John Paul II

I

Introduction

John Paul II (1920-2005), pope (1978-2005), the first non-Italian pope since 1523, whose energetic, active approach to his office, unprecedented world travel, and firm religious conservatism enhanced the importance of the papacy in both the Roman Catholic Church and the non-Catholic world.

Born Karol Wojtyła on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, he studied poetry and drama at the University of Kraków. During World War II he worked in a stone quarry and in a chemical factory while preparing for the priesthood. Ordained in 1946, he earned a Ph.D. degree at Rome's Angelicum Institute and a doctorate in theology at the Catholic University of Lublin. Until he became auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, he was a university chaplain and taught ethics at Kraków and Lublin. His philosophical approach, which integrated the methods and insights of phenomenology with Thomistic philosophy, owed much to the 20th-century German thinker Max Scheler.

In 1964 Wojtyła became archbishop of Kraków, and, in 1967, a cardinal. An active participant in the Second Vatican Council, he also represented Poland in five international bishops' synods between 1967 and 1977. He was elected pope on October 16, 1978, succeeding John Paul I. On May 13, 1981, he was shot at close range and severely wounded in an assassination attempt as he entered St Peter's Square in the Vatican, but he recovered fully.

II

Papacy

As pope, he made more than 100 foreign journeys, including visits to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. He influenced the restoration of democracy and religious freedom throughout Eastern Europe, especially in his native Poland. Dealing forcefully with dissent within the Church, he reaffirmed Roman Catholic teachings against homosexual practice, abortion, and “artificial” methods of human reproduction and birth control, and in favour of priestly celibacy. In this context he made in 1994 controversial moves towards alliance with conservative Muslim leaders in an effort to influence the texts issued by the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. His bestselling book Crossing the Threshold of Hope (1994) developed and reiterated many of the stances that typified his papacy. John Paul persistently drew huge crowds to rallies and Masses during his visits, in which he spoke out against poverty, corruption, racism, capital punishment, drug trafficking, and euthanasia. He also welcomed many world leaders to the Vatican, most notably in 1999, when he met with Sayeed Mohammad Khatami, the Iranian president and leader of the Organization of the Islamic Conference—an unprecedented meeting between a pope and the leader of an Islamic state.

John Paul II resisted secularization in the Church. In redefining the responsibilities of laity, priests, and religious orders, he rejected the ordination of women and opposed direct political participation and office-holding by priests. His initial ecumenical moves were towards Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism rather than towards Western Protestantism. He became the first pope to visit a primarily Orthodox Christian country when he made a trip to Romania in May 1999, 945 years after the Great Schism.

Continuing his travels despite increasing physical frailty, John Paul visited India and Georgia late in 1999. These trips were followed by another remarkable journey. To commemorate the Millennium, the pope made a “Jubilee Pilgrimage” to Mount Sinai in Egypt and to holy sites in Jordan and Israel early in 2000, the first visit to the region since that of Pope Paul VI in 1964. Diplomatic relations between Israel and the Vatican had been established in 1994. John Paul visited Bethlehem, in the Palestinian-administered West Bank, and Jerusalem, and met with Israeli President Ezer Weizman and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, as well as Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Orthodox leaders. He spoke of the need to persist in efforts to bring peace to the area, and emphasized the importance of interreligious harmony. In a symbolic gesture, he made a visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

In another symbolic act in the Millennium year, John Paul II issued an unprecedented apology for the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church; he divided the sins of the past 2,000 years of Church history into seven categories: general sins; sins in the service of truth (including the violence of the Crusades and Inquisition); sins against Christian unity; sins against the Jews; sins against respect for love, peace, and cultures; sins against the dignity of women and minorities; and sins against human rights.

During his pontificate, John Paul canonized more individuals than any other pope. His choices were often controversial, and included a number of Chinese martyrs, leading to strong criticism by the Chinese government, the Jewish-born Holocaust victim Edith Stein, and Josémaría Escrivá de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, widely regarded as an ultra-conservative and secretive movement. John Paul’s creation in February 2001 of 42 new cardinals, predominantly conservative in outlook, who joined the College of Cardinals responsible for appointing his successor, was widely thought to indicate his determination to ensure the continuation of the firmly conservative theological stance that characterized his pontificate; a further 31 new cardinals were created in 2003. John Paul’s failing health—it was confirmed early in 2001 that he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease—led to speculation regarding his possible successor. Nevertheless, he made a historic visit to Syria in May 2001 as part of his “Jubilee Pilgrimage', during which he made another dramatic gesture of religious reconciliation by becoming the first pope to pray in a mosque, and visits to the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Armenia followed later in the year. In response to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing bombing of Afghanistan, John Paul invited representatives of the world's religions to a day of prayer for peace on January 24, 2002, at Assisi.

John Paul’s health continued to decline and his increasing frailty became apparent with his absence from the traditional Ash Wednesday and Good Friday services in February and March 2005. He died on April 2, 2005 in his private apartment at the Vatican. Following the announcement of his death, hundreds of thousands of mourners visited St Peter's Square to attend requiem masses and pay homage.

III

Writings

John Paul published poetry and, under the pseudonym Andrzej Jawien, a play, The Jeweller's Shop (1960). His extensive ethical and theological writings include Fruitful and Responsible Love and Sign of Contradiction, both published in 1979. His first encyclical letter, Redemptor Hominis (1979; “Redeemer of Man”), probed the connection between redemption by Christ and human dignity. Subsequent encyclicals dealt with the power of mercy in human life (1980), the importance of work as a “way of sanctification” (1981), the position of the Church in Eastern Europe (1985), the fallacies of Marxism, materialism, and atheism (1986), the role of the Virgin Mary as a source of Christian unity (1987), the destructive effects of superpower rivalry (1988), the need to reconcile capitalism with social justice (1991), and an argument against moral relativism (1993). In October 1998, the 20th anniversary of his papacy, John Paul released his 13th papal encyclical, Fides et Ratio (“Faith and Reason”). The encyclical, which took 12 years to complete, examines the struggle between religious belief and secular thought, and argues for “a clear and honest collaboration between Christians” and those of other beliefs in the face of global issues such as ecological problems and the co-existence of different races and cultures.