Pope Saint John Paul II
Pope Saint John Paul II is the only Pole to date to have led the Roman Catholic Church. He was born Karol Józef Wojtyła in Wadowice on May 18, 1920. He was enrolled at Kraków’s Jagiellonian University in 1939, the same year the German army invaded Poland. Wojtyła began his studies for the priesthood in a clandestine seminary organized by the Archbishop of Kraków. He was ordained on All Saints Day, November 1, 1946. His experiences living under Nazi occupation, and then under a communist regime, made him a lifelong exponent of human dignity. In 1958, Pius XII appointed Wojtyła auxiliary bishop. In 1967, Pope Paul VI appointed him cardinal. In 1978, following the death of John Paul I (after 33 days in office), Cardinal Wojtyła was elected the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and took the name John Paul II. Visiting San Antonio in September 1987, during one of his five journeys to the United States, he met privately with parishioners from Panna Maria and representatives of Texas’ Polish communities. The high esteem he enjoyed among Polish people around the world was more than ethnic pride: John Paul II’s example is credited with giving spiritual authority to the democratic movements that helped end communist rule in Poland and elsewhere. Soon after his death in 2005, he was called John Paul the Great, a rare distinction. He was canonized on April 27, 2014.
