Blessed Pope John Paul II

Since his death some five years ago, most people seem to have forgotten Pope John Paul II. But with his recent beatification there has been a resurgence of interest in him. Who was Pope John Paul II? The following capsule accounts were culled from his biography, Witness to Hope, by George Weigel.

 • Blessed Pope John Paul II was known as Karol Wojtyla before he became pontiff of the Catholic Church. He was born on May 18, 1920 to the couple Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorroweska, both of whom were from Wadowice, Poland. His father belonged to a family of “small farmers” while his mother’s father worked as a cobbler.

 • The elder Karol Wojtyla served as a career lieutenant in the Polish army. His salary as such, augmented by the embroidery work of his wife, provided a modest income for the family and enabled it to maintain a middle class apartment where the young Karol, known as Lolek, and his siblings spent their childhood. At the age of six, Lolek began the first grade at the local elementary school, just a walking distance from his home. In his class there were some 60 pupils who were taught Polish, religion, arithmetic, drawing, singing, games and exercise, — and Lolek was observed to have excelled in these subjects.

 • In addition to attending regular classes, Lolek also enjoyed some kind of mentoring by his father. The latter, who was described as “a gentleman of the old school” and a man of granite integrity, exerted a considerable influence on the character formation of the boy. More than this, the fellow was known as a man of “constant prayer,” in the words of the son himself. Early in the morning or at night the young Wojtyla would find his father on his knees praying silently. And father and son would read the Bible and prayed the rosary regularly.

 • As a high school student, Lolek served regularly as altar boy at St. Mary’s church in Wadowice. As such he and his father often attended the early morning mass. A priest who was in charge of overseeing the altar boys in the parish, remembers the young Karol Wojtyla as “quite tall, but also somewhat plump,” “a very little boy, very talented, very sharp and very good.”

 • As a young man and even while he was still in the secondary schools, the young Wojtyla was “completely absorbed by a passion for literature, especially dramatic literature, and for the theater,” particularly with Polish Romantic literature. Like most nineteenth century European literature, Polish literature was revolutionary in nature. However, unlike its counterpart in other countries, its idea of a revolution was not a complete break with the past; rather it was aimed at a recovery of the past including its values and tradition more especially the religious tradition of Christianity. So deep was Wojtyla’s immersion in Polish literature that he himself became later an accomplished writer from whose pen were produced plays, poetry and philosophical essays.

 • What was Blessed John Paul’s viewpoint on birth control? Here’s a quote from his biographer:

 “Wojtyla affirmed the Church’s teaching that the morally appropriate regulation of births takes place through a responsible use of the natural cycle of fertility, rather than through mechanical or chemical means. He did not doubt that normal family planning was a method that required virtue, even heroic virtue, but he argued that it was the only method that met the high standard of human dignity, objectively and personally. . .”

 • And here’s a poem Wojtyla, then a cardinal, wrote on what the Office of St. Peter means for the Church and what it demands from the one who holds it.

 In this place our feet meet the ground, on which were raised so many walls and colonnades

 If you don’t get lost in them

 But go on finding

 Unity and sense –

 It is because She is leading you,

 She connects not only the spaces of a renaissance building, but also spaces In Us, who go ahead so very conscious of our weakness and disaster.

 It is You, Peter. You want to be the Stone Floor, so that they will pass over You (going ahead, not knowing where), that they should go where you lead their feet,

 so that they should connect into one the spaces which through sight help the thought to be born.

 You want to be Him who serves the feet – like rock the hooves of sheep:

The rock is also the stone floor of the gigantic temple. The pasture is the cross.