Early Life, From Child to Preist
His given name was Karol Józef Wojtyła. At a young age he was a known to be gentle and loving to all. He was a very good soccer player and his nickname was Goalie. In 1928 his mother died and 4 years later his older brother who was a doctor died of a extreme fever. He then lived with his father un till he entered the Jagiellonian University in Krakow Poland. At 21 his father died leaving him alone in the world that was at war. In 1942, at the age of 24 he entered the seminary, despite Nazi occupation. In year of 1946, on November 1, All Saints Day, Karol was ordained a priest. John Paul II finished his doctorate in theology in 1948, and later he became a professor on the subject.
Election and Pontificate
The Conclave of Cardinals elected him Pope on October 1,1978. As Pope, John Paul II traveled to more places, visited more countries, and traveled more miles than any other previus Pope. He also conducted more public meetings with the faithful, as the total attendance of his Wednesday audiences alone eclipsed 17,600,000 people.
On 22nd October 1996 Pope John Paul II made world headlines with his message1 delivered to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It was entitled Magisterium Is Concerned with Question of Evolution for It Involves Conception of Man and resulted in headlines in many of the world's newspapers delcaring that evolution was fact. His holiness stated His opinion on evolution that "In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."
Another one of his accomplishments is the establishment of World Youth Day. Also, he wrote 14 Encyclicals, 5 books, and inumerous letters.
On May 9, 2005 John Paul II's successor, Pope Benedict XVI, waived the five year waiting period for beatification.
1 From the Vatican, 22 October 1996. Official translation published in L'Osservatore Romano, "Weekly Edition in English," 30 October 1996.