LIFE book richly illustrates Pope John Paul II's life

Intermountain Catholic

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SALT LAKE CITY — "Pope John Paul II: Toward Sainthood" by Robert Sullivan and the editors of LIFE is available in a colorful, touching book that takes the reader from Blessed Pope John Paul II’s youth, when his family and friends called him "Lolek," through his years at the Vatican.

Karol Józef Wojty³a was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. His neighbors and babysitters told his father that the unusual boy was bound for greatness. As Lolek grew, so did his love for sports, including skiing, swimming and hiking. Through his prayer life and his daily reception of Holy Communion, he matured spiritually, and his father was not surprised when young Karol began talking of becoming a priest. With the death of his mother when he was 9, and his brother Edmund when he was 12, Karol grew closer to his father.

Early in his seminary years, Karol shared his love for the outdoors with parishioners and friends, many of them students at the Jagiellonian University in Lublin, where Karol had attended college, studying theater and poetry. Any hike or skiing trip with Karol would include discussions of religion and philosophy. As a seminarian he and others were forced into hiding, because Adolf Hitler vowed to kill all of Poland’s priests and seminarians. They often studied in the basement of the home of the bishop of Krakow.

"The Communists forbade priests (and seminarians) to lead youth groups, so in the woods Wojtyla would go without a collar. The students called him Uncle lest prying ears hear the word ‘Father,’" the book tells readers. "In his 1996 memoir, Pope John Paul II recalled the years just before he entered the priesthood. At the time, he had been forced to conceal his Catholicism, his philosophy and his involvement in a clandestine school for priests," he remembered. "I was spared much of the immense and horrible drama of the Second World War… I could have been arrested any day, at home, in the stone quarry (where he worked), in the plant, and taken away to a concentration camp. Sometimes I would ask myself: so many young people of my own age are losing their lives, why not me? Today I know that it was not mere chance."’

He wrote his first play, "David," in 1939. "It intermixed Bible stories and allusions to recent Polish history," the history tells the readers. In 1940, he wrote his second play, ‘Job.’ The book relates that in 1941, Wojtyla and a group of friends founded the avant-garde Rhapsodic Theater. The pope once wrote, "It was essential to keep these theatrical get-togethers secret…otherwise we risked serious punishment from the occupying forces, even deportation to concentration."

He studied in Rome for two years after the war, and was ordained a priest in 1946.

"Pope John Paul II: Toward Sainthood," is rich in Vatican photographs in color and black and white. It reminds the readers of Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, the brief reign of Pope John Paul I, then continues the rich stories and photos of Blessed Pope John Paul II. It relates the surprise and struggles of Pope John Paul II, his Rome-based investiture, and his attempts to influence world politics.

It documents many of Pope John Paul II’s travels, many of them punctuated with, when his health permitted, his kneeling to kiss the ground of the host country. He demonstrated a deep love and concern for ill children, and went out of his way to greet them.

This book would be a great gift, especially for those with a special interest in Blessed Pope John Paul II, and it’s available almost everywhere. I picked up my copy in Smith’s Food and Drugs a couple of weeks ago.