More on Blessed John Paul II

 Last week we narrated some happenings on the life of Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II. As a sequel, we are narrating in this issue some interesting incidents about him as a laity and as a man of the cloth. These materials were paraphrased from his biography, Witness to Hope.

 • Circa 1942, while Poland was still under Nazi occupation, Karol Wojtyla studied in a clandestine seminary operated by the bishop of Krakow. Operating such a school was banned by the authorities and the school head and the students themselves were risking their lives. Perhaps, the Nazi leadership must have heard about that school (and the “cultural” resistance being undertaken by Polish youth) because after the Warsaw uprising all the young men in the town were arrested. Fortunately for Karol, he managed to avoid arrest by covertly working his way to the bishop’s residence where he took refuge and later continued his study.

 • As a seminarian Karol was active in the dramatic presentations taking place in Krakow as a form of cultural movement against the Occupation, and served as one of the key performers. At one time, while he was reciting his lines in a play held in a secret place, German megaphones were blazing outside announcing another victory by the Werhmacht. Performers and audience were frightened. But Wojtyla kept on reciting his piece as if nothing happened.

 • In 1940 at the height of the German occupation, Wojtyla worked as a manual laborer for a chemical company. For a year he and some companions would walk for 30 minutes to and from a quarry area where they shoveled limestone into a small railway car. This daily regimen was not an easy one for oftentimes the temperature would fall below zero and the workers had to smear their faces with petroleum jelly to keep their skin from freezing. Work at the quarry was from early morning to 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Lolek (as he was called) would walk home with whatever he had managed to secure at the quarry such as a lump of coal, a few potatoes, or sometimes some cabbages, peas or other vegetables for his father.

 • As a parish priest of St. Florian’s church in Krakow, Wojtyla practiced what he called pastoral “accompaniment.” Having organized a group of young adults and married couples into Rodzinka or “small family,” he would venture with them into scenic spots where they would hold fellowship along with other activities such as listening to his lecture or discussing theological subjects, all of which were always preceded with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. At one time during a kayaking trip the group used an overturned boat for an altar topped with two paddles lashed together to form a cross.

 • As a young priest Father Wojtyla was inclined towards a simple and frugal way of life bordering on asceticism. In the words of his biographer George Weigel, “He never had a bank account, never wrote a check, never had any personal money.” He slept on the floor and practiced other forms of self-denial. He never cared about possessions. In fact, his shoes were usually old and worn out while his cassock and coat were shabby.

 • One of Karol Wojtyla’s achievements as a priest was his works on philosophy. This was evidenced by his habilitation thesis (for a doctoral degree in theology) entitled: An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler. Scheler was a German philosopher who was one of the founders of a philosophical method called phenomenology. This school of thought captured the imagination of Wojtyla who used it as a basis of his own philosophy on the question of morality and ethics. In this regard, this question is pertinent: What were the pastoral achievements of Wojtyla’s philosophical work? Biographer Weigel enumerates these as follows:

 First, the philosopher-priest was able to demonstrate that the Law of the Gift was built into human condition, which means that in our effort to be the person that we are to be the person that we ought to be, the resolution lies in self-giving. Second, he was able to show that a person is not an accident of biochemistry or history, but a moral actor, the protagonist, not the object or victim of the drama of life. Third, he developed a critique against utilitarianism – the temptation to measure others by their financial, social, political, or sexual utility to us – and demonstrated the moral fact that our relationship to truth, goodness, and beauty is the true stuff of our humanity.