John Paul II : Lives of the Pope

Behold the Slavic pope is coming, a brother of the people; He already pours the world's balm into our breasts, And the angel choirs sweep the throne for him, with flowers

So wrote the Romantic-era Polish poet Juliusz Slowacki in 1848, lines so visionary and improbable -- a Pole as Supreme Pontiff! -- that few, even in long-suffering Poland, believed they would ever come true. In 1938, however, a Polish teenager would be singled out for what would eventually be an appointment with prophecy. In that year, Karol Wojtyla was a student -- and an actor of considerable promise -- at a secondary school in the grimy industrial town of Wadowice. As the school's prize orator, he was asked to deliver a speech welcoming a grand visitor, the princely Adam Sapieha, scion of a noble house and, more important, Archbishop of nearby Cracow. Sapieha was clearly impressed, so much so that he inquired after Wojtyla, asking what he hoped to do with his life. The answer: the pursuit of philology or an actor's life. "A pity," the Archbishop said in response. But he decided to keep an eye on the charismatic young man, for the greater glory of the church.

When the spirit did call Wojtyla, however, it was not the way Sapieha wanted. The young man had become enamored of the mystical writings of the great Carmelite saint John of the Cross and wanted to become a contemplative friar. Wojtyla petitioned Sapieha three times for permission to enter a monastery; each time, the Archbishop would hear none of it. He did not want | Wojtyla walled in as a mystical recluse. Could not the young man see what God really wanted him to do? Wojtyla got the message. He would become a diocesan priest, serving the people directly, a pastor ministering to the immediate needs of the faithful in Poland. Sapieha ordained him in 1946. And thus, it began to come to pass . . .

For 16 years now, Karol Wojtyla -- once actor, then priest, then Archbishop and Cardinal -- has been Pope John Paul II, the Supreme Pontiff, Bishop of Rome, leader of a church of nearly 1 billion souls. "It's curious," an Italian Archbishop once said, "you'd think he had always been Pope." And yet to understand the man and his papacy, one must look not only to the Vatican, from which he issues spiritual guidelines, but also to the almost mystical Poland he holds in his heart. Indeed, though the Pope's corner bedroom on the third floor of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace has a view of the baroque wonder of St. Peter's Square, it is almost as spare as a monk's. The room contains a single bed, two straight-backed upholstered chairs, a desk. There is a small carpet near the bed, but otherwise the parquet floor is bare. The walls too are unembellished except for a few souvenirs, mostly icons. But these are eloquent by their very presence. They are from Poland.