Pope St. John Paul II
Born: May 18, 1920
Died: April 2, 2005
Feast day: October 22
Patron saint of: Poland, Archdiocese of Kraków, World Youth Day, World Meeting of Families 2015, young Catholics, families, Świdnica, Trecastelli, Borgo Mantovano, Rivignano Teor, Paradahan, Tanza, Cavite
Pope St. John Paul II worked at a chemical factory and studied in an underground seminary during World War II. After the war, he was ordained and went to Rome for further studies. More than anyone else, with Pope St. John Paul II I could “feel” the distinction the church makes about saints—they are not perfect, only display heroic witness.
Key to John Paul’s gift was his theology of freedom, what he called to us then and even more so now. Freedom is not “empty,” the sanction to do whatever we want. Rather, it is the freedom to do the good out of love for goodness itself. For John Paul, it is only because we are already embodied within relationships that God gives us freedom. “Yes, every man is his ‘brother’s keeper,’ because God entrusts us to one another. And it is also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom.” This “great gift of the Creator” is only fulfilled “through the gift of self and openness to others,” he writes in Evangelium Vitae.
More about Pope St. John Paul II:
St. John Paul II, my other grandfather
The spirit of John Paul II infused the house of this Catholic’s Polish grandparents.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Library of Congress
