Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920, at Wadowice, Poland. For many years Karol believed God was calling him to the priesthood, and after two near fatal accidents, he responded to God's call. He studied secretely during the German occupation of Poland, and was ordained to the priesthood on November 1, 1946. In these years he came to know and practice the teachings of St. Louis Marie Montfort and St. John of the Cross. He earned a doctorate in theology in 1948 at the Angelicum in Rome, Italy.
             From 1948 to 1951 he served as a parish priest in the Krakow diocese and then returned to study philosophy at the Jagiellonian Univsersity at Krakow. From 1952 to 1958 Karol Wojtyla taught social ethics at the Krakow Seminary. In 1956 he became also a professor at the University of Lublin. Venerable Pope Pius XII appointed Karol Wojtyla an auxiliary bishop in Krakow on July 4, 1958. Servant of God, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Krakow on December 30, 1963.
             As Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla proved himself a noble and trustworthy pastor in the face of Communist persecution. A member of the prepatory commission, he attended all four sessions of Vatican II and is said to have written Gaudium et spes, the document on the Church in the Modern World. He also played a prominent role in the formulation of the Declaration on Religious Freedom. Following the Council, the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI, appointed Karol Wojtyla a Cardinal of the Roman Church on June 26, 1967.
             In 1960 he published his most famous written work, Love, and Responsibility. Pope Paul VI, delighted with its apologetical defense of the traditional Catholic teaching of marriage, relied extensively on Archbishop Wojytla's counsel in writing Humanae Vitae. In 1976 he was invited by Pope Paul VI to preach the Lenten sermons to the members of the Papal Household.
             On October 16, 1978, Archbishop Wojtyla became the first non-Italian pope since Hadrian VI (1522-3). H...