Darby Callahan

11/3/19

Fr. Wathier

Individual Presentation Paper

Fr. Karol Joseph Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1929 in Wadowice, Poland to Emelia and Karol

Wojtyla Sr. He was the youngest of three children in which his older sister died in infancy. His mother

died from kidney failure when Karol Jr. was nine years old. His mother did not get to see him receive his

first communion before she died. Karol also suffered from the loss of his older brother, Edmund, who

died a heroic death while curing those with scarlet fever; Karol was twelve. His friends called him Lolek

from a young age. He had a vibrant youth and was very athletic. His father, who was a very holy man

who helped him in his path to his vocation to the priesthood, raised him. He can be quoted saying,

“After her death and, later, the death of my older brother, I was left alone with my father, a deeply

religious man. Day after day I was able to observe the austere way in which he lived …his example was in

a way my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary.” Through God’s works, he was able to He enjoyed

skiing and swimming, and he was studious. He enjoyed acting and was a gifted theatrical performer.

He attended Krakow’s Jagiellonian University in 1938 in which he studied Polish Language,

Literature, Theatre, and Poetry. He performed at a local theatre in which he helped found called the

Rhapsodic Theatre of Krakow. He had a spiritual mentor by the name of Jan Tyranowski. She got him

interested in the Carmelite mysticism of the St. John of the Cross, in which he would later right his

doctoral thesis on the same topic. Ms. Tyranowski and Carmelite mysticism of St. John of the Cross

changed the course of his life and led him to join the seminary and prepare for priesthood.

In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and Nazis closed the university he was attending. The Nazis

forced him to work in a stone quarry in order for him to be allowed to stay in the country. He also
worked night shifts at the Solvay chemical plant. On Feb. 18, 1941, his father passed away from a heart

attack.

While Germany occupied Poland, he miraculously survived being hit by a German truck. He had

to study for the priesthood in a secret seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha, Archbisop of Krakow

because the seminary was shut down by the Nazis. Once World War II ended, he was able to finish his

priestly formation at the Clandestine Seminary. He was ordained in 1946 on the Feast of All Saints. After

being ordained, he spends two years in Rome to finish his doctoral studies in theology. He then returns

to Poland in 1948 to serve in several parishes in and around Krakow. He teaches at his Alma Mater,

Jagiellonian University for approximately five years. He becomes the Chair of Ethics at the Catholic

University of Lublin and is consecrated Auxiliary bishop of Krakow on July 4, 1958.

With his consecration, he becomes the youngest bishop in Poland’s history. The first to hear of

his election is the young people accompanying him on camping and hiking trips. His continued love for

young people plays an important part in his future papacy. He has always thought that the young people

are the future of the Church and are continuing the faith which is important to his contribution to

Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He attends Vatican II in 1962 in which he plays an important role in the

drafting and finalizing the seminal documents of the council. He helped give Pope Paul VI insight and

gifts in order to finalize Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae.

He was elevated to the College of Cardinals and later elected Pope on Oct. 16, 1978 and took

the name John Paul II. The name comes from Sts. John and Paul and repeats and pays tribute to his

predecessor John Paul I. He remains pope for 27 years until his death. His papacy is one of the longest in

history and has numerous contributions to Catholic Intellectual Tradition such as the importance of

young people, the Cross, the Eucharist, Mary, and human love. He really likes St. Louis de Montford’s

Totus Tuus, which stands for totally yours. This reminds people and the young people’s pope that we are

to be completely and totally God’s.

 His love for young people and families played a big role in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition as it

reminds us what it means to be holy. It reminds us what the vocation of married life truly is about. He

establishes Youth Day in order to bring young people around the world to celebrate the love of Christ

and the love we are supposed to have for each other. The love of young people by Pope John Paul II

reminds us that the children came running to Christ, and the young people are truly the future of the

Church. He also established the Meeting of Families which reminds us of the vocation of Holy

Matrimony in which couples are called to be fruitful and multiply. They are continuing humanity which

plays and important role in Catholic Intellectual Tradition which says that all academic fields come back

to Theology or back to the Church teaching. He also establishes Wednesday Catechesis on Human Love

and the Pontifical John Paul II institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.

“In everything that happened to me on that day, I felt (the Mother of God’s) extraordinary

motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger than the deadly bullet.” This quote was a

quote by Pope John Paul II when Ali Agca attempted to assassinate him on May 13, 1981. Most people

would quit there job if it almost gets them killed. The assassination attempt did not stop John Paul II.

