Miguel Augusto
The Universal Church celebrates on 22 October the feast of Pope St John Paul II. The Holy Father lived for and in Christ, giving himself to his neighbor entirely through the hands of the Virgin Mary, for whom he had a deep devotion, having dedicated to her his papal motto: Totus Tuus (All yours). He left a vast legacy and travelled tirelessly around the world to carry the message of the Gospel, a message of Hope, of Love and of God’s Mercy. When told to slow down his work and travel, he used to reply with a smile: “I will rest in Eternal Life.” St John Paul II was certainly one of the most outstanding figures of the 20th century.
Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland, on 18 May 1920. He was the third of three children born to Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska, who died in 1929. His elder brother Edmund, a physician, died in 1932, and his father, Karol, a non-commissioned officer in the army, died in 1941. He was nine years old when he received his First Communion and eighteen when he received the Sacrament of Confirmation. After completing high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in the Jagiellonian University of Krakow in 1938. When the occupying Nazi forces closed the University in 1939, Karol worked (1940-1944) in a quarry and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn a living and to avoid deportation to Germany.
Feeling called to the priesthood, he began his studies in 1942 in the clandestine major seminary of Krakow, directed by the Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha. During that time, he was one of the organizers of the “Rhapsodic Theater,” which was also clandestine.
After the war, Karol continued his studies in the major seminary, newly reopened, and in the school of theology at the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Krakow on 1 November 1946. Father Wojtyła was then sent by Cardinal Sapieha to Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in theology (1948). He wrote his dissertation on faith as understood in the works of St John of the Cross. He found in St John of the Cross a sure guide on the paths of faith. Wojtyla was attracted by the works of the saint and Carmelite spirituality; he apprehends Christianity mainly as an experience where God transforms life from within, in the gentleness of His presence.
In 1948, Father Wojtyła returned to Poland and was appointed a curate in the parish church of Niegowić, near Krakow, and later at Saint Florian in the city. He was a university chaplain until 1951, when he again undertook studies in philosophy and theology.
On 4 July 1958, Pope Pius XII appointed Father Wojtyła auxiliary bishop of Krakow, with the titular see of Ombi. Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak ordained him in Wawel Cathedral (Krakow) on 28 September (1958).
On 13 January 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Wojtyła as Archbishop of Krakow and subsequently, on 26 June 1967, created him a Cardinal. Soon after, he participated in the Second Vatican Council, during which he made an important contribution to the drafting of the Constitution Gaudium et spes.
The first Pole on the throne of Peter
With the untimely death of John Paul I, against all odds, Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope, on October 16, 1978: he was the first non-Italian Pope, after 455 years – since Adrian VI – the first Pole in history and also the first Pontiff of a Slav-speaking country. John Paul II spoke 11 languages and worked hard to build bridges between different nations and religions, in the name of ecumenism, a true lighthouse that guided him throughout his long Pontificate.
Pope John Paul II made 146 pastoral visits in Italy and, as the Bishop of Rome, he visited 317 Roman parishes. His international apostolic journeys numbered 104 and were expressions of the constant pastoral solicitude of the Successor of Peter for all the Churches.
On 13 May 1981, an attempt was made on Pope John Paul II’s life in Saint Peter’s Square. After a long hospitalization, he visited the terrorist in prison, Turkish Ali Agca, whom he had forgiven and with whom he had a long conversation.
As a sign of gratitude to the Mother of God, who saved him with her maternal hand, the Pope asked to place the bullet, with which he was hit, in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, since the attack occurred in her liturgical day.
His concern as a Pastor led him to create numerous dioceses and ecclesiastical circumscriptions; he promulgated Codes of Canon Law for the Latin and Eastern Churches, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. His principal documents include 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions and 45 Apostolic Letters. He also wrote five books: Crossing the Threshold of Hope (October 1994); Gift and Mystery: On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination (November 1996); Roman Triptych, meditations in poetry (March 2003); Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way (May 2004) and Memory and Identity (February 2005).
He proposed to the People of God moments of particular spiritual intensity: he called the Year of Redemption, the Marian Year, the Year of the Eucharist, as well as the Great Jubilee of 2000. He brought together the new generations with the institution of World Youth Day, the first of which took place in Rome, on March 31, 1985. Since then, the event has been held every two years, in different cities around the world.
In 2000 – Sunday, 30 April – Pope John Paul II canonized sister Mary Faustina Kowalska and, during the ceremony, declared that every year, on the second Sunday of Easter, the Sunday of Divine Mercy will be celebrated. The Holy Father said on that day: “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’” He later claimed that this was one of the happiest days of his life when he canonized the Polish nun from his native land.
Entry into eternity
John Paul II died in Rome, at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, on Saturday, April 2, 2005, at 9:37 pm, on the eve of the very feast which he had instituted – Divine Mercy Sunday. His pontificate was the third longest in history, after St Peter and that of Pius IX. His solemn funeral took place in St Peter’s Square, on April 8th, with an incredible participation of over a million people. On that day the crowd of faithful was already shouting, “Santo súbito!” – “A saint right away!”
John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011, by his immediate successor, Benedict XVI, and canonized by Pope Francis, on April 27, 2014.
Benedict XVI, in an interview given to Alessandro Gisotti, journalist for Vatican Radio, said of the Holy Father: “That John Paul II was a saint was increasingly clear to me.” He explains, “first of all, to naturally bear in mind his intense relationship with God, and his being immersed in communion with the Lord.”
John Paul II, he reiterated, “did not ask for applause, nor even looked around worried if his decisions had been accepted. He acted on the basis of his faith and his convictions and was ready to take the blows.” The “courage of the truth,” he continues, “is, in my eyes, a first order criterion of holiness. Only from his relationship with God is it possible to understand also his helpless pastoral commitment. He gave himself with a radicalism that cannot be explained in any other way.”
Eucharist, source of Holiness
As reported in the past by Acidigital agency, the Catholic writer Jason Evert, author of the book Saint John Paul II the Great: His five Loves, revealed that when talking to a priest close to St John Paul II, he was surprised by the frequency of the Polish saint’s visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Jason Evert recalled: “I asked a priest who was a friend of St John Paul II, how often did he visit the Eucharist daily?” The priest added: “The saint adored the Blessed Sacrament about twenty times a day.”
In Evert’s opinion, this makes it clear that “the source of the holiness of all saints has always been the same: Christ.” He added, “Both St Teresa of Lisieux, St Thomas Aquinas or John Paul II, all drank from the same source, which is Christ.”
Saint John Paul II, pray for us!
(NOTE: Much of the content of this memory of Saint John Paul II is sourced from Libreria Editrice Vaticana and Vatican News)
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