Pope John Paul II

Who is Pope John Paul II?

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland, and survived the Nazi occupation of his homeland before being ordained a priest in 1946 and later becoming Archbishop of Kraków. In 1978 he was elected Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in over four centuries and the first Polish pope in history. Over his 27-year pontificate, one of the longest in papal history, he traveled to more than 100 countries, played a significant behind-the-scenes role in the peaceful collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, and issued influential encyclicals on Catholic social teaching, moral theology, and human dignity, including Centesimus Annus and Evangelium Vitae. He survived an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square in 1981 and later publicly forgave his would-be assassin. Known for his charisma, his outreach to youth through the World Youth Day gatherings he founded, and his interfaith dialogue with Jewish and Muslim leaders, he became one of the most globally recognized religious figures of the twentieth century. He died in April 2005 and was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in 2014.

Sources: Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, encyclical (1991) · Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Inauguration of the Pontificate (22 October 1978) · George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999)