In 1958, when the Soviet Union still held sway in Poland, the Communist officials who were in charge decided it would be permissible to appoint a relatively harmless auxiliary bishop to Krakow – Karol Jozef Wojtyla.  And, as Father Jim Martin might say, “And in heaven, the angels laughed, and they laughed and they laughed….”

 

Karol Jozef Wojtyla, of course, would go on to become not only a Pope, John Paul II, but some nine years after his death, a saint, and a definite thorn in the side of the Soviet Union.

 

Karol Wojtyla was born in Poland in 1920, and by the time he was twenty-one, he had lost his mother, his father and his older brother.  Coming of age during the Nazi occupation of his country, he worked in both a quarry and a chemical factory to support himself.  Discerning a vocation to the priesthood, he also quietly began his studies in 1942 in a clandestine major seminary in Krakow.  After the war, he continued to study, this time openly, and was ordained in 1946.  He was subsequently sent to Rome to obtain a doctorate in theology, after which he returned to Poland.  There he served as a curate in two different parishes, a university chaplain and finally as a professor of moral theology and ethics. In 1958, after he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Krakow, he became, in 1964, an archbishop and, in 1967, a cardinal.  He was an active participant in the Second Vatican Council, making significant contributions to the document, Gaudium et Spes.

 

Elected Pope in 1978, Wojtyla, now Pope John Paul II, began an incredibly active pontificate which would last for nearly the next twenty-seven years.  He made one hundred and four pastoral visits outside Italy as well as some one hundred and forty-six within Italy.  He met with an unprecedented number of heads of state as well as over seventeen million people who participated in his General Audiences. In his native Poland, John Paul II encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement which led to the collapse of communism some ten years later. His dedication to youth led him to establish World Youth Day, nineteen of which he was able to participate in as pope. During his pontificate, he also encouraged successful dialogue with both Jews and Muslims. In May of 1981, an attempt was made on his life in St. Peter’s Square.  Crediting his survival to the intercession of the Blessed Mother, John Paul II later went to the prison where his attacker, Mehmet Ali Agca, was incarcerated in order to forgive him personally.

 

The Jubilee Year 2000, a high point of his pontificate, was marked by celebrations in Rome and around the world.  The Pope visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in March of that year, where he participated in a five-day pilgrimage to many sites holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

 

Pope John Paul II died of Parkinson’s disease in 2005 and was canonized in 2014.  His feast is October 22.