Pope John Paul
Created | Updated Jan 25, 2004
On 14th October 1978 a hundred and eleven cardinals descended on Rome to decide who was to become the new pope. 1978 was called ‘The year of the three popes’, because pope Paul vi died on 6th August and his successor John Paul I died only 33 days after he had been appointed. Now a third pope had been chosen.
The new choice of pope was called Karol Wojtyla and he had chosen the name John Paul ii. This was a great surprise to the people in the world and brought happiness. Karol Wojtyla was a polish archbishop from Krakow, the first non-Italian pope for more than four hundred years. He was also unusually young too: only 58 and he was a pope from a communist country behind the iron curtain.
Karol Wojtyla came from a poor background and one that is of sadness too for his mother died when he was only nine years old and his brother who became a doctor died of scarlet fever leaving just Karol and his father to live together.
It was at school where Karol’s headmaster was asked by Archbishop of Krakow, Prince Sapieha, whether Karol had ever considered whether he would like to become a priest one day. However, at that time Karol was considering a career as an actor. Lolek as he was known to his friends was a bright young boy who was good at languages, popular, was a born leader, liked sports and was said to be good company. He also appeared to be more interested in others than himself.
He studied polish literature and language at the university in Krakow until the war when the universities were closed and the students had to find work and get labour permits otherwise they would be sent to slave gangs in Germany. Karol and some of his friends were able to obtain work at a stone quarry and they helped their Jewish friends hide from the enemy (the Nazis). University courses were held in secret whilst the horrific life in concentration camps nearby Auschwitz and Birkenau was going on. Karol began to learn theology at university and the same archbishop prince Sapehia who heard Karols speech hid his students in his palace, living in secret for two years. Karol also worked in a chemical factory. Also around this time Karol’s dad passed away and he had a major accident.
After the war Poland was ‘liberated’ by Stalin’s red army and religion wasn’t encouraged. Karol moved outside of Poland for the first time to Italy’s Rome to study philosophy in his holidays he worked for catholic war relief service. When Karol moved home, he was given a small country parish at Niegowice.
1st November 1946 Priest
28th September 1958 Bishop
30th December 1963 Archbishop of Krakow
26th June 1967 Cardinal
16th October 1978 Pope
When Karol became pope, he became busier in life, but despite his hectic schedule he still made time for his people as well as travelling widely visiting European countries, USA, Australasia, Indonesia and the far east. His last visit was in 1980 to Brazil where he spent 12 crowded days and reaffirmed more strongly his message of justice for the poor. 13th May 1981 the world was in shock as the pope was shot and Mehemet Ali Acga was captured. The pope recovered to some extent after two operations and forgave his ‘brother’. As an indication to show that he’d recovered he returned to Africa in 1982 and the pope’s Whitsuntide in great Britain took place in that same year.
