PART I - Pope John Paul II's Legacy: Family and student life
Sandra Dimitrakopoulos, CTV.ca News
he most recognized man in the world had humble beginnings, coming of age during the time of the Nazis' oppressive grip on Polish life. A look at the formative years of Karol Jozef Wojtyla.
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"John Paul II - We love you." That chant has echoed through dozens of countries by millions of people for a man whose humble and hard beginnings led him to a life of service in the name of God.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920 in the Polish town of Wadowice, about 55 kilometres southwest of Krakow. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla, a retired army officer and tailor, and Emilia Kaczorowska, a former schoolteacher. Both were devout Catholics.
His mother, who was often sickly, would boast that her son, nicknamed "Lolek", would be great one day - and a priest. From her, the future Pope inherited a love of learning and at an early age he demonstrated an interest in poetry, theatre and religion.
From his father, he acquired his sense of discipline and hard work. He was also inspired by his father's deep commitment to religion, which would later contribute to his decision to choose a life within the church.
Wojtyla was extremely athletic as a child, and was an avid soccer player, kayaker, mountain climber and skier. However, his early years were also filled with tragedy and may have spurred him into deeper periods of introspection.
His mother died in 1929, just weeks before he turned nine. Three years later, his older brother, a medical student, died suddenly of scarlet fever. His father passed away in 1941, leaving him almost completely alone at the young age of 20. The family also lost an infant sister six years before he was born.
Before his father's death, and after his mother's, the two Karols became very close, sharing an apartment and sometimes a room. Karol senior devoted himself entirely to raising his son, doing all his sewing, cooking and washing. This is also when his father turned to the church even more for guidance. Later, as the pope, John Paul II remembered seeing his father pray every day.
"Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find my father on his knees, just as I would always see him kneeling in the parish church. We never spoke about a vocation to the priesthood, but his example was in a way my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary."
While Wojtyla was himself deeply religious, he rejected religion as a career choice, preferring Polish literature and languages, which he studied at the Jagiollonian University. He also developed an interest in theatre and worked with an experimental troupe known as Studio 38.
His world was turned upside down in 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland. The university was forced to close and Wojtyla took a job as a stonecutter in a quarry and later in a chemical plant to avoid being deported.
In February 1941, he suffered a devastating loss - his father. According to biographer George Weigel, a grief-stricken Wojtyla knelt at his father's side and prayed through the night on his knees.
"At 20 I had already lost all the people I loved," he later said.
It was after his father's death that Wojtyla turned more to his spiritual inclinations, and began to seriously consider his parents' wishes that he become a priest.
His choice was also affected by the Nazi occupation of Poland. Wojtyla was forced to witness many of his Jewish friends suffer, and even disappear, during this tumultuous era.
"Certainly in God's plan, nothing happens by chance," he wrote in 1996. "All I can say is that the tragedy of the war had its effect on my gradual choice of vocation."
He began studying at Krakow's underground seminary in 1942, while still working at the chemical factory. He also registered in the Faculty of Theology of the Jagellonian University. He would often secretly study and pray behind pipes or in the boiler room at work.
In 1944, the Nazis tightened their hold on Poland and began rounding up men. That's when the Archbishop of Krakow transferred Wojtyla and others studying secretly for the priesthood, to his own residence. He stopped going to work and remained at the residence until the war ended.
Wojtyla was ordained a priest on November 1, 1946 and celebrated his first Mass the next day.
Within two weeks, he left his native Poland to begin studies at the Angelicum University in Rome. He finished quickly, returning to Poland in 1949 to take up priestly duties as an assistant pastor in Krakow.
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