Pope John Paul II

Life events

1. Born — 1920

   Karol Józef Wojtyła was born on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice, a town in southern Poland, the youngest child of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died of heart failure and kidney disease in 1929 when he was eight; his father died in 1941, leaving him an orphan at twenty.

2. Educated — 1938

   In mid-1938, Wojtyła enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków to study philology and languages, acquiring as many as 15 languages during this period. After Nazi Germany closed the university in 1939, he undertook clandestine seminary studies under Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha to avoid deportation to German forced labour camps.

3. Ordained — 1946

   Wojtyła was ordained a priest on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1946, by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, Archbishop of Kraków. Sapieha immediately sent him to the Pontifical Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome, where he defended a doctoral thesis on the theology of John of the Cross on 19 June 1948.

4. Consecrated — 1958

   On 28 September 1958, Wojtyła received episcopal consecration as titular bishop of Ombi and auxiliary bishop of Kraków, with Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak as principal consecrator, becoming the youngest bishop in Poland at 38. Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków on 13 January 1964 and raised him to the College of Cardinals on 26 June 1967.

5. Council — 1962

   From October 1962, Wojtyła took part in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, contributing to drafts of the Decree on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis humanae) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes). His Polish delegation's draft text had measurable influence on the final form of Gaudium et spes.

6. Other — 1978

   Wojtyła was elected Bishop of Rome on the eighth ballot of the October 1978 conclave, becoming the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the sixteenth century and the youngest pope since Pius IX. He took the name John Paul II in tribute to his predecessor, who had reigned only 33 days, and received papal inauguration on 22 October 1978.

7. Pilgrimage — 1979

   In June 1979, John Paul II returned to Poland as pope, drawing millions around the repeated message 'Do not be afraid.' Lech Wałęsa and other leaders of the Solidarity movement credited the visit with catalysing the union's formation in 1980, which in turn contributed to the collapse of Communist rule across Eastern Europe by 1989–1991.

8. Died — 2005

   John Paul II died at 21:37 CEST on 2 April 2005 of heart failure following septic shock, with tens of thousands keeping vigil in St. Peter's Square during his final days. His last words in Polish were 'Pozwólcie mi odejść do domu Ojca' ('Allow me to depart to the house of the Father'). He was canonised by Pope Francis on 27 April 2014.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Wojtyła acquired as many as 15 languages during his studies, including Polish, Latin, Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Dutch, Ukrainian, and Esperanto, nine of which he used extensively as pope. (likely)
• During his 26-year pontificate, John Paul II visited 129 countries, travelling more than 1,100,000 kilometres — making him one of the most-travelled world leaders in recorded history. (certain)
• John Paul II beatified 1,344 people and canonised 483 saints during his pontificate — more than the combined total of his predecessors in the preceding five centuries. (certain)
• On 25 January 1983, John Paul II promulgated the revised Code of Canon Law — the first comprehensive revision since the 1917 Pio-Benedictine code — followed in 1990 by the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches and in 1992 by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the first universal catechism since the Roman Catechism of 1566. (certain)
• On 6 May 2001, John Paul II became the first Catholic pope to enter and pray in a mosque, visiting the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus — a former Byzantine church where John the Baptist is believed to be interred — and calling for Muslims, Christians, and Jews to live together. (certain)