About the Author

Karol Józef Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his election to the papacy in October 1978, was born in the Polish town of Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Krakow, on the 18th of May 1920. After graduation from Marcin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Krakow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a drama school. The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany. In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Krakow. After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Krakow. He was ordained to the priesthood in Krakow on the 1st of November 1946. On the 4th of July 1958, he was appointed titular bishop of Ombi and auxiliary of Krakow by Pope Pius XII. On January 13th, 1964, he was appointed archbishop of Krakow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal on the 26th of June 1967. Besides taking part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) where he made an important contribution by drafting the Constitution Gaudium et spes, Cardinal Wojtyla participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops. He was elected Pope at the Conclave of the 16th of October 1978, and he took the name of John Paul II. He exercised the Petrine ministry with a tireless missionary spirit, dedicating it all his energy, driven by his pastoral solicitude for all Churches and by a sense of openness and charity to the entire human race. His love for young people brought him to establish the World Youth Days (WYD) in 1985. He departed this world for the Father on the 2nd of April 2005. Probably inspired by millions of calls of "Santo Subito!" ("[Make him a] Saint Immediately!"), proclaimed by the crowd gathered during the funeral Mass, the Holy Father Benedict XVI announced on the 28th of April 2005, that the normal five-year waiting period before beginning the cause of beatification and canonization would be waived for John Paul II. On the 27th of April 2014, Divine Mercy Sunday, only nine years after his death, John Paul II was officially proclaimed Saint by Pope Francis who, two weeks earlier, on Palm Sunday, made him the Patron Saint of the World Youth Days.