Pope John Paul II - A Brief Biography

When Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born in 1920, no one would have guessed that he would become the greatest, most powerful and third-longest reigning Pope in history. Although his family was comprised of staunt Catholics, they did not hold the common anti-Semitic views that many Poles of that era did. In fact, one of his playmates, Jerzy Kluger (a Jew) would later play a key role as a go-between for John Paul II and Israeli officials, when the Vatican extended a long-overdue diplomatic recognition to Israel.

Typically, "people in the Vatican do not know Jews, and precious popes did not know Jews. But this pope is a friend of the Jewish people because he knows Jewish people", Kluger had reported to the Times. It then came as no surprise when Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit a synagogue, as well as the first to visit the memorial at Auschwitz to the victims of the Holocaust, thus ending a long-standing Catholic-Jewish estrangement, with the Pope calling Jews "Our elder brothers".

As a child, Wojtyla was an excellent student and athlete who enjoyed skiing, hikinh, Kayaking and swimming. However, death seemed to follow this lad for the longest time. When he was just 9 yeears old, his mother passed away from heart and kidney problems, and at the age of 12, his older brother, Edmund, who was at the time a physician in Bielsko, died of Scarlet Fever. He himself had two near-misses with death as he was once hit by a streetcar and then again by a truck in 1944 while in college. It is from these accidents that the Pope is often seen with a slight stoop to his shoulders, which is particularly noticeable when he tires.

Pain and suffering was also not new to the Pope, for even as an adult, he had physical difficulties prior to his papacy. Ailments including a dislocated shoulder, a broken thigh (which ld to femur replacement surgery), a removal of a tumor from his colon, and, during his papacy, the attempt on his life from a gunman, whose two bullets wounded the abdomen, right arm and left hand of His Holiness. Still... he continued to revive and come back seemingly stronger than ever before.

During the German invasion in Poland in 1940, Pope John Paul II escaped deportation by taking a job as a stone cutter in a quarry. Only but a few short months later, his father, Karol Wojtyla Sr., died at the age of 61, leaving his hopes of seeing the Pope "commit himself to God's service" (which was his father's greatest wish for Karol Wojtyla Jr.).

Back in those days, however, with the war raging on and invasions inevitable, it would be another 18 months before Wojtyla registered for theology courses at the University in Krakow. In order to sustain himself, he acted and also worked in a chemical plant until August of 1944, when he then took refuge in the archbishop's Krakow residence, and remained there until the end of World War II.

In 1946, he was ordained in Krakow and spent much of the following 2 years studying, earning two masters degrees and a doctorate, before taking up priestly duties as an assistant pastor in 1949. During the earlier years of his priesthood, Fr. Wojtyla served as a chaplian to university students at St. Florain's Church in Krakow. The church was located next to the Jagiellonian University, where he was also working towards his second doctorate degree in Philosophy. When the university's theology department was abolished in 1954, the entire faculty reconstituted itself at the Seminary of Krakow, and Fr. Wojtyla continued his studies there. In that same year, he was hired by the Catholic University of Lubin (which is the only Catholic University in the world) as a non-tenured professor.

In 1956, Fr. Wojtyla was appointed to the Chair of Ethics at Catholic University where his ascent through the churh hierarchy got a boost in 1958 as he was then named Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. When the Vatican Council II began deliberations in 1962 that would revolutionize the church, Fr. Wojtyla was one of its intellectual leaders and took quite a special interest in working on religious freedom. In that very same year, he was named the Acting Archbishop of Krakow, when the incumbent died.

In 1967 Fr. Wojtyla was appointed as Cardinal, by Pope Paul VI, and was welcomed by the government. Wojtyla was considered 'tough but flexible' by his peers, as well as being looked upon as a 'moderate reformer'. It was in 1969 that the Polish Theological Society published Card. Wojtyla's "The Acting Person", which was a 'dense philosophical tract on Phenomenology, which Card. Wojtyla discussed during a US Visit in 1978.

On Octber 16, 1978, the Sacred College of Cardinals chose Card. Karol Wojtyla to be elected as the new Pope. At this point he chose the same name as his predecessor, and added another Roman numeral in becoming the first Slavic pope. He was also the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, and, at the age of 58, the youngest Pope in 132 years. Not too ironically was it then that upon the announcement of the election, Yuri Andropov, who was the leader of the Soviet Union's KGB intelligence agency, warned the Politburo that there could be trouble ahead. Yuri was right, for it was less than 8 months after his 1978 inauguration that Pope John Paul II returned to Poland for n9 cathartic days. Massive adoring crowds of people met with him wherever he went, which served as a type of 'acute embarassment' for the comunist government. Officially, the nation was atheistic, however it was also suffering from food shortages. The pope added to the authoirites' discomfort by reminding his fellow Poles of their human rights stating that, "You are men. You have dignity. Don't crawl on your bellies!".

During his papacy, the pope drew enormous crowds from all walks of life, and from all religious beliefs, helping to make his reign one of the most public, and influencial of all times. In January of 2001, his doctors publically acknowledged that the pintiff was suffering from parkinson's disease. For years the pope had shown symptoms of the disease, although the Vatican has never officially said that His Holiness has the disease.

Not only is the pope the most travelled in history, but also the most linguistic of popes, fluently speaking in 8 languages, and being able to give mass blessings in 60 languages. This pope also took the grand advantage of utilizing the media and higher forms of technology to bring the Vatican to a level of 'obtainment', whereas in past reigns, the pope was generally remote, and for the most part 'untouchable' by the average person. It is because of Pope John Paul II's use of media that it has been noted he had the ability to 'bring God to the people'.

Atop all this, the pope has often explained himself with dense, closely reasoned and deeply philosophical encyclicals. These along, including letters and other writings, fill more than 150 volumes of work. For these, and many other reasons, this pope will be missed not only by those within the Catholic religion, but by all humankind.