I.

Introduction

John Paul II (1920-2005), pope from 1978 to 2005, the first non-Italian pope since 1523. John Paul’s energetic approach to his office, unprecedented world travel, and firm religious conservatism enhanced the visibility of the papacy in both the Roman Catholic Church and the non-Catholic world. John Paul’s view of the church was marked by a distrust of speculations by theologians and moral judgments by lay people, and by a stress on clerical leadership and papal authority.

II.

John Paul’s Education

John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyła on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland. He enrolled at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, in 1938. Outgoing and physically active, he hiked and skied in the nearby Tatra Mountains and acted in a student drama group. After the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1939 at the start of World War II, the university closed and Wojtyła worked as a laborer in a stone quarry for two years. In 1942 he began preparing for the priesthood at a seminary in Kraków.

Wojtyła returned to the Jagiellonian University when it reopened after the end of World War II in 1945. He was ordained in 1946 and began studies at the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome, Italy, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in theology in 1948 with a thesis on Saint John of the Cross.

III.

John Paul’s Rise in the Catholic Church

During the 1950s Wojtyła served as a parish priest in and around Kraków, earned a second doctorate in theology at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, and became a professor of ethics at that university. In 1958 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków.

Wojtyła became archbishop of Kraków in 1964 and was made a cardinal in 1967 by Pope Paul VI. In these posts Wojtyła learned firsthand about the church’s precarious status under Communist rule. He broadened his horizons by taking part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), and he represented Poland in five international bishops’ synods between 1967 and 1977.

During his years in Kraków Wojtyła also found time to write plays, notably The Jeweler’s Shop (1960) published under a pseudonym, and poetry. His extensive ethical and theological writings include Fruitful and Responsible Love and Sign of Contradiction, both published in 1979.

IV.

John Paul’s Election to the Papacy

On October 16, 1978, after the very brief reign of Pope John Paul I, Wojtyła was elected pope, taking the name John Paul II. He was enthroned on October 22, 1978. His election as the first non-Italian pope in 455 years typified a globalization of the Roman Catholic Church’s central administration that had been underway for a generation.

The new pope believed that the Catholic Church needed to avail itself of all the modern media of mass communication to maintain the faith and enthusiasm of its members. A man of unusual physical energy, John Paul embarked on a grueling schedule of public appearances at the Vatican and in almost every part of the world. The crowds loved him, and he responded warmly to their adulation.

On May 13, 1981, John Paul was shot at close range and severely wounded during a general audience at Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman whose motives remain unclear. John Paul made a good recovery and nine months later resumed his travels.

V.

John Paul’s Message

John Paul II issued a long series of encyclicals (formal statements or letters). Of these, perhaps the most important were Redemptor hominis (Redeemer of Man, 1979), on the condition of the Roman Catholic Church; Slavorum apostoli (Apostles of Slavs, 1985), on the condition of the church in Eastern Europe; Sollicitudo rei socialis (On Social Concern, 1987), on the abuses of Communist and capitalist societies; Veritatis splendor (Splendor of Truth, 1993), on Catholic moral principles; Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life, 1995), on the sanctity of human life; Ut unum sint (That They May Be One, 1995), on ecumenism; Fides et ratio (Faith and Reason, 1998), on the relationship between religion and philosophy; and Ecclesia de Eucharistia (The Church from the Eucharist, 2003), on the place of the Eucharist in the life of the church.

John Paul’s writings brought a new style to papal letters. They were totally different from the crisp, strictly theological encyclicals issued by Pius XII a generation before. John Paul II wrote lengthy texts, often full of emotional appeals and quotations from his own previous pronouncements.

John Paul’s message was decidedly conservative and strongly opposed to secularizing (worldly) tendencies in the modern world that left little room for religious authority. Openly and secretly, the pope gave strong support to the Solidarity labor union in Poland. Solidarity was one of the most important groups whose work contributed to the downfall of Communist governments in Poland and across Eastern Europe in 1989 (see Communism).

John Paul tried to promote the growth of the Roman Catholic Church in third world countries. However, he strongly opposed so-called liberation theologians who sought to align the church directly with the sufferings and struggles of the poor and oppressed. To audiences in Western Europe and North America John Paul stressed the evils of an individualistic “consumer” society, and he reaffirmed traditional Catholic moral teachings about private (especially sexual) conduct and about the obligation to share wealth with the poor. With all Catholics John Paul endeavored to strengthen papal authority.

In the 1980s and 1990s John Paul II made numerous journeys, including visits to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In September 1993 he traveled to the Baltic republics in the first papal visit to countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). 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 homosexuality, abortion, and “artificial” methods of human reproduction and birth control, and in favor of priestly celibacy. Although weakened by Parkinson disease and arthritis, John Paul did not allow infirmity to curtail his travels in the early 2000s.

VI.

