John Paul II (1920 - 2005), born Karol Józef Wojtyła, was a Polish priest, philosopher and poet who served as head of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death. The first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries, he travelled more widely than any of his predecessors, played a significant part in the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, and upheld traditional Catholic teaching on sexual ethics and church authority. [1][2]
Early life and education
Karol Wojtyła was born on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice, in southern Poland. His mother died when he was eight and his elder brother and father in the following years, leaving him alone by the age of twenty. He studied Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and acted in an experimental theatre group. [1]
After the German occupation closed the university he worked in a quarry and a chemical plant while studying in a clandestine seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1946 and took doctorates in theology and philosophy, later teaching ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin, where he developed a phenomenological approach to moral philosophy set out in The Acting Person. [3]
Bishop and cardinal
Wojtyła was appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, archbishop in 1964 and cardinal in 1967. He took an active part in the Second Vatican Council, contributing to its declaration on religious liberty, and as archbishop he negotiated persistently with the communist authorities over the rights of the church in Poland. [2]
Election and pontificate
Following the death of John Paul I after a pontificate of thirty-three days, Wojtyła was elected pope on 16 October 1978, taking the name John Paul II. He was the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian since the sixteenth century. [1]
His visit to Poland in June 1979 drew enormous crowds and is widely regarded as a catalyst for the emergence of the Solidarity trade union the following year and, in the longer run, for the unravelling of communist rule in the region. [4]
On 13 May 1981 he was shot and seriously wounded in St Peter's Square by the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca. He recovered and later visited his attacker in prison, an act that became one of the defining images of his pontificate. [1]
Teaching and travel
John Paul II undertook more than a hundred foreign journeys, visiting some 129 countries, and instituted World Youth Day as a recurring international gathering. He published fourteen encyclicals, among them Redemptor Hominis, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae and Fides et Ratio, and oversaw the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992 and a revised Code of Canon Law. [3]
He restated the church's opposition to contraception, abortion, euthanasia and the ordination of women, and disciplined theologians who dissented, while also criticising unrestrained capitalism, the arms race and the death penalty. In the Jubilee year 2000 he issued a public apology for historical wrongs committed by members of the church, visited the synagogue of Rome and Yad Vashem, and advanced relations with Judaism and Islam. [2]
Criticism
The handling of clerical sexual abuse during his pontificate has been widely criticised, in particular the slowness of the Vatican response and its treatment of accusations against senior figures, including the founder of the Legion of Christ. [1]
Death and legacy
His health declined through the 1990s with Parkinson's disease, and he died at the Apostolic Palace on 2 April 2005. His funeral drew one of the largest gatherings of heads of state in modern history. He was beatified in 2011 and canonised by Pope Francis in 2014. [2]
