Pope John Paul II
John Paul II, born as Karol Jozef Wojtyla (pronounced Voy-tee-wah) in Wadowice, Poland on May 18, 1920. Pope since October 1978. He is the first Slavic pope in history and the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years (after Adrian VI in 1522). He has frequently travelled abroad (over 90 trips), more than any other pope before him.
An athlete, actor and playwright in his youth, Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest on November 1, 1946. He taught ethics at Kraków and Lublin universities. In 1958 he was named auxiliary bishop of Krakow and four years later he assumed leadership of the diocese with the title of vicar capitular. On December 30, 1963, He was named Archbishop of Kraków by Pope Paul VI.
Both as bishop and archbishop, Wojtyla participated in the Second Vatican Council, making contributions to the documents that would become the Decree on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), two of the most historic and influential products of the council.
In 1967 Pope Paul elevated him to cardinal. On October 16, 1978, at age 58, he was elected to succeed Pope John Paul I. He was the first Polish pope.
In 1981 he was shot at and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square to address a general audience. There have been unproven speculations that the assassination was ordered by the Soviet Union. Two days after Christmas in 1983, Pope John Paul went to the prison and met with his would-be assassin.
His 1998 encyclical, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), condemned both atheism and faith unsupported by reason and affirmed the place of reason and philosophy in religion.
He is considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to the ordination of women, and has been critical of liberation theology and those who call themselves Catholics while questioning the church's teachings on faith and morals. In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) he reasserted the church's condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment, calling them all part of the "Culture of Death" that pervades the modern world. His stands on capital punishment, world debt forgiveness, and poverty issues are considered liberal, demonstrating that labels like 'conservative' and 'liberal' do not ride easily on religious leaders.
- preceded by Pope John Paul I (1978)
Travel
- 1995 - Visit to United States - October 4-8
- 1996 - Visit to France - 19-22 September
- 1997 - Rio de Janeiro - 2-6 October
- 1998 - Visit to Cuba - January 21 to 25