SAINT: Pope St John Paul II – 22 October
By Catherine Sheehan
If one could summarise the ‘spirit’ of Pope St John Paul II’s papacy with just one quote, it would be his great cry of “Be not afraid!”
During his first homily as pope he said, “Be not afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power… Be not afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development.”
Of course, he was echoing the words of Christ who told his followers numerous times, “Do not be afraid!”
A study of John Paul II’s life, which spanned most of the 20th century, reveals the events that shaped this man and his indomitable faith and hope in Christ.
He was born Karol Józef Wojtyła on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. His mother Emilia died from a heart attack when he was only eight years-old, and not long after his older brother Edmund died from scarlet fever.
He moved to Kraków in 1938 with his father Karol, where he studied languages at the Jagiellonian University. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 the University was shut down and Karol was forced to work as a quarryman in a mine. In 1941 his father died of a heart attack leaving Karol completely alone in the world. He later recalled, “At twenty, I had already lost all the people I loved.”
In 1942 he entered the underground seminary run by the Archbishop of Kraków.
The Nazi occupation ended in 1945, and Poland then came under the rule of the Soviet Communist Party. A new era of brutal oppression ensued for the Polish people, who were still not free to practice their Catholic faith openly.
Karol was ordained a priest in 1946. He was made a bishop in 1958, and appointed Archbishop of Kraków in 1964. He took part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and in 1967 Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal.
On 16 October 1978, he was elected as the 264th pope at just 58 years of age.
John Paul II is credited with having made a significant contribution to the downfall of Communism in Eastern Europe.
During a homily given in Warsaw in 1979, he said, “Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude of geography. The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man.” The crowd of some 250,000 Poles, responded by chanting, “We want God! We want God!”
On 13 May 1981, a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Ağca, attempted to assassinate John Paul, shooting him in St Peter’s Square during a Papal Audience. The Pope later attributed his miraculous survival to Our Lady of Fatima whose feast day it was. He also visited the gunman in jail and forgave him.
Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005. At his funeral members of the crowd shouted, “Santo subito!” (“Sainthood now!”) He was canonised in 2014 and is patron saint of Poland, World Youth Days, young Catholics, and families.