His Holiness Pope John Paul II [antikvár]

Apostle of freedom It is extremely difficult to find words that adequately describe Pope John Paul II. Even the most extravagant adjectives seem commonplace when applied to a man, hitherto relatively unknown outside his own country and the higher confines of his Church, who within a year of his election has by his sheer majesty and magnetism attracted a world-wide following of countless millions—Catholic and non-Catholic. This is his story, told by Michael Watts, an Anglican priest of Christ Church Oxford, who has made a particular study of this very remarkable man and has come to have a great admiration for him. It is illustrated by some 80 pictures, some of them historic, collected from many sources. i7.zni3 The child, who 58 years later was to be elected Pope John Paul II, was born in the small town of Wadowice in central Poland on 18 May 1920. On 20 June that year he was baptised Karol Josef Wojtyla in St Mary's Church where his parents worshipped; the event being duly recorded in the parish register by Father Edward Zacher. This was the first of a series of entries in the register which catalogue the steps of his meteoric ascent in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, culminating in his election to the Papacy in 1978. That he had foreseen and shrunk from the possibility that he might become Pope is evident from an incident at Mass one morning before the Conclave summoned to elect the successor to Pope Paul VI. A priest prayed publicly that Cardinal Wojtyla might be elected Pope. Moments later the Cardinal himself added his petition: That if a man was chosen as Pope who did not believe himself capable of being the Vicar of Christ he would be given the courage to say as St Peter did, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord". He also prayed that should he accept the burden he be given enough faith, hope and love to bear it, That was on 24 August 1978. At that Conclave Cardinal Luciani was elected, naming himself John Paul I. On 28 September Pope John Paul I died in his sleep after occupying the seat of St Peter for only 33 days. On 16 October the College of Cardinals chose Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal Archbishop of Cracow, as Bishop of Rome and spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church. This man of Slav origin, with experience of day-today life under a Communist regime in Eastern Europe, accepted their decision and became the first non-Italian Pope since 1522. He took the name John Paul II. Childhood Wadowice, 50 kilometres south west of Cracow, had a population of only 9,000 when Karol was born. His grandfather had been a tailor; his father, also named Karol, was a junior officer in the Polish army, who had previously served in the Austro-Hungarian army. A deeply religious man and a strict discipUnarian he would leave his child in unheated rooms to strengthen him both morally and physically; cultured and highly in-teUigent he played a major part in the development of the mind and abiUties of his son. His wife, Emilia, was a former school teacher and when Karol was bom the Wojtyla's had one other child, Edward, at that time fifteen years old. They were not well off and Emilia was forced to take in sewing to help boost the family income. She died when Karol was nine. Four years later sorrow again came to the family: Edward, by then a promising young doctor, died in an epidemic of scarlet fever at the hospital where he was working. Karol's education followed the normal pattern, but he was an outstanding pupil, good at everything, with a special aptitude in languages and literature. Such brilliance is not always admired by less-gifted classmates, but nevertheless he was highly popular with the other boys. His ability as an actor was considerable and there were many who thought that he would become a renowned figure in the Pohsh theatre, either as an actor or a producer. He was a good football player and he loved walking and canoeing, but his greatest pleasure was ski-ing in the nearby Tatra mountains. One of his closest friends describing his affinity with the mountain people said "He shares their simplicity, their sense of humour, their independence, their love of freedom. The mountain people were never serfs, so they symbohsed the equality that exists between man and man: they have always been in love with freedom. Karol Wojtyla has a lot of the moimtain man in his make-up. He too is in love with freedom". In 1938 Karol and his father went to live in a basement flat in Cracow. He enrolled in the department of Philosophy at the University to read for a degree in Pohsh philology and threw himself enthusiastically into University life. In his spare lime, he began to study for a diploma in drama, as he then believed that his future lay in the world of the theatre. The War Years At the end of Karol's first year at University, Hitler concluded a military alliance with Russia, and Germany was thus free to launch the bUtzkrieg