This Monday, May 18, 2020 is the centenary of the birth of Pope St. John Paul II, one of the greatest saints of our time and one of the most influential men of all time. (Read about John Paul II as the Spiritual Father of our Religious Family here).
The Church, and indeed the world, owe much to this “prophet of immense visions”. He was a pope unlike any other pope, a man whose identity was rooted in being a priest of Christ, a son of Mary, a father of the Church and a man in solidarity with the struggles, sufferings and concerns of the modern age.
“Man of Sorrows”
He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Is 53:3); this was part of the secret of what made such greatness, holiness and understanding of the human person. Karol Wojtyla (his baptismal name) lost his mother, brother and sister before the age of 12 and his father at the age of 21. He witnessed the Nazi occupation of his homeland, Poland. During that time, Karol worked as a manual laborer and entered the underground seminary, risking his life to follow his vocation. He was a witness to the intense suffering and violence of life in Poland during World War II and later under Communism.
“Conqueror of Communism”
Karol saw his beloved homeland, no longer in the grips of the Nazis, fall to the power of the Communist regime. He was ordained a bishop in Communist Poland and was a constant and outspoken support and leader of his people in resistance to the evil that threatened their freedom and dignity. He was tireless in his battle against Communism, and eventually, during his pontificate and due largely to his influence, it diminished and finally fell in Eastern Europe.
“Tsunami of Life, Truth and Love”
As a young priest, Fr. Wojtyla spent the first several years of his priesthood as pastoral assistant in a small parish and a professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin. His passions were youth and truth. During this time he was immersed in his work with young people – teaching, guiding, forming and loving them in the classroom, in the parish, on excursions in the mountains, in conversations and friendships. He left an impact on them, and they on him.
“Apostle to Young People and Families”
This impact was visible constantly through his life and especially in his pontificate. It bore fruit in his writing of Love and Responsibility and later Theology of the Body, his beginning the International World Youth Days (19 of them during his pontificate!) and of the World Meeting of Families, and his founding of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
Pope John Paul II at old Yankee Stadium, New York City, in October 1979
“First Global Missionary”
As the first Slavic Pope, John Paul II (the name he took as the Successor of Peter) was also the first Pope to travel internationally the way that he did! He made 104 international apostolic journeys to 129 countries. He was the first Pope to visit many countries including Japan, Korea, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Canada and many third world countries as well. He was the first modern Pope to go to Egypt, the first to visit the United Kingdom since the Protestant Reformation and the first to visit Greece after the Great Schism. He also proclaimed 1,338 blesseds and 482 saints, and he was the first modern pope to hear confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Metaphysician and Warrior, Poet and Singer”
From his early days, Karol Wojtyla was a poet, a writer, a thinker and a philosopher – he was a man in love with Truth. As a young man, he wrote poetry and plays (his play The Jeweler’s Shop [1960] is well known). As a priest and later as bishop and cardinal, he wrote, spoke and taught extensively in defense of the dignity of human life and sexuality (see above). He participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, making a significant contribution in drafting Gaudium et Spes (1965). He was also influential in Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae (1968). As Pope he wrote numerous Encyclicals, Apostolic Exhortations, Apostolic Constitutions, and Apostolic Letters; some of his most important and well known are: Redemptor Hominis (1979), Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), Evangelium Vitae (1995), Fides et Ratio (1998), Vita Consecrata (1996), Familiaris Consortio (1981).
“Formed by the Virgin Mary, Son of Mary”
As a young child, Karol took Mary as his mother when his own mother died. His devotion to Our Lady of Czestochowa was notable among all who knew him as a young man. It is said that when a young woman friend fell in love with him, friend they both had in common told her “she did not have a chance, because Karol was already wedded to the Madonna of Czestochowa” (as cited here).
As a manual laborer in a quarry and in a chemical factory, he carried with him always in his pocket a copy of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, following the Montfortian total consecration of himself to her. In fact, his motto as Bishop and as Pope. was Totus Tuus, taken from St. Louis de Montfort’s prayer to Our Lady and his Papal coat of arms was an “M” beneath a Cross (Mary at the foot of the Cross). He attributed to Mary the miraculous “failed” assassination attempt on his life on May 13, in 1983, the day of Our Lady of Fatima. A year later he fulfilled the wishes of Our Lady of Fatima by consecrating the entire world to her Immaculate Heart on March 25, 1984. He made a habit of consecrating countries to Our Lady when he visited them, including Mexico, Poland, Ireland, the United States, Zaire, Ghana, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines and all of Asia, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Argentina, Spain, Honduras and all of Central America, Haiti, France and Austria.
During his pontificate, he proclaimed a Marian Year (1987-88), he commissioned the only momument dedicated to Our Lady in St. Peter’s Square, he wrote a Marian Encyclical Redemptoris Mater (1987) and in 2002, in celebration of his 25th anniversary as Pope of Rome, he wrote an Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary) in which he gave to the Church the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. He is affectionately called “the Marian Pope”.
“Singer of Mercy”
John Paul II is also called “the Mercy Pope”. In 1980 he wrote his second encyclical about the mercy of God, Dives in Misericordia. God’s Mercy for the world was one of his messages as the Vicar of Christ. He proclaimed the great Jubilee Year of 2000 and during that year he canonized St. Maria Faustina Kowalska and established Divine Mercy Sunday as a feast for the Universal Church. The day he died, April 2, 2005 was the vigil of the Feast of Divine Mercy.
“Homeric Laborer, Burning Candle”
This monolithic figure worked tirelessly for the Church and humanity, spending himself until he had nothing left. If we continue to list his great contributions we would have to include: promulgating Codes of Canon Law for the Latin and the Oriental Churches; publishing the Catechism of the Catholic Church; proclaiming the Year of Redemption, the Year of the Eucharist; his unprecedented work of dialogue with many religions, especially Jews and Muslims; his work for unity with our Christian brethren; his efforts for peace in the world. The list continues.
“Navigator through the Storm”
St. John Paul the Great, truly deserving of the name, was a shepherd with the Heart of Christ. He brought the world and the Church into the third Millennium, steering Peter’s Bark through the storms of those years. We give thanks to God for the great gift of his Pontificate and we ask for his intercession to protect our Church and all humanity so that we may all one day celebrate the Eternal Joys of Heaven with him.
We turn to him now in these difficult days and ask for his intercession for all the world.
“The answer to the fear which darkens human existence at the end of the twentieth century is the common effort to build the civilization of love…. With the help of God’s grace, we can build in the next century and the next millennium a civilization worthy of the human person, a true culture of freedom. We can and must do so!”
— Pope John Paul II in his address to the United Nations, 1995
