Pope John Paul II was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, a small town about 30 miles from Krakow in the south of Poland. On April 2, 2005, beset by many infirmities and after a protracted illness, the Holy Father passed into eternity. In between, the life he led represents one of the most influential and inspirational of the twentieth century.
Karol Wojtyla served as an altar boy at his parish, the church of the Virgin Mary in Wadowice, where he was baptized. As a young man he was an athlete, a capable outdoorsman, an actor and a playwright. He studied as many as eleven languages, and would employ his considerable linguistic abilities to good effect later in life.
Karol’s university studies were interrupted by the fall of Poland to the Nazis in 1939. During the occupation he worked as a manual laborer, and joined an underground seminary in 1942. He was ordained a priest in 1946, and named a bishop in 1958, archbishop in 1963, and cardinal in 1967.
In 1978, “the year of three popes”, the world was shocked when Pope John Paul I died at the age of 65, after only 33 days in office. A further shock came when the College of Cardinals elected Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Krakow, as the 264th pope. At only 58 years old, he was the youngest pope elected in over a century. Karol Wojtyla took the name of John Paul II to honor his predecessors, Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul I, and to demonstrate continuity with their philosophies.
On May 13, 1981 John Paul II was shot andcritically wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter’s Square to address an audience. Agca was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days after Christmas 1983, John Paul II visited the prison where his would-be assassin was serving life imprisonment. The two spoke privately for some time, and John Paul II forgave his assailant.
John Paul II’s pontificate was notable for many reasons. He served almost 27 years as pontiff, the third longest reign in history. He travelled more extensively than all previous popes combined, visiting over 125 countries and every continent except Antarctica. He expounded on Catholic doctrine in numerous encyclicals and apostolic letters, and convened 15 apostolic synods, or gatherings of bishops. To promote contemporary examples of piety, he elevated 482 holy persons to sainthood, as many as had been canonized in the previous four centuries! Pope John Paul II also took unprecedented steps of ecumenism, opening and strengthening dialogue with many other faiths, including Jews. He was the first pope to ever visit a synagogue.
Perhaps John Paul II’s greatest legacy from an historical point of view is the undeniable role he played in the demise of communism in Europe. Having witnessed the dehumanizing effects of Marxist ideology first hand in post-war Poland, he visited the countries trapped behind the Iron Curtain, and wrote extensively against communism. He met many times with the leaders of the free world, including President Ronald Reagan and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who later became the first freelyelected president of Poland in over fifty years.
Upon the news of John Paul II’s death, the faithful flocked to Rome, with over four million people viewing his body as it lay in state at the Vatican, constituting perhaps the single greatest pilgrimage in history. As a testament to his popularity and his singular life, his successor,Pope Benedict XVI, waived the normal five year waiting period and declared that the beatification process and inquiries could begin on June 28, 2005, putting John Paul on the fast track to sainthood.
Pope John Paul II remains immensely popular with both Catholics and non-Catholics, as well as with collectors of papal-themed coins, the world over. To Poles and those of Polish heritage, he enjoys the additional status of a national hero.