo after more than a million people gathered in Dublin’s Phoenix Park to see him celebrate Mass
Only two other popes – three if you include St Peter – have reigned longer than Pope John Paul II. Few popes of any century have had such an impact, either on the Church, or on the times in which they have lived.
John Paul II really has become the “universal pastor”, using air travel and the mass media to take his message out to the world.
It has become a familiar sight – the Pope arriving in a foreign land, kissing the ground, and then preaching at an open air mass to perhaps a million people.
“Through these amazing journeys he has shown the Catholic Church to the world as never before,” says John Wilkins, editor of The Tablet. In 25 years, John Paul II has been to almost every corner of the world, re-defining the papacy for a modern age.
Whoever succeeds him will feel obliged to follow his example. Media skills and fluency in several languages has now become a requirement for the job.
“For millions of Catholics, John Paul II has been a father figure,” says Madeleine Bunting, a writer on church affairs.
“We have never had such a well-known pope, and such a popular pope.”
Uncompromising
Yet when he was elected in 1978, few outside Poland had heard of Karol Wojtyla, then the archbishop of Krakow. The cardinals who chose him knew they could count on him to uphold traditional beliefs at a time when many Catholics were questioning the teachings of the Church.
His desire to get close his followers nearly cost him his life on May 13, 1981, when he was shot in the stomach while greeting crowds in Rome. His assailant, a Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca, claimed he was paid by the Bulgarian secret service to carry out the attack, which meant that the Pope made later appearances in a bullet-proof car known as the Popemobile
During his papacy, there has been no wavering in the Vatican’s position on contentious social issues such as birth control, abortion and divorce. Neither has the celibacy of the priesthood or the role of women in the church ever come up for discussion.
This, too, is part of his legacy. In fact, the uncompromising views of John Paul II may now limit the room his successor has for manoeuvre.
“The next pope is going to have a very difficult time untying things like birth control, abortion and women priests,” says Madeleine Bunting.
“With all of these sensitive issues, John Paul II has made it very, very difficult for his successor, because a pope cannot undo the teachings of his predecessor.
“For example, he has been so categorical that women priests are not acceptable that it will take a long time – decades – for that to be changed gradually.”
End of Communism
But while John Paul II has been a conservative in terms of doctrine, he has tried to promote social justice, not least in his homeland.
As a young man growing up in Poland, Karol Wojtyla witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany. Then after World War Two, he faced the challenge of being a priest in a Communist state.
A second attempt on the Pope’s life was made a year later when Juan Fernandez Krohn, a traditionalist Spanish priest, tried to stab him with a bayonet during a visit to the Marian shrine in Fatima, Portugal. The Pope was unharmed, but Krohn was arrested and served three years in jail
“When the church elected a Polish pope in the middle of the Cold War, everybody felt it was a real political statement,” recalls Father Thomas Reese, an authority on the workings of the Vatican.
“John Paul II played an extremely important role in bringing down Communism in Eastern Europe. His election was inspirational.”
The proactive style of John Paul II has underlined the fact that a pope is not just a spiritual leader; he is also a player on the world’s diplomatic stage.
He spoke out against the war against Iraq, trying in vain to persuade the United States and Britain to hold back from military action.
A major theme of his papacy has been his attempt to reach out to other faiths, in search of reconciliation after centuries of hostility and suspicion.
He has travelled to Islamic countries, becoming the first pope to set foot in a mosque. As a gesture of religious tolerance, it took on new meaning after the events of 11 September 2001.
‘John Paul the Great’
Marco Politi, one of Italy’s best-known Vatican watchers, believes John Paul II will be remembered not only as a great pope, but also as a leading figure of the 20th Century.
“Twenty-five years ago, the pope was an important personality for Catholics, maybe for Christians,” he says.
“Now he is a spiritual leader accepted and recognised by people of different faiths.”
But while some in the Church are already talking about “John Paul the Great”, others are more doubtful about his legacy.
Despite the attempts on his life, he continued to forge his reputation as a world leader. In 1982 he entertained President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo
They say that during his reign, the Vatican has exercised too much power, and is now less tolerant of dissent.
