Pope John Paul Ii - a Brief Biography

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Pope John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18th, 1920. In his youth, he wanted to become an actor, but when the Germans invaded Poland during World War II, they banned acting and anyone who continued to do anything considered artful was to be sent to a concentration camp. As well as that, they sent teachers with any rule-breaking Jew to concentration camps. Wojtyla fought in the underground movement, and around the same time his mother, father and brother died. Around that time, he then considered becoming a priest since his dreams of becoming an actor were ruined by the Germans. He helped many runaways escaping the camps. In 1946, a year after the war, he became a priest. But at the time, the Polish government became Communist like the Soviets (which is an Atheist government, although the people were religious), and religion was frowned upon by government officials. He and the Cardinal helped protest against the Communist government. At the time, the government outlawed new churches being built, but Wojtyla knew the church is actually the people, not the building. He was elected bishop at the age of 38, since the government thought he thought he could be convinced easily due to his age. But to their dismay, he kept his contrary thoughts, publicly protesting. To prevent people from figuring out he’s a priest outside the church, people of the church called him “Uncle”. He kept this up even after he became bishop in 1958. After the cardinal died, he became the cardinal in 1967, after four years of being Archbishop. At this point, he was associated with miraculously curing someone who was in the underground resistance of terminal cancer (obtained from experiments the Nazis had done on her). He was elected pope in 1974, after Pope John Paul I died after 2 months of being pope. He became pope at the age of 58 years, and was incredibly
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