VATICAN CITY, MAY 18, 1999 (VIS) - Today, May 18, John Paul II celebrates his 79th birthday. As on previous occasions the Holy Father dedicated the morning to his normal schedule, receiving various people in audience, including Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the Federal Republic of Germany.
He began the day by celebrating Mass in his private chapel at 7 a.m. He was joined by 17 Italian prelates, including Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Pope's vicar general for Rome, and by the 16 presidents of the regional episcopal conferences of Italy.
Following this morning's audiences, the Holy Father had lunch with his closest collaborators in the Secretariat of State, with Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, dean of the College of Cardinals, and with Cardinal Ruini. According to Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Pope received numerous telegrams from heads of state and of government around the world, from private individuals, and from all of the embassies in Rome accredited to the Holy See.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Cracow, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowka. His mother died giving birth to a third child - stillborn - in 1929. His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father, a non-commissioned army officer, died in 1941.
He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 17. Upon graduation from Martin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a school for drama.
He experienced the upheaval of war under Nazi occupation. The Nazi forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry and then in a chemical factory in Solvay to earn his living, thus learning first-hand about the reality of working life. Like many of his compatriots, he ran the constant risk of being deported to Germany.
In 1942, in the midst of the war, he felt the call to the priesthood, and studied in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Cracow. At the same time, Karol Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theater," also clandestine.
His interest in art has been a constant in his life and pontificate. Proof of this is his recent Letter to Artists in which he demonstrates once again his desire to keep open the dialogue with the world of art.
After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, 1946.
Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange. He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross. At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland.
In 1948 he returned to Poland and was vicar of various parishes in Cracow as well as chaplain for the university students until 1951, when he took up again his studies on philosophy and theology. In 1953 he defended a thesis on "evaluation of the possibility of founding a Catholic ethic on the ethical system of Max Scheler" at Lublin Catholic University. Later he became professor of moral theology and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of Theology of Lublin.
On July 4, 1958, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958 in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak.
On January 13, 1964, he was appointed archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI who, thee years later, on June 26, 1967, made him a cardinal.
Besides taking part in Vatican Council II with an important contribution to the drafting of the Constitution "Gaudium et Spes," he has participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.
Upon his election to the papacy on October 16, 1978, he took the names John Paul in homage to his predecessors. Since then he has completed 86 pastoral visits outside of Italy (the most recent to Romania) and 134 within Italy. As bishop of Rome he has visited 285 of the diocese's 328 parishes.
His principal documents include 13 encyclicals, 11 apostolic exhortations, 10 apostolic constitutions and 37 apostolic letters, and 20 "motu proprio." The Pope has also published two books: "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (October 1994) and "Gift and Mystery: On the 50th Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination" (November 1996).
John Paul II has presided at 115 beatification ceremonies in which he proclaimed 820 Blesseds, and 35 canonization ceremonies for a total of 283 Saints. He has held seven consistories in which he created 157 cardinals (not including the two "in pectore" cardinals, announced with the names of 20 other cardinals on Sunday, January 18, 1998). He has also convened five plenary meetings of the College of Cardinals.
From 1978 to today the Holy Father has presided at 14 synods: the Particular Synod of Bishops of the Netherlands in 1980; five ordinary synods (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994); one extraordinary (1985) and seven special (1980, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997 and two in 1998).
The pontiff has had more than 1,100 meetings and audiences with political figures, including 37 official visits by heads of state, 565 audiences and meetings with heads of state and more than 190 audiences and encounters with prime ministers. He has also presided at 902 weekly general audiences, in which more than 14 million pilgrims have participated.
Next on the papal agenda are the May 30 pastoral visit to Ancona, Italy and the June 5-17 visit to his native Poland.
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