Training and Trials...
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In 1938, the Wojtylas, father and son, moved to Krakow. The future pope enrolled in Jagiellonian University, where he studied philosophy and joined the Rhapsodic Theater. He also wrote poetry and a number of plays on religious themes. Because he was a student, Wojtyla was exempted from military service when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, starting World War II in Europe. One of the first acts of the Nazi occupation authorities in Krakow was to close the university. They also began deporting able-bodied men for work in Germany. To avoid this, Wojtyla got a job as a laborer in a quarry supplying a chemical plant. Because it was war work, he got a special identity card that exempted him from the occupiers' dragnets. His studies continued underground, as did his work with the theater. He also kept up his numerous church activities. In 1940, while attending a prayer group, he met a tailor named Jan Tyranowski, who was to have a profound influence on his decision to join the priesthood. Tyranowski was a student of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila, the Spanish mystics who founded the Discalced Carmelites, and he encouraged a sense of mysticism he found in Wojtyla. In 1942, Wojtyla began studying for the priesthood. Because of strictures imposed by the occupation, this activity was carried on in secret in the residence of Prince Adam Stefan Sapieha, the archbishop of Krakow and Wojtyla's sponsor in the church. On Aug. 1, 1944, the Warsaw uprising against Nazi rule began. Fearing a similar outbreak in Krakow, the Nazis there began a roundup that netted an estimated 8,000 men and boys. Wojtyla escaped -- the Germans who searched the house where he was staying failed to look in the basement room where he was praying. He soon moved to the relative safety of the archbishop's residence, where he lived in secret. Wojtyla was ordained Nov. 1, 1946. He was sent to Angelicum University in Rome, where he wrote his thesis on Saint John of the Cross and received a doctorate in philosophy. He also earned a doctorate in theology at Jagiellonian University. When he returned to Poland in 1948, he became a deacon in the village of Niegowic and, the following year, assistant pastor of St. Florian's Church in Krakow. In 1953, he defended his thesis on the phenomenology of Max Scheler, a German philosopher, and was appointed a philosophy professor at a seminary in Krakow. The next year, he joined the faculty of Catholic University in Lublin. In 1958, he was named auxiliary bishop of Krakow, and in 1964, when the communist government lifted a ban on such appointments, he was promoted to archbishop. In 1967, Pope Paul VI made him a member of the College of Cardinals. On Sept. 28, 1978, Pope John Paul I, the former Cardinal Albino Luciani, died of a heart attack after serving only 34 days. Six days later, Wojtyla left Poland to join his fellow cardinals in Rome to choose a successor. On Oct. 16, after three days of deliberation in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and eight ballots, Wojtyla was elected the supreme pontiff. "It is God's will," he declared when the vote was announced. "I accept."
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| Pope’s legacy and February 17, 1981 and January 15, 1995 For 26 long years this extraordinary man has guided the Church with compassion and discipline, everywhere world leaders acknowledged his outstanding contribution to the advancement of justice and peace, racial harmony and unprecedented international reconciliation with the Jewish community. Pope John Paul II will be best remembered for taking strong stands on vital issues of morality, social justice and the right to life. He was the Pope who was a national hero in Poland, the land of his birth, because he challenged the oppressive and stifling rule of communism. He demanded freedom of religion, thought and speech and spoke on behalf of the victims of torture and oppression. He had a clear and unrelenting position against the war in Iraq and urged world leaders to act against genocide everywhere, and he supported the International Criminal Court. Without aggressive rhetoric, threats or invading armies he won freedom for millions of people in his native Poland and throughout the entire eastern block His words and actions paved the way for the fall of communism. He was very visible in his support for “Solidarity,” the nonviolent Polish freedom movement of workers and civil society, even more striking was the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall. John Paul II was a man who made history as few popes have ever done. Throughout the world he is remembered as the pilgrim Pope, he was the good shepherd who visited his flock in far-flung lands, kissed the ground in respect and humility. He was a man with a mission and that was to spread the love and salvation brought into the world by Jesus Christ. He modeled his life on Him and in the end refused to stop his work when advised to retire, “Did Jesus get down from the cross,” he asked only a few weeks ago when he could still communicate. He was the hero of the poor for speaking out against the oppressive dictatorships and oppressors of the poor. He may have been a harsh critic of communism but he was even more outspoken against liberal capitalism, a worse ideology driven by insatiable greed and the lust for power and economic and political empire building at the expense of the world’s poor. His visit to the Philippines in 1981 was perhaps the most striking example of his human touch and genuine concern to empower the downtrodden and stop dictators in their tracks.
Standing patiently waiting for some officials to arrive before reading his prepared speech. The world was amazed at just how simple a man he was. Who had ever seen a Pope on a street corner in the poorest part of town in the Philippines? In the past the popes never left the Vatican except sitting on a raised throne wearing a triple crown like earthly king. Not John Paul. He changed so much in his 26 years as leader of the Catholic Church. Coming down to the level of the poor was his ways. During his wait, police sirens heralded the arrival of the government dignitaries all of them in a panic, blushing with shame-late. Pope John Paul, as usual was calm collected and looked amused at the spectacle. The television world saw him as he smiled at the unpleasant necessity of greeting distasteful and corrupt politicians.
The world and the host country were overwhelmed. Imelda and the main press never made it to Tondo. Some media arrived after John Paul II had given his strongly worded speech calling for the dignity of the poor to be acknowledged by politicians. He said that the poor deserved their social and economic rights, as was their due and their rights had to be respected. Nor will Pope John Paul be forgotten his legacy will live on for many more years. The Pope is gone now. Part of our obligation now is to storm the Heavens on his behalf with our prayers. We can always add his name to our personal prayer lists; let us make it a personal favor as always a family favor amongst us. (Acknowledgement is given Fr. Stan Fortuna C.F.R. for his books, U Got 2 Believe! Also; I would like to thank Mngs. Ding and Letty O. for the gift they gave us for our anniversary about the Pope.) In friendship and in gratitude....Basho Fat Sumo
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Karol Josef Wojtyla was born May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, an industrial town near Krakow
in the shadow of the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland. His father, after
whom he was named, was a noncommissioned officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire -- which included his region of Poland until the end of World War
I -- and then in the Polish army. His mother, Emilia Kaczorowska, died
when he was a child. His older brother, Edmund, a medical student, died
of scarlet fever he contracted from a patient. 