Some want to see a different kind of papacy, with bishops around the world having a greater say in how the Church is run. That would be a challenge to the authority of the Church’s central bureaucracy, the Curia.
John Wilkins, editor of The Tablet, believes that after John Paul II there may be a change in the relationship between the Pope and the Church outside Rome.
“It is a curious paradox of a very centralised papacy that in some ways the Church has never been so open in the direction that it follows now,” he says.
“John Paul II has laid the foundations for the future. He is the last pope of the 20th Century, rather than the first one of the 21st Century.”
But whoever eventually succeeds him, he will be a tough act to follow. Father Thomas Reese believes the Pole brought unique skills to the papacy, and whoever succeeds him will not be a carbon copy. “There is no-one like John Paul II,” he says with a smile. “We would have to clone him, and the Church is against cloning.”
Two years after surviving the assassination attempt, he forgave Ali Agca when he visited him at Rebibbia prison where he was serving a life sentence. Ali Agca was pardoned in 2000 and returned to Turkey to serve a jail sentence for the murder of a journalist in Istanbul in 1978
September 11
In 2001, the Pope issued an emotional and hard-hitting condemnation of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, describing them as an ?offence against God? and an ?intolerable crime?.
John Paul II made history in November of the same year when he gave the first papal address over the internet. He used the occasion to apologise to victims of sexual abuse committed by Catholic clerics.
Pope John Paul II will probably be remembered as a theological conservative, who refused to permit any easing of the Church?s traditional teaching on sexual morality.
Despite increasing physical frailty during the last years of his tenure – he suffered from Parkinson?s disease and arthritis – John Paul II remained determined to serve in office until his death.
Foreign Pastoral Visits
As noted, his pastoral visits have been a striking feature of his pontificate. Many have been to nations in the Third World. His 104 trips outside Italy (through Sept. 2004) are as follows:
He formed a close relationship with Mother Teresa, who he visited in Calcutta during a trip to India in 1986. He put her on the road to sainthood in 2003, only six years after her death, when he beatified her at a special mass in Rome attended by 300,000 people. He praised her in his homily as ‘this courageous woman who I always felt was at my side’
1979 — Dominican Republic and Mexico, Jan. 5-Feb. 1; Poland, June 2-10; Ireland and the United States, Sept. 29-Oct. 7; Turkey, Nov. 28-30.
1980 — Africa (Zaire, Congo Republic, Kenya, Ghana, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast), May 2-12; France, May 30-June 2; Brazil (13 cities), June 30-July 12; West Germany, Nov. 15-19.
1981 — Philippines, Guam, and Japan, with stopovers in Pakistan and Alaska, Feb. 16-27.
1982 — Africa (Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea), Feb. 12-19; Portugal, May 12-15; Great Britain, May 28-June 2; Argentina, June 11-12; Switzerland, June 15; San Marino, Aug. 29; Spain, Oct. 31-Nov. 9.
1983 — Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras) and Haiti, Mar. 2-10; Poland, June 16-23; Lourdes, France, Aug. 14-15; Austria, Sept. 10-13.
1984 — South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Thailand, May 12; Switzerland, June 12-17; Canada, Sept. 9-20; Spain, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, Oct. 10-12.
1985 — Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Jan. 26-Feb. 6; Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, May 11-21; Africa (Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Zaire, Kenya, and Morocco), Aug. 8-19; Liechtenstein, Sept. 8.
The Pope also visited Cuba in 1998, where he was welcomed by Fidel Castro, the communist leader of the predominantly Roman Catholic country
1986 — India, Feb. 1-10; Colombia and Saint Lucia, July 1-7; France, Oct. 4-7; Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Fiji, Singapore, and Seychelles), Nov. 18-Dec. 1.
1987 — Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, Mar. 31-Apr. 12; West Germany, Apr. 30-May 4; Poland, June 8-14; the United States and Canada, Sept. 10-19.
1988 — Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay, May 7-18; Austria, June 23-27; Africa (Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozam-bique), Sept. 10-19; France, Oct. 8-11.
