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Young priest
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Pope John Paul II
was born on May 18, 1920 in
Wadowice, Poland. When his studies in Polish literature at the Jagiellonian
University of Krakow were interrupted by World War
II, he became a chemical
worker; in 1942, determined to become a priest, he went into hiding in the
palace of the archbishop of Krakow. Ordained on November 1, 1946, he studied at
the Angelicum University in Rome (earning a doctorate in ethics) and at the
Catholic University of Lublin. A professor of philosophy at Lublin and the
University of Krakow, he was made auxiliary bishop (1958) and archbishop (1964)
of Krakow and cardinal in 1967.
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His installation
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Waiting for a new Pope
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He was elected pope on Oct. 16, 1978, and
invested on October 22, becoming the first Polish pope in the Roman Catholic
church's history and the first non-Italian pope in 456 years. His
fluency in a number of modern languages (Polish, Italian, English, French,
German, Spanish, and Portuguese) as well as in Latin qualified him uniquely as a
roving international ambassador for the church.
From the beginning of his reign he
was an active pontiff, taking seriously his local duties as bishop of Rome in
visiting parishes and institutions and at the same time undertaking extensive
travels to Latin America and the Caribbean, the United States and Canada,
Africa, various European countries, India, the Far East, and Australia.
Pope John Paul II made his first
visit to Poland on June 2, 1979. The visit lasted for 9 days.
Pope kissing his motherland |
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Welcomed by huge crowds
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On May 13, 1981, John Paul II was
the victim of an assassination attempt, in which he was shot and seriously
wounded in St. Peter's Square by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish national.
Three Bulgarians suspected of conspiring with Agca and three other Turks
in the assassination plot - attempted, it was believed, because of the pope's
outspoken support of the Roman Catholic church and the Solidarity trade union in
his native Poland - were later acquitted for lack of proof.
On social questions, John Paul II
was a conservative pope who firmly endorsed traditional Catholic views, such as
prohibitions against abortion, use of contraceptives, divorce, political office
holding by nuns and priests, and ordination of women to the priesthood.
However, he also championed democracy and economic justice for the developing
nations of the world. John Paul's strongly centralized leadership and
conservative teachings on doctrine aroused some dissent among more liberal Roman
Catholic clergymen in western Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
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- John
Paul II, by Levi,
Virgil
- Splendor
of Faith: The Theological Vision of Pope John Paul II,
by Dulles, Avery
- Life
in the Vatican with John Paul II,
by Accattoli, Luigi
- Pope
John Paul II's Theological Journey to the Prayer Meeting of
Religions at Assisi, Pt. II, Vol. 2: The "Trinitarian
Trilogy": Dives in Misericordia,
by Dormann, Johannes
- Pope
John Paul II, Andrews
(Editor) and McMeel (Editor)
- John
Paul II: A Tribute, by
Random House Value Publishing Staff
- The
Hidden Pope, by O'Brien
- The
Hidden Pope: The Untold Story of a Lifelong Friendship That Is
Changing the Relationship Between Catholics & Jews,
by O'Brien, Darcy
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