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From Wadowice to the Vatican… Habemus Papam! They say there is no place like home. Many years have passed since I left Wadowice. However, I always return to this town with the feeling that I am welcome here like at my own family home.
Transcript

From Wadowice to the Vatican…

HabemusPapam!

They say there is no place like home. Many years have passed since I left Wadowice. However, I always return to this town with the feeling that I am welcome here like at my own family home.

… I was born [18th May 1920] … at the time when the Bolsheviks marched towards Warszawa. Poland was severely threatened. It was then that I was born, and it was then they christened me with this … name which I have carried with me throughout my entire life … My name is Karol.

[Mother] … wanted to have two sons, a doctor and a priest; my brother was a doctor, and I, after all, became a priest. I never knew my sister, who had died soon after birth several years before I came into the world..

My brother Edmund died at the threshold of his professional career. He was still a young doctor and contracted a severe case of scarlet fever, which at that time (1932) was often a fatal infection as antibiotics were not known yet.

Above all, my boyhood and adolescent years were linked to the figure of my Father, whose spiritual life exceedingly deepened after the loss of his wife and oldest son. … Looking at him I learnt that you must put demands on yourself and make every effort to fulfil your obligations.

That Father of mine, whom I consider an outstanding man, died – almost suddenly – during the Second World War occupation before I turned twenty-one.

My name is Karol

Emilia and Karol Wojtyła Sr on their wedding day, 1906, Photo: Archives of the Holy Father John Paul II Family Home Museum in Wadowice

Edmund Wojtyła, brother of Karol Wojtyła Jr, before 1932, Photo: Archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Kraków

Karol Wojtyła Jr, ca. 1921, Photo: Archivi Farabola/East News

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… although normally you do not remember the first years of your life too well, I have a clear image of the Nazareth Convent of Wadowice and the Sisters of Nazareth. … When they saw us, a small group of several boys hanging about in the streets in the middle of the town, they began inviting us to their place which was at that time commonly called the ‘nursery’. So then, during the holidays, I ended up at that Nazarene nursery.

In my mind and my heart, I also recall my male and female peers and friends from both primary school, and perhaps even more so, from secondary school because this lasted longer. I still belonged to that generation who went to an eight-year Gymnasium.

When I attended Gymnasium

Karol Wojtyła in the 1st class of Gymnasium, Wadowice, ca. 1930, Photo: Archivi Farabola/East News

At that time, this Gymnasium, named after Marcin Wadowita, which later merged with a gymnasium for females named after Michalina Mościcka, became a school that served a very large area. … I also remember that the old Wadowice Gymnasium, which was among the oldest in this region of Poland, had the merit of celebrating its centenary the same year as the 1,000th anniversary of the Christening of Poland.

When I attended Gymnasium, Prince Adam Stefan Sapieha, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, visited our parish in Wadowice. My catechist, Father Edward Zacher, charged me with the task of welcoming the Prince … I also know, that after my speech the Archbishop asked my catechist which field of study I intended to pursue. Father Zacher answered, ‘He is going to study Polish philology’. To which the Archbishop purportedly replied, ‘I wish it were theology’.

Karol Wojtyła in the final class of Primary School, Wadowice, 1930, Photo: Archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Kraków

Karol Wojtyła in the 8th (last) class of Gymnasium, Wadowice, 1938, Photo: East News

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I had many female and male friends at school, I was engaged with work at the school’s amateur theatre, but it was not that which captured my full attention. What seemed of crucial importance to me during that period was my love for dramatic literature and theatre.After school we would go to ‘Sokół’ to practice gymnastics. We would also go to there for performances. … and on the Wadowice stage we could choose from the greatest classical works.

As you are today, I was once 20 years old. I enjoyed sports, skiing and the theatre. I studied and worked. I had my desires and concerns. It was then, so many years ago, when the war and the totalitarian regime that followed, kept devastating my Motherland, that I wanted to give meaning to my life, and I searched for this meaning of life and discovered it by following the Lord Jesus.

As you are today, I was once 20 years old

Danuta Pukło’s memory book with Karol Wojtyła’s entry, Wadowice, 1938, Photo: Archives of the Town Office of Wadowice

Karol Wojtyła as Prince Joseph in the play Prince Joseph’s Uhlans. On the left Halina Królikiewicz-Kwiatkowska, on the right Danuta Pukło, Wadowice, ca. 1936, Photo: Archives of Halina Królikiewicz-Kwiatkowska

There are such holy bright days – the soul to nuptials goes bright dreaming wrapped in braids of bliss and imagines that until the final moment of life it will never more leave the golden snare – for it is dreaming in bright braids of bliss. And then… There will come black moments of torment, fear There will come in life crossroads, stolons And will stand as a pole and rime frost in autumn And afflict the soul… – but even these will change…

Karol Wojtyła, 25/05/1938 Entry in the memory book of Danuta Pukło, a colleague from the Drama Club (Gymnastic Society ‘Sokół’ – ‘Falkon’).

