A global pope from behind the Iron Curtain
“Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth!” he appealed in Warsaw.
Karol Józef Wojtyła was a Polish priest and philosopher who was elected John Paul II in 1978 and led the Catholic Church until 2005. Having lived through Nazi occupation and state socialism, he made human dignity, religious freedom, and national memory central to his pastoral and political language. About 11 million people saw him during his 1979 pilgrimage to Poland, helping a society dispersed under communist rule recognize itself as a community. He was an important factor in creating the conditions for Solidarity, while the movement’s workers and political actors remained its own agents.
Career Timeline
- 1946Ordained priest of the Archdiocese of Kraków
- 1958Auxiliary Bishop of Kraków
- 1964Archbishop of Kraków
- 1967Made a cardinal
- 1978Elected the 264th pope, John Paul II
- 1979First papal pilgrimage to Poland
- 1980Witnessed the emergence of the Solidarity movement
- 2005Died in office