Jessalyn: What A Difference One Person Can Make

Pope John Paul II

Today our group traveled to Wadowice, Poland (about forty-five minutes from where we are staying).   I was excited to travel through the countryside again and see the little towns spread throughout Poland. It struck me today how similar the outskirts of Poland are to the rural parts of the United States.  It’s almost as if I was visiting a family member in upstate New York.

Visiting Wadowice today was surreal. I have never learned so much about any pope in one day coming from a Lutheran background, but it was an amazing experience being able to study where one of the most famous religious leaders of the 20^th century grew up.

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born on May 18^th, 1920 to two hard working parents in Poland. Although experiencing much grieve early on in his life due to the death of his mother and sister, Karol received a great religious education. Coming from a devout Catholic background, Karol lived in an apartment owned by a Jewish family. Although coming from this Catholic background, due to the major Jewish population living in Wadowice and his kindness, Karol developed great relations with his Jewish friends and neighbors. With these relations he established early on in life, Karol had the experience and skillset later on to develop greater relations for the Jewish and Christian community as a whole.

While Jews were worse off during WWII at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis, Poles also experienced hardships. Both Poles and Jews alike were considered inferior and were worthless to those a part of the Nazi regime. Karol, a Pole living in Krakow during the outbreak of the war, felt the oppression the Jews felt and had one or two near death experiences himself.

Learning that one of the best popes the world has ever seen was almost killed due to Hitler’s domination made me stop and think. What if Karol Józef Wojtyła, better known as Pope John Paul II, was murdered between 1939-1945? Would the relationship between Jews and Christians have changed for the better without him alive to bridge the gap? As Peggy Obrecht wrote in her article, “After the Shoah: Christian Statements of Contrition”, “It has been Pope John Paul II who has made the relationship between Catholicism and Judaism a central concern of his pontificate. The wealth of biblical and liturgical scholarship during his time as Pope, the statements forthcoming from the Vatican, and the actions he has taken with regard to the Jewish communities within countries around the world have helped to bridge solidly what was once regarded as an unbridgeable chasm.”  Pope John Paul II had the background to bring Jews and Christians together because of the powerful Jewish bonds he made early on in his life and because of his experience of being oppressed side by side with the Jews during WWII in Poland.

If one man as influential as this could have been killed by the Nazis, it makes me wonder what the twelve million people murdered could have done to better the world we live in today.