Research Paper On Pope John Paul II

Saint Pope John Paul II, a Hero Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland in 1920. He was born the youngest of the three children. He went to Jagiellonian University and studied philology. He volunteered many hours each day and also learned many languages. Karol became a hero through the struggles of World War II, the struggles of being the pope, the challenges of leading the Catholic Church, and struggles of relations with other faiths. Karol had to face many struggles during World War II, when Poland was invaded by the German Nazis under Adolf Hitler. Men were required to work, so he worked doing many jobs to avoid deportation to Germany. His entire family died by the time he was twenty years old. After some of the early struggles he faced, Karol wanted to become a priest. Karol studied to become a Catholic priest in private, so he would not be captured by the Nazis, eventually being ordained on November 1, 1946. In his first heroic act, he helped a young

The main religions that Pope John Paul II focused on were the faiths of Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. He tried very hard to better the relationship with the Islamic people by being the first pope to pray in a mosque and he hosted an event to help bring together the Islamic leaders and Jewish leaders, which was very effective. Pope John Paul II also tried to bring the Jewish people in better relations with the Catholics. In particular, he visited the Auschwitz Concentration camp in Poland and also was the first pope to go to a synagogue when he went to the Great Synagogue of Rome. Likewise, John Paul II visited, touched, and left a letter at the Western Wall to ask for forgiveness from the Jews. He helped improve relation with Buddhists since he and the Dalai Lama of the Buddhists met eight times together. They shared many similar views and tried to rebuild their faiths after dictatorships in both