Instead of condemning Ali Agca, he forgave him during a personal visit to his prison cell in 1983. He also

continued to meet with government leaders around the world.

From background information to contributions to Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Pope John Paul

II made numerous contributions to Catholic Intellectual Tradtion including essays before he became

pope and encyclicals after. While at the Catholic University of Lublin, in Poland. He wrote his doctoral

thesis titled, “The Doctrine of the Faith in St. John of the Cross” (1948). His spiritual director, Jan

Tyranowski and deep devotion to St. John of the Cross inspired this. Evaluations on the Possibility of

Building Up the Christ Ethic on the Foundations of the System of Max Scheler (1954) was another essay

by him which was an essay to defend Max Scheler’s doctoral essay in which discussed ethics. He

contributed a lot to ethics and Catholic Social Teaching which continues with Love and Responsibility
(1960) which discusses sexual ethics and relationships along with divorce and premarital relationships.

This contributes to Catholic Social Teaching because humans are called to save selves until marriage in

which we consummate the marriage bringing two souls together. This idea goes with human dignity and

not treating the opposite sex like objects to be used for pleasure. Humans are called to be one with

Christ and one with their spouse if called to be by God. He carries human dignity and marriage

contributions into his work during his papacy as well. Person and Act (1969) discusses the human person

and how we are to be represented in society. It discusses what it means to human in a time of war or in

times of unrest within a nation. Man in the Field of Responsibility (1978) is somewhat of a continuation

of Person and Act but takes a step back from sexual ethics and focuses more on ethics and our moral

responsibility as Christian people of God. After becoming pope, he wrote thirteen encyclicals in which I

chose four to present and write on.

The first encyclical I chose to discuss is Evangelium Vitae, which stands for the Gospel of Life.

this encyclical was published in 1995 and discusses the culture of death in which humanity lives. We are

all to take care of the world in which we have a duty to abide by. All Christians are called to act with this

duty of care when it comes to taking care of all humanity, not just Catholics. The culture of death does

not give us reasons to throw out everything God gives us. We must try and reset this into a new culture

of life. Fides et Ratio (1998) which is the encyclical on Faith and Reason. This encyclical took twelve years

to complete but is important in multiple ways. This encyclical tells us how we need to make sure that

faith and reason are complementary instead of substitutes. We need both in order to find who God truly

is. The pope reminds us of this in the document. It reminds us that in order to truly know God we must

have philospical and theological thinking over a lifetime. This document also denounces separation of

faith and reason because once we separate faith and reason, we separate the historical and

transcendental. As we learned in class, we need the historical in order to find the transcendental and

Catholic Intellectual Tradition teaches us that. The third encyclical is entitled, Vertisas Splendor (1993)
which is the Splender of Truth. This encyclical discusses the morality in which humanity is supposed to

keep. There is no absolute freedom of conscience according to Pope John Paul II because with natural

law, we come to know what is morally wrong and what is morally right. Morality is an objective that

rests ulmately on the basic truths about the human nature and the world rather than individual choice

or social consensus. Natural law is important in all academic fields as it teaches what is morally

acceptable and what should be socially acceptable even though most civilizations do not follow the

natural law in which God gave us. Redemptor Hominis which stands for Redeemer of Man (1979) was

the first encyclical in which John Paul II wrote during his papacy. This encyclical discusses where he

wanted to take the Church or rather where he felt called by God to take the Church. He wanted to let

the people of God know where we are going now. This encyclical discusses man’s capacity to know good

and evil which connects back to natural law and Catholic Intellectual Tradition because it is telling

humanity how to use the capacity to know good and evil to do good in this world.

To connect all of this and Pope John Paul II’s five loves, Young People, Human Love, Blessed

Virgin Mary, The Cross, The Eucharist, back to Catholic Intellectual Tradition which says that being

Catholic is more than just a faith or religion but a lifestyle that should be seen in all academic fields, I will

conclude with how this all connects. Pope John Paul II lived a lifestyle in which consisted of hardships,

happiness, struggle, and every other emotion you could think of. He survive two attacks, being ran over

by a German truck and being shot. This incredible man contributed a lot to the Catholic faith and to

humanity as a whole. He taught Catholics what it means to be a dedicated follower of Christ. He is truly

the definition of a disciple. He was so impactful that on May 1 st, 2011 he was beatified and three years

later on April 27th, 2014 was canonized a saint by Pope Francis. His Feast Day is October 22 nd. He is the

co-patron of World Youth Day and is the patron saint of labor.

https://zenit.org/articles/karol-wojtyla-s-philosophical-works-in-1-600-pages/

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foreigner.html

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