1989 — Madagascar, Reunion, Zambia, and Malawi, Apr. 28-May 6; Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden, June 1-10; Spain, Aug. 19-21; South Korea, Indonesia, East Timor, and Mauritius, Oct. 6-16.
1990 — Africa (Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Burkna Faso), Jan. 25-Feb. 1; Czechoslovakia, Apr. 21-22; Mexico and Cura?ao, May 6-13; Malta, May 25-27; Africa (Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ivory Coast), Sept. 1-10.
The Pope also used the Millennium year to heal the Church’s divisions with Judaism and Israel, 13 years after he had enraged Jews by visiting Kurt Waldheim, the Austrian president who was accused of Nazi war crimes. The Pope made a historic tour of the Holy Land, including prayers at Jerusalem’s western wall, and became the first pontiff to visit Egypt and Syria
1991 — Portugal, May 10-13; Poland, June 1-9; Poland and Hungary, Aug. 13-20; Brazil, Oct. 12-21.
1992 — Africa (Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea), Feb. 10-26; Africa (Angola, S?o Tome, and Principe), June 4-10; Dominican Republic, Oct. 10-14.
1993 — Africa (Benin, Uganda, Sudan), Feb. 2-10; Albania, Apr. 25; Spain, June 12-17; Jamaica, Mexico, Denver (United States), Aug. 9-15; Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sept. 4-10.
1994 — Zagreb, Croatia, Sept. 10.
1995 — Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Sri Lanka, Jan. 12-21; Czech Republic and Poland, May 20-22; Belgium, June 3-4; Slovakia, June 30-July 3; Africa (Cameroon, South Africa, Kenya), Sept. 14-20; United Nations and United States, Oct. 4-8.
1996 — Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador), Feb. 5-11; Tunisia, Apr. 17; Slovenia, May 17-19; Germany, June 21-23; Hungary, Sept. 6-7; France, Sept. 19-22.
1997 — Sarajevo, Apr. 12-13; Czech Republic, Apr. 25-27; Lebanon, May 10-11; Poland, May 31-June 10; France, Aug. 21-24; Brazil, Oct. 2-5.
The pontiff also found time to relax, taking a holiday in Les Combes in northern Italy in 2001. He faced a new challenge, however, as the growing scandal of child abuse by priests prompted him in November 2001 to issue an apology to sex abuse victims and call an emergency meeting of American cardinals at the Vatican five months later
1998 — Cuba, Jan. 21-25; Nigeria, Mar. 21-23; Austria, June 19-21; Croatia, Oct. 3-4.
1999 — Mexico, Jan. 22-25; St. Louis, United States, Jan. 26-27; Romania, May 2-5; Poland June, 5-17; Slovenia, Sept. 19; India, Nov. 6-7; Georgia, Nov. 8-9.
2000 — Egypt and Mount Sinai, Feb. 24-26; Holy Land, March 20-26; F?tima, May 12-13.
2001 — Greece, Syria, and Malta, May 4-9; Ukraine, June 23-27; Kazakstan and Armenia, Sept. 22-27.
2002 — Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, May 22-26; Toronto, Canada, July 23-28; Guatemala City, July 29-30; Mexico City, July 31-Aug. 2; Poland, Aug. 16-19.
2003 — Spain, May 3-4; Croatia, June 5-9; Bosnia-Herzegovina, June 22; Slovak Republic, Sept. 11-14.
2004 — Switzerland, May 5-6; Lourdes, France, Aug. 14-15.
Notable among the pope?s pastoral visits have been journeys to celebrate World Youth Day with young people, including the 2002 celebration in Toronto.
Final Journey – Pope John Paul II
His fragile health took a sharp turn for the worse on Thursday March 31 2005 evening as he developed a very high fever caused by an infection. After initially stabilising, his condition deteriorated further leading to heart and kidney failure.
Pope John Paul II died on Saturday April 2, 2005. The 84-year-old Pontiff, who had headed the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years, died at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST).
The news was immediately announced to huge crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square.
John Paul will be remembered for his role in the collapse of communism in Europe and his unyielding defense of traditional Vatican doctrines as leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. — Compiled from various sources
Good Bye Holy Father, May Your Soul Rest In Peace….
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