FROM WADOWICE TO THE VATICAN: JOURNEY OF JOHN PAUL

By George Plathottam sdb

 [one of two tributes by GP; together they offer a fine appreciation of the late Pope, and may be used in whole or part by whoever so chooses]

GUWAHTI: 3rd April 2005 --  A hundred years ago Wadowice with its 8000 or so inhabitants, was a little town in Poland. The most important historical monument of the town, one which dates back to 1327, is the parish church dedicated to the Mother of God. Alongside the church is a 180-year old two-storey house.  Karol Wojtyla (pronounced Woi-tee-wa) was born in this house on May 19, 1920. Little did the people of the town then realize that one of their sons, the little Karol, would one day assume the leadership of over one billion Catholics all over the world as Successor of Peter and Bishop of Rome.

Karol’s father, Karol Senior, was an officer  in the Polish army, his mother Emilia, a  former school teacher. Lolek, as Karol was called, was baptized in his parish church, a place to which he would  return at almost every important event in his life. Lolek entered the primary school in Wadowice.

Lolek lost his mother in 1929, when he was only nine years old. Three years later he lost his only brother Edmund, a medical doctor.  The two Karols, father and son, were left alone. Karol Senior was a kind-hearted man and a loving father with keen intellectual interests. He had to struggle to make both ends meet on a paltry pension. In 1931, Lolek moved to the high school where he excelled in studies, sports, music and acting. 

In 1938 the two Karols moved to Krakow, the cultural centre of Poland. Lolek entered the renowned Jagiellonian University. Here he developed great interest in Polish language, literature, theatre and drama.  But a year later Hitler invaded Poland. The Nazis overran the country, closed the university and arrested many of its staff and students.

Karol went to work at a quarry belonging to the Solvay Chemical Works outside Krakow. He continued his studies in secret and also played an active role in an underground theatre group, which raised the voice of patriotic protest. In 1942, he father died, leaving him all alone.

Lolek received a promotion in his company. Though he disliked the work at Solvay, he was very attached to his fellow-workers. Soon he emerged as their leader and chief spokesperson, and fought to improve their working conditions. The months in the stone quarry opened his eyes  to truths which  became part of his personal philosophy. His immense compassion, sensitivity to human dignity, respect for manual labour were shaped at the quarry.

In the summer of 1944, the Polish resistance  gained momentum, but  it was ruthlessly   suppressed by Hitler. Many of the historic buildings were leveled to the ground.  Fortunately most of Krakow’s buildings survived the Nazi terror. But the people were not spared. On August  6, the Gestapo and SS units fanned through the city and rounded up every male  between the age of 15 and 55, and shot them. They passed by 10 Tyniecka Street without entering. Behind the closed but unlocked door Karol Wojtyla was kneeling in prayer.

Soon Karol  exchanged his lime-whitened clothes for a  black cassock. Two years prior to that he had shifted his secret studies from language to theology. Poland witnessed the end of German occupation but saw the Russian liberation which continued to be hostile to  the church. On November 1, 1946, Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest. He was 26. Sensing his  exceptional abilities, his archbishop sent him to Rome for further studies.  In 1947, he went to France to assist the Polish refugees, and  on his return to Poland worked as pastor in a village near Krakow. He soon won the hearts of his faithful with his kindness and generosity.

In 1958, Fr. Karol was appointed bishop, and at 38, he was the youngest bishop in Poland. He was canoeing in the Masurian Lakes with a group of youth when  the news of his appointment came. Bishop Wojtyla played a vital role in some of the important documents of the Second Vatican Council which brought about sweeping changes in the Catholic church.  1964, he became the Archbishop of Krakow. Three years later he was elevated to the rank of a Cardinal. But  Wojtyla continued to lead a simple and unassuming life. Catholics in his country  affectionately called him “the Worker Cardinal”.

In 1939 Hitler ordered Hans Frank, his Governor General in Poland, to see that ‘priests preach what we want them to preach; and if any one of them acts differently we will make short work of him; the task of  a priest is to keep the Poles quiet, stupid and  dull-witted.”   The life and vocation of  Karol  Wojtyla was a rebuttal of that order.  As an old priest in his hometown of Wadowice mused: “ They tried to wipe Poland off the face of the earth. Yet now Hitler is dead, Nazis are no more, and the despised Poland was able to give a Pope to the world.”

A Pope from a Far Country

On Monday afternoon of 16 October 1978, the makeshift chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican began to pour out white smoke. The three-hundred thousand people gathered in the St. Peter’s Square listened with rapt attention to the words of Cardinal Pericle Felici: “Habemus Papam… We have a Pope”. The church had not only a new Pope; it had a new kind of Pope. The first Slav Pope, the first non-Italian since Pope Adrain VI, a Dutchman 540 years ago.

A few days later Fr. Edward Zacher, the 78-yaer old parish priest of  Wadowice opened page 549 of the baptism register  for the years 1917-1927. Beside the baptism record of  Karol Jozef Wojtyla, Fr. Zacher wrote: “ On 16 October A.D. 1978 he was elected to the See of Peter, assuming the name John Paul.”

For the past 26 years the world was able to  witness the extraordinary  qualities of this Pope -  his powerful convictions, his oratorical skills, his human warmth, his compassion for the needy, his simplicity and easy manners,  which made him  approachable and spontaneous.

When Vittorina Janni,22-year old daughter of a street cleaner, asked the Pope if he could officiate at her wedding with Mario Maltese, a  24- year old installer of burglar alarms, John Paul II quickly agreed. He blessed their marriage in the ornately frescoed Pauline Chapel in the Vatican.

John Paul II traveled to every corner of the world  driven by a desire to meet people, to communicate the  truth of the Gospel. He has consistently spoken out against wars, abortion, exploitation of workers, totalitarian regimes. He was a powerful champion of the poor and resolutely denounced war and conflict. He proclaimed  peace, courage, hope and the need for a globalisation rooted in solidarity. For the past 26 years as Pope, he consistently, fearlessly defended the dignity of the human person.  

His teachings and his example arose from his deep faith in god and humanity. People who met the Pope or listened to him have been moved by his personality. As someone rightly said: “One expected to meet the Pope, but met a brother and friend in him.” What was said of Christ seemed to have been fulfilled in his representative, the Pope: “Why, the whole world has gone after him.” (Jn.12:19).

Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury once summed up the essential qualities that marked John Paul II. He described John Paul as a man who is warm, strong and joyful - three essential characteristics of Christianity.

Catholics and many others all over the world familiar with his face, his voice will now miss him.  But the legacy of  this great Pope John Paul II will live for a long time to come.