Early Life

Before he was pope, his name was Karol Wojtyla (Voy-TEE-wah). His early life is beautiful in many ways, but it's also incredibly difficult. In every major sphere of his life, he faced some of the most challenging moments a person can face. The trials in he faced helped to shape Karol's life and eventually his papacy. On September 1, 1939, while the 19 year old Karol was at mass, the high-pitched wail of the warning sirens were heard. They were followed by explosions of bombs from aircraft. Karol stayed to finish mass with the priest, then he ran home to his father. What followed was the Nazi occupation of Poland. Nazi flags were raised all throughout the city. Food shortages and rationing gripped the area as citizens waited in long lines for food daily. Priests, professors, and anyone else resisting Nazi occupation were sent to concentration camps or killed immediately. Life was very different now. Karol wooded grueling jobs, including at a quarry and a chemical plant. Before his 21st birthday Karol had seen a lot of death due to the Nazi occupation. He had witnessed violent deaths of refugees. His professors had been arrested and carted off to concentration camps. The Gestapo had kidnapped his parish priests, many of whom were later martyred. The life of the Jewish community was being destroyed as Jews were herded into a ghetto, where they died by the thousands. He and his university classmates had to hold their classes in secret. During this time, Karol and his friends found ways to keep their culture and their faith alive. They put on secret theatrical performances to preserve Polish culture. And a group of young adults and boys formed rosary groups to protect their faith in these difficult times. After work, Karol would hurry home to bring his father food and medicine. One evening, while Karol went to his father's room, he found his father dead. He blamed himself for not being present when his father died. He ran to the church for a priest, who came and gave his father's last rites of the church. Karol spent the entire night on his knees beside his father's body, praying and talking with his friend who had come to be with him. Despite his friend's presence, Karol, at the age of 21, shared that he never felt so alone. These years had a deep impact on his decision to enter the seminary. The war helped him to understand, in a new way, the value and importance of a vocation. In the face of the spread of evil and the atrocities of the war, the meaning of the priesthood and its mission in the world became mch clearer to him. The outbreak of the war took him away from his studies and from the university. However, at the same time, a light was beginning to shine ever more brightly in the back how his mind. One day, he saw with great clarity that the Lord wanted him to become a priest, and he was filled with great inner peace.