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In May 1938 I passed the final exam (‘matura’ exam) and applied to [the Jagiellonian] University, to study Polish philology. For this reason, my father and I moved from Wadowice to Kraków and took up residence in a house at no. 10 Tyniecka Street, in the district of Dębniki.

The outbreak of the war changed my life situation in quite a fundamental way. … My studies were interrupted at the beginning of the second year, and soon I began to work at a quarry together with some of my fellow students.

It became clear to me that Christ was calling me to priesthood. However, it was not clear to me yet, at the time of passing my final school exams – it gradually became clear in the period between the death of my Father (February 1941) and the autumn of 1942.

My seminary preparation for the priesthood had been, somehow already anticipated and preceded beforehand. In a certain sense it was my parents in my family home, and especially my Father, who contributed to this…. Occasionally I would wake at night and find my Father down on his knees, the same way I always saw him in the parish church – on his knees. We never talked about a priestly vocation but my father’s example was like having my first seminar at home.

We never talked about a priestly vocation

Karol Wojtyła as a Polish philology student with his father’s stepsister, Stefania, Kraków, ca. 1938, Photo: Archivi Farabola/East News

Karol Wojtyła as a worker at Solvay, Kraków, ca. 1941/1942, Photo: Laski Diffusion/East News

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… early in the morning on All Saints’ Day, I reported to the residence of the archbishops of Kraków at number 3 Franciszkańska Street in order to receive my priestly ordination. This ceremony was attended by a small group of my relatives and friends.

At the end of November [1946] it was time for me to leave for Rome. … For the first time I found myself outside my Motherland.When I returned to Kraków, I found my first work assignment at the Metropolitan Curia. … First, I had found out how to get to Niegowić, and I went there on the appointed day. … After a year I was transferred to the St. Florian parish in Kraków.

For the first time I found myself outside my Motherland

Karol Wojtyła as the vicar of the parish in Niegowić, ca. 1948, Photo: Laski Diffusion/East News

Karol Wojtyła with an altar boy in front of the vicarage in the parish of St. Florian in Kraków, 1951, Photo: Laski Diffusion/East News

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During the holidays of 1951, after two years of work in the parish of St. Florian, Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak… assigned me to do research work.

… I was expected to deal with academic matters as a lecturer and professor of ethics at the Departament of Theology in Kraków and at the Catholic University of Lublin. The fruit of these studies were first my doctoral dissertation on St. John of the Cross and then my post-doctoral thesis on the thoughts of Max Scheler…

I was summoned to be a bishop [1958] during a time while I was kayaking and it could be said, I was on a boat. And it was not an easy calling because it came in the very middle of a trip along a very difficult route.

… the late Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak appointed me as auxiliary bishop as his closest associate. After his death in June 1962 I was elected by the Metropolitan Chapter to the post of Vicar Capitular, and in this capacity I administered the Kraków Archdiocese until being appointed to my present position by the Holy Father.

I was summoned to be a bishop

Priest Karol Wojtyła during a trip with young people, 1950s, Photo: Laski Diffusion/East News

From the time of my arrival there as vicar in 1949, St. Florian’s church became a central point of the developing student ministry movement, within which, what we would later call ‘środowisko’ (‘the circle’) began to form…

At first it was called ‘rodzinka’ (‘small family’), especially during the St. Florian period. However, later on, when our community, so to speak broke away from the parish of St. Florian and at the same time expanded considerably, it was no longer referred to as ‘rodzinka’, instead the term ‘środowisko’ gradually emerged.

The ‘środowisko’ traditions included various forms of trips and outings: hiking, cycling, kayaking and skiing… I developed within myself my own touristic skills, I learnt to sleep in a tent, to take part in camps and take such opportunities to explore the charms of the Polish landscape, unknown to me before, including both the mountainous areas of the south and the lake regions of the north.

Priest Karol Wojtyła kayaking with young people on the Skawa River, 1950s, Photo: Laski Diffusion/East News

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On 30th December 1963, the Holy Father Paul VI appointed me to the post of the Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków.

As … Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków I desired to remain in touch with … the rich and varied world of the Kraków intelligentsia in the number of ways, above all by ministering and conducting preaching retreats. Then as a bishop, by inviting representatives of the individual fields of research or intellectual professions to meetings, academic sessions, sometimes specialist sessions and frequently to meetings on various occasions…

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła with priest Franciszek Macharski during a session of the Synod of Bishops in Vatican, October 1971, Photo: AP Images/East News

Bishop Karol Wojtyła receives his cardinal’s biretta from the hand of the now blessed Pope Paul VI, Rome, 28/06/1967, Photo: AP Images/East News

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I will never forget the words spoken to me on the 16th of October [1978] … [by Primate Stefan Wyszyński] at the time when the conclave’s decision was imminent: ‘If they elect you, please, do not decline’.

When on the 16th of October 1978, after being elected to the Petrine See, I was asked the question, ‘Do you accept?’, I answered, ‘With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the Mother of Christ and the Church, conscious of great difficulties, I accept’.

Believe me, that when travelling to Rome for the conclave, most of all I wanted to return … to my beloved Archdiocese and my Motherland. Since, however, the will of Christ the Lord was different, I will remain here to take up this new mission that He assigned to me.

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum! Habemus Papam! Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Carolum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Wojtyla! Qui sibi nomen imposuit Ioannis Pauli Secundi!

I announce to you a great joy! We have a pope! The most eminent and reverend lord, Lord Karol, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Wojtyła, who takes to himself the name John Paul! [Cardinal Pericle Felici]

The most prominent cardinals appointed a new Bishop of Rome. They summoned him from a faraway country … faraway, but always very close through the communion in faith and Christian tradition.

… I do not know if I can express myself well in your … our Italian language. If I make a mistake, please correct me.

Habemus Papam!Do you accept?

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła in the year he was elected Pope, Rome, 1978, Photo: Leemage/East News

John Paul II after his election to the papacy, Rome, 16/10/1978, Photo: AFP/East News

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To the Petrine See of Rome ascends today a bishop who is not a Roman. A bishop who is a son of Poland. But from this moment on even he becomes a Roman. Yes, Roman! Also, because he is a son of the nation whose history from its dawn and whose thousand-year tradition are both marked with living, strong, never interrupted, lived-through and deep ties with the Petrine See. The nation that has always remained faithful to this See. Oh, how unsearchable are the judgments of the divine Providence!

Do not be afraid, open, open wide the door to Christ! For His saving authority, open the borders of countries, economic and political systems, the wide fields of culture, civilisation, and development! Do not be afraid! Christ knows what dwells in the inner man. Only He knows this!

Hail to you, my homeland, hail to you, my home town by the Skawa River. It was here, in this town, in the old parish church, that I first heard this Petrine confession. That confession came to me from the baptismal font and from the altar, from the pulpit, and from school. It was shrouded in the whole Christian community life. That confession created life, as it creates Christian life all around the earth.

That Petrine confession came to me as a gift of faith of the Church. It gave to my life this direction that has its origin in the Father, to open up through the Son in the Holy Spirit to the unfathomable mystery of God. I was taught this mystery by the hands

of my mother who, when folding the small child hands in prayer, showed how to make the sign of the cross – the sign of Christ who is the Son of the living God.

Today, after so many years, how grateful I am to you, my mother and my father, and my brother! How grateful I am to you, the age old parish of Wadowice. And to you, priests, shepherds of souls and catechists … and to you, friends, peers, male and female friends. How grateful I am to you for this greatest ‘initiation’. All things draw their ultimate meaning from it.

How grateful I am to you, my mother and my father, and my brother!

Do not be afraid, open, open wide the door to Christ!

Official inauguration of the pontificate of John Paul II, Rome, 22.10.1978, Photo: AFP/East News

John Paul II, second visit to Wadowice, 14th August 1991, Photo by Andrzej Leń

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‘If these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out...’ But they do not hold their peace! We are listening, amazed how the young speak out. They do not let old stones speak, they do not let the temples of the Living God be transformed into museums. They speak with a living voice. They speak in different places of the globe and their voice resounds loudly. And it happens so that thanks to this testimony young disciples of Christ come as a surprise to many.

I thank God for the path of the World Youth Day! I thank God for so many young people that were involved over those sixteen years! They are juveniles who having become adults are still living

with faith where they live and work. I am certain that also you, dear friends, will live up to the standard set by those who preceded you. You will be preaching Christ to a new millennium. On your way back home, do not succumb to distraction. Confirm and extend your sense of belonging to the Christian community that you are a part of. From Rome, from the City of Peter and Paul, the Pope accompanies you with love and, to paraphrase words from a letter of St. Catherine of Siena, is telling you: ‘If you are what you want to be, you will set the whole world afire!’

