Biography of John Paul II
On May 1, John Paul II will be beatified by his successor His Holiness Benedict XVI. Karol Jozef Wojtyła's official biography will be read in the petition for his beatification. The reading will go from his birth on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice (Poland) to the moment God called him to his side on April 2, 2005.
Here we leave you the official Biography of John Paul II:
"Karol Jozef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice (Poland), on May 18, 1920. He was the second of the two children of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska, who died in 1929. His older brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father, an Army NCO, in 1941.
At the age of nine she received her First Communion and at eighteen she received the sacrament of Confirmation. After completing his studies at Wadowice Middle School, in 1938 he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
When the Nazi occupation forces closed the University in 1939, the young Karol worked (1940-1944) in a quarry and in a chemical factory in Solvay in order to support himself and avoid deportation to Germany.
Feeling the call to the priesthood, from 1942 he followed the formation courses in the clandestine major seminary of Krakow, directed by Cardinal Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha. At the same time, he was one of the promoters of the "Rhapsodic Theater", also clandestine.
After the war, he continued his studies at the newly opened major seminary in Krakow and at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination, which took place in Krakow on November 1, 1946. He was then sent by Cardinal Sapieha to Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in theology (1948) with a thesis on the theme of faith in the works of Saint John of the Cross. During this period – during the holidays – he exercised the pastoral ministry among the Polish emigrants in France, Belgium and Holland.
In 1948, he returned to Poland and was curate, first, in the Niegowić parish, on the outskirts of Krakow, and then in that of Saint Florián, in the city, where he was also chaplain of the university students until 1951, when he resumed his studies. philosophical and theological. In 1953, he presented a thesis at the Catholic University of Lublin on the possibility of basing a Christian ethic on the ethical system of Max Scheler. Later, he was professor of Moral Theology and Ethics at the major seminary in Krakow and at the Faculty of Theology in Lublin.
On July 4, 1958, Pope Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow and Titular of Ombi. He received episcopal ordination on September 28, 1958, in the Wawel Cathedral (Krakow), from Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak.
On January 13, 1964, he was appointed Archbishop of Krakow by Paul VI, who created him a Cardinal on June 26, 1967.
He participated in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) giving an important contribution to the elaboration of the constitution Gaudium et spes. Cardinal Wojtyła also participated in the five assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, prior to his pontificate.
He was elected successor of Saint Peter, with the name of John Paul II, on October 16, 1978, and on October 22 he began his ministry as Universal Pastor of the Church.
Pope John Paul II made 146 pastoral visits to Italy and, as Bishop of Rome, visited 317 of the current 332 Roman parishes. There have been 104 apostolic trips around the world – an expression of the constant pastoral concern of the Successor of Peter for all the Churches.
Among its main documents are 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions and 45 Apostolic Letters. Five books are also attributed to Pope John Paul II: “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” (October 1994); "Gift and mystery: on the fiftieth anniversary of my priesthood" (November 1996); “Roman Triptych”, meditations in the form of poetry (March 2003); "Get up, come on!" (May 2004) and “Memory and Identity” (February 2005).
Pope John Paul celebrated 147 beatification rites –in which he proclaimed 1,338 blessed– and 51 canonizations, with a total of 482 saints. He had 9 consistories, in which he created 231 (+ 1 in pectore) cardinals. He also presided over 6 plenary meetings of the College of Cardinals.
Since 1978, I convene 15 assemblies of the Synod of Bishops: 6 ordinary general assemblies (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994 and 2001), 1 extraordinary general assembly (1985) and 8 special assemblies (1980, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997 , 1998 and 1999).
On May 13, 1981, he suffered a serious attack in Saint Peter's Square. Saved by the maternal hand of the Mother of God, after a long hospitalization and convalescence, I forgive his aggressor and, aware of having received a new life, I intensify his pastoral commitments with heroic generosity.
Indeed, his concern as Pastor also found expression in the erection of numerous dioceses and ecclesiastical circumscriptions, in the promulgation of the Codes of Latin canon law and of the Eastern churches, in the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Proposing to the People of God moments of particular spiritual intensity, he convoked the Year of Redemption, the Marian Year and the Year of the Eucharist, in addition to the Great Jubilee of 2000. He approached the new generations with the celebrations of the World Day of the Youth.
No other Pope has met as many people as John Paul II: more than 17.5 million pilgrims have participated in the Wednesday General Audiences (more than 1,160), not counting all the other special audiences and religious ceremonies (more than 8 million pilgrims alone during the Great Jubilee of the year 2000), and the millions of faithful he met during his pastoral visits in Italy and in the world; There were also numerous political personalities received in audience: the 38 official visits and the 738 audiences or meetings with Heads of State, and even the 246 audiences with Prime Ministers, can be recalled by way of example.
He died in Rome, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, on Saturday, April 2, 2005 at 9:37 p.m., on the eve of Sunday in Albis and Divine Mercy, the latter instituted by him. The solemn funeral in St. Peter's Square and his burial in the Vatican Grottoes were held on April 8.
He is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, on Sunday, May 1, 2011, the second Sunday of Easter, the day of Divine Mercy, in Saint Peter's Square in Rome."