Regardless of your religious persuasion and how you feel about his issues....I think little is known about this fascinating man.
As a young man he enjoyed sports, including soccer and skiing, and had a love of acting and the theatre. He was still a teenager in 1939 when German tanks invaded Poland. During World War II and the Nazi occupation he worked as a labourer, studying theology in secret. In 1944 following a crackdown on religious teaching he was forced into hiding. Many of his friends went to concentration camps.
Continuing his studies after the war, he was ordained a priest in 1946. By 1964 he was Archbishop of Krakow and three years later he became a cardinal. He was an unexpected choice for pope when he was elected in 1978, aged 58 (the youngest). He was the first non-Italian for 450 years and was seen as an outsider for the job. He took the name John Paul II.
He has gone on to be one of the most travelled Pope''s. He has survived an assasination attempt, arthritis and Parkinson''s Disease. In 1992, he had a large tumour removed from his intestine. He had a hip replacement operation in April 1994 and on a trip to France in 1996 he collapsed and had his appendix removed. But he has continued to travel widely and is estimated to have effectively circled the globe 27 times.
He has seen many political changes across the world including the fall of Communism in eastern Europe and the end of apartheid in South Africa.He has visited Cuba ,became the first Pope to visit Egypt and the first to set foot in the Whitehouse..
All this at 84 years. What an amazing life he has led.
I am a lapsed Catholic and have disagreed with many contentious issues of the Catholic Church, but regardless of how I feel about that I can''t help admire this man, from who he was and what he has achieved. Even as his death draws near he is showing us how to approach death gracefully.
As a young man he enjoyed sports, including soccer and skiing, and had a love of acting and the theatre. He was still a teenager in 1939 when German tanks invaded Poland. During World War II and the Nazi occupation he worked as a labourer, studying theology in secret. In 1944 following a crackdown on religious teaching he was forced into hiding. Many of his friends went to concentration camps.
Continuing his studies after the war, he was ordained a priest in 1946. By 1964 he was Archbishop of Krakow and three years later he became a cardinal. He was an unexpected choice for pope when he was elected in 1978, aged 58 (the youngest). He was the first non-Italian for 450 years and was seen as an outsider for the job. He took the name John Paul II.
He has gone on to be one of the most travelled Pope''s. He has survived an assasination attempt, arthritis and Parkinson''s Disease. In 1992, he had a large tumour removed from his intestine. He had a hip replacement operation in April 1994 and on a trip to France in 1996 he collapsed and had his appendix removed. But he has continued to travel widely and is estimated to have effectively circled the globe 27 times.
He has seen many political changes across the world including the fall of Communism in eastern Europe and the end of apartheid in South Africa.He has visited Cuba ,became the first Pope to visit Egypt and the first to set foot in the Whitehouse..
All this at 84 years. What an amazing life he has led.
I am a lapsed Catholic and have disagreed with many contentious issues of the Catholic Church, but regardless of how I feel about that I can''t help admire this man, from who he was and what he has achieved. Even as his death draws near he is showing us how to approach death gracefully.
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