I think of Europe united thanks to the involvement of young people. Young people communicate with such an ease despite the geographical divisions! But can you raise a new generation, sensitive to the truth, beauty, good and things that are worth committing to if family in Europe is no longer a permanent institution, open to life and sacrificial love? Family comprising also elderly people who have a share in that which is most important, in transmitting values and the meaning of life?

Family is indeed the fullest form of community from the point of view of human bonds. There is no bond that would bond people closer than the bond of marriage and family. There is none other which might be termed as ‘communion’ with such a full validity. There is none other in which the mutual commitments would be equally deep and complete, and breaching them would more painfully hurt human vulnerability, be it a woman, a man, children or parents.

Here is the lesson for today: It is necessary to learn freedom. It is particularly essential that families should bring up their children to the right freedom preparing them to be able to provide the correct response to God’s calling. Families are the garden in which the seedlings of new generations germinate. It is in families that the future of the nation is shaped.

Families are the garden in which the seedlings of new generations germinate

If you are what you want to be, you will set the whole world afire!

World Youth Day in Paris, 19th–24th August 1997, Photo: Roger Viollet/East News

John Paul II during his first pilgrimage to Mexico, 26th-31st January 1979, Photo: Reporter

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As the end of my earthly life draws near, I think back to its beginning, to my Parents, my Brother and my Sister (whom I never knew for she died before I was born), to the Parish of Wadowice where I was christened, to that town of my youth, to my peers, my school friends, both male and female, at the primary school, at the secondary school, at the university, to the time of the occupation when I worked as a labourer, and later on, to the Parish of Niegowić, to the parish of St. Florian in Kraków, to the pastoral work among students and academics, to the circle … to many circles … in Kraków, in Rome … to the people who were in a special way entrusted to me by the Lord—to all I want to say just one thing, ‘May God reward you!’.

You ask me, But can you be holy today? If we were to rely exclusively on human strengths, this goal would actually seem unattainable. After all, you know well your successes and your failures; you know what burdens rest upon man, what perils threaten him and what the consequences of his sins are. At times, you might indeed get discouraged and come to the conclusion that it is impossible to change anything in the world or in yourselves. Even though the road is tough, we can do all things in Him who is our Redeemer. Thus, do not turn to anybody except Jesus.

Can you be holy today? Let your Spirit descend! And renew the face of the earth. The face of this land!

Official beatification and canonisation portrait of John Paul II, Photo: Wojtek Laski/East News

The great pontificate: Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope

on 16/10/1978 as the 264th successor of St. Peter and was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

The pontificate of John Paul II was the 3rd longest pontificate in history, after St. Peter and Bl. Pius IX, lasting almost 27 years.

The Pope made 104 trips and visited 132 countries. He spent 586 days travelling, which was 7% of his pontificate.

He visited Poland most often, i.e. 8 times: 1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2002; 7 times the USA, 5 times Mexico and Spain. He visited Wadowice 3 times, in 1979, 1991 and 1999.

During all his foreign trips he travelled over 1,700,000 km, which corresponds to over 42 laps around the Earth’s equator or nearly 4.5 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.

John Paul II issued 14 encyclicals, 14 exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 43 apostolic letters.

During his pontificate he convened 9 consistories and presided over 6 Ordinary General Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, 1 Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and 7 Special Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.

John Paul II appointed 232 cardinals (including 10 Poles), canonised 478 saints (including 9 Poles and 2 saints associated with Poland) and beatified 1,318 blessed (including 154 Poles).

John Paul II received more than 1,350 political figures and met with believers at over 1,200 General Audiences.

He died in the odour of sanctity on 2/04/2005 and 6 years later, on 1/05/2011, was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI, and on 27/04/2014 was added to the host of Saints by Pope Francis.

Saint John Paul II was declared the patron saint of family, and we remember him on 22nd October, on the day when he officially commenced his pontificate.

John Paul II celebrating the Beatification Mass for Anton Martin Slomšek (1800-1862), Maribor, Slovenia, 1999, Photo: Leemage/East News

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Publisher: Municipality of Wadowice wadowice.pl Editors: Department of Tourist Services Town Office of Wadowice it.wadowice.plGraphic design: Maciej HojdaISBN 978-83-951797-1-6 Wadowice 2018Photos on the cover: p. 1: John Paul II on the day of his election as Pope, 16/10/1978, Photo: Sipa Press/East News p. 24: John Paul II at the baptismal font in the Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary during his first pilgrimage to Poland, Wadowice, 1979, Photo: Archives of the Town Office of WadowiceFREE COPY

… it was here, in this town, Wadowice, that it all began. The life began, and the school began, and the studies began, and the theatre began, and the priesthood began.


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