Controversy During John Paul’s Papacy

Issues of sexuality and gender played a disproportionate part in the controversies of John Paul’s pontificate. His condemnation of contraception brought him into collision with those who promoted it as a solution for the overpopulation problem of the third world and with Catholics in developed countries who sought greater personal choice. John Paul’s teaching that abortion not only was morally wrong but also should be legally prohibited raised serious concerns about church-state relations.

The refusal of John Paul II to permit the ordination of women and married men intensified a serious shortage of priests in the Catholic Church. Catholic churches in many places lacked clergy to administer the sacraments, but church leaders continued to ignore calls for changes that would allow women or married individuals to join the priesthood.

A more damaging issue relating to sexuality arose during the 1990s and came to a head early in the new millennium. A series of widely reported scandals arose from accusations of sexual misconduct on the part of members of the clergy. The scandals rocked the church in the United States and around the world. A relatively small percentage of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing adolescents who were under their pastoral care. A much larger percentage of bishops and other supervisory personnel were then found to have responded to such accusations with more concern for the prevention of scandal than for the protection of children. The expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars to settle the ensuing lawsuits brought many dioceses to the brink of bankruptcy. The suits were brought by people who claimed they had been victims of sexual abuse.

John Paul II responded to this crisis with condemnations of clerical misconduct and calls for a return to higher moral standards. However, hampered by old age and illness, he was unable to exercise significant leadership on this issue. More important, the scandals had a grave impact on his vision of the church. The ability of Catholic priests and bishops to exercise moral leadership in society at large was severely compromised. The shortage of priests in the church was not likely to be improved by the disrepute that some priests had brought upon the clergy. Some commentators wondered whether the church’s insistence on clerical celibacy might have contributed to the magnitude of the sexual abuse scandal. Finally, John Paul II’s exclusion of lay people from most leadership roles and tendency to wrap management decisions in secrecy were increasingly seen as having contributed to the problem.

VII.

John Paul’s Achievements

John Paul II set his personal stamp on several aspects of church life. Vatican II had reformed many Catholic practices, and had raised hopes among many for further change. John Paul continued to implement the council’s decrees, but always from a conservative perspective. Two of his most conspicuous accomplishments were the establishment of a new Code of Canon Law (1983) and a new Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992). In his appointments of bishops, he showed a marked preference for those who seemed to share his conservative opinions.

John Paul II resisted secularization in the church. In redefining the responsibilities of laity, priests, and religious orders, he rejected ordination of women and opposed direct political participation and office-holding by priests. His ecumenical moves were toward the Orthodox Church and Anglican Communion rather than toward European Protestantism. In 1999 John Paul traveled to Romania and met with the patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church; this was the first papal visit ever to a predominantly Orthodox country.

In 2000, a Holy Year in which the church reflected on its 2,000-year history, John Paul asked forgiveness for sins committed by Roman Catholics. Although he mentioned no specific errors, several cardinals acknowledged past injustice and intolerance toward non-Catholics. These acknowledgements were understood to include the Crusades and the Inquisition and inaction during the Holocaust. The apology preceded a papal pilgrimage to the Holy Land and a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel.

John Paul II canonized more than 480 saints, a larger number than any previous pope. These included some large groups—103 martyrs in Korea, 117 martyrs in Vietnam, and 120 martyrs in China—but also many notable individuals. He canonized two French nuns who came to North America: Marguerite Bourgeoys, who worked in 17th-century Québec, and Rose-Philippine Duchesne, who worked in 19th-century Missouri and Kansas. He canonized Katharine Drexel, an American heiress who became a nun and worked among African Americans and Native Americans. He canonized Polish Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe and German Carmelite nun Edith Stein, both of whom were killed at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz during World War II. In general, his canonizations substantially increased the number of Catholic saints from non-European countries.

By the same token, John Paul II continued the internationalization of the Vatican bureaucracy and the College of Cardinals. During his long reign, he appointed more than 230 cardinals. They came from all parts of the world, and they included 15 Americans. Joseph Bernardin, archbishop of Chicago; John O’Connor, archbishop of New York; and Jesuit theologian Avery Dulles were among the best-known Americans he elevated to the rank of cardinal. Francis Arinze, a Nigerian whom John Paul appointed Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2002, was looked upon as one of the most influential figures in the Vatican.

In Redemptor hominis, his first encyclical, John Paul II had paid tribute to Paul VI: “He knew how to preserve a providential tranquility and balance even in the most critical moments.” Nobody would have said that about John Paul II. He was distinguished by his strenuous travels and his stance on controversial issues; moreover, his leadership of conservatives within the church seemed to reflect an impatience with moderate and progressive Catholics.

John Paul died in April 2005 after one of the longest reigns of any pope in history. His death precipitated an outpouring of grief and emotional tributes from around the world. He was replaced as pope by Joseph Cardinal A. Ratzinger (see Benedict XVI) of Germany, a close confidante of John Paul who generally shared his predecessor’s conservative views.