Karol Jozef Wojtyla,better known as John Paul II, born on May 18th, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. Only 35 miles south of the well known Polish city of Krakow. On July 4th, 1958, he was appointed to be the auxiliary bishop of Krakow by Pope Pius XXII, and was later promoted to Archbishop, and then became a Cardinal in 1967.
As a Cardinal, he had the challenges of facing the communist regime in Poland. During those years, he faced retributions from the communist leaders during which he spoke up and said: “I’m not afraid of them, they’re afraid of me.” During his time as Cardinal, Wojtyla developed a lot of character, increasing his prominent leadership by building a great reputation of preaching, intellect, and charisma. With the passing of John Paul I just 34 days as head of the Vatican, Wojtyla was not in the range to be selected as the next Pope at all. However, as a surprise he was selected to be in charge of the Church of St. Peter after 7 rounds of balloting, becoming the first Slavic, non-Italian, and youngest Pope.
The Papacy of John Paul II was marked as a conservative pontiff. He had firm and unwavering opposition to communism. He also kept a firm defense in the Church’s social stance on the right to life, capital punishment, and sex in nontraditional marriages. One of the most remarkable moments of John Paul II’s papacy was when he was shot by Turkish nationalist Mehmet Ali Agca. He shocked the world by visiting the man that shot him in jail later. Mehmet Ali Agca converted to Catholicism in the following years and currently serves as a missionary. The power of forgiveness as demonstrated by John Paul II became even more well known, as he also begged for forgiveness for the Church’s past mistakes. John Paul II was known for building bridges and relationships, as he built relationships with leaders of other faiths.
John Paul II visited his home nation of Poland in June of 1979. His speech was seen as very inspirational, which motivated the people of Poland to seek freedom. John Paul II reminded them of “political self-determination for citizens and formation of its own culture and civilization.” The next year led to the rise of the non-violent solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa, which called for strikes in protest of the communist government. Such a successful movement led to the second visitation of Poland by John Paul II in June 1983. A time when the communist government imposed martial rule in an effort to suppress protesters. The Pope had a meeting with Gen. Wojchiec Jaruzelski the de facto, Soviet backed communist dictator of Poland at the time, where he convinced him to lift martial law within the next month. Over the next years, he dedicated his life to advocating for liberty in Poland by giving weekly radio addresses in Polish. In 1989, he led a negotiating table with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, with representatives of the solidarity movement and the Catholic church. From those negotiations, it led to the first free election, which resulted in Lech Walesa becoming the first elected president in the history of Poland, and he gave credit for this accomplishment to John Paul II in the following months, the communist regime collapsed in Czechoslovakia, leading to the presidency of Vaclav Havel, also in Romania, leading to the presidency of Ion Iliescu, although Romanian collapse of the communist regime was conducted in a different manner. From there it led to the independence of all Soviet bloc states by 1991, and the collapse in general of communism in Europe.
After suffering from Parkinson’s disease for more than ten years, and a flu diagnosis in February 2005, he passed away at age 84 on April 2nd, 2005. The beautification process began on May 13th, 2005 by the new Pope Benedict XVI, who later was fully canonized on April 27th, 2014 by Pope Francis. As a result, we now call him St. Pope John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II is recognized as a significant Pope in church history, but outside the church as well. His charismatic presence was a significant piece, but most importantly he led a movement of freedom through the Lord’s blessing, which is the biggest accomplishment of his papacy. The papacy was marked as a road to freedom, small government, and conservative principles. This is why Karol Jozef Wojtyla would go down in history as the great Pope.