Pope John Paul II

About Pope John Paul II

Karol Wojtyła, the Pole from Wadowice, was born in 1920. He lost his mother, his brother and his father before he was twenty-one. Under Nazi occupation he worked in a quarry and a chemical plant while studying for the priesthood in an underground seminary. He acted, wrote poetry and plays, and went on taking young people camping and skiing after he became a bishop.

Elected in 1978, he was the first non-Italian pope in four and a half centuries. He led the Church for almost twenty-seven years and made more than a hundred international trips, at a time when popes barely left Rome. He created World Youth Day. He played a recognised part in the fall of the Soviet bloc. He survived an assassination attempt in 1981 and went to visit the gunman in prison to forgive him in person.

His final years, marked by Parkinson's, he chose to live in public, without hiding the illness. He died in 2005 and was canonised in 2014. His feast is 22 October.

A message from John Paul II is sent at confirmations, graduations, young people's birthdays, and to anyone who grew up during his pontificate.

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