Donna Krol

ESL 100

October 6, 2010

Pope John Paul II – There is Still Hope for People of the World

Karol Wojtyla known later as Pope John Paul II is the most important Polish man in history. His influence on people has been enormous. He was instrumental in ending communism in Europe and in uniting all Christians and improving relationship with Jews, Buddhist and Muslims. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, the second youngest pope ever and second longest presiding (for 26 years and 168 days). He visited 129 countries in the world spreading God’s words and love between different nations and religions.

Karol Wojtyla was a man who improved the relationship with other religions. That was something wonderful and very hard to accomplish with all the hatred between different religions in the world. He was a very smart, well-educated man. He was a polyglot who knew thirteen languages. Karol Wojtyla was a writer, poet, actor and later priest, archbishop, cardinal and Pope. He taught people religious tolerance. Before his papacy, in many countries, including Poland, there was prejudice. People could only marry the person of same religion. Nobody could visit other churches, or read other bible that wasn’t printed by their church because it was a sin. Pope John Paul II was first pope that officially visited Jewish synagogue, Islamic mosque, and Eastern Orthodox Churches in Greece, Ukraine and Romania. His teaching even reached my family. My mother didn’t like when I become friends with somebody who was not Roman Catholic. After Pope visited other churches and talked to people of different religions, my mom was more tolerant. She didn’t give me a hard time when I was seeing non Catholics or reading their books or magazines. If Polish pope did it, it was all right to do it for everybody else too. Later I could have friends from different nationality and religions. I was finally able to be open with my friends. My best friends in Poland were Greek Orthodox girl, Eleni and Russian Protestant boy, Misha. We spend many evening together talking about similarity and differences in our beliefs and our religions.

The most important achievement of Pope John Paul II was helping to abolish communism in Europe. He was against communist regime in Poland. He gave courage Polish people to rise up under peaceful revolution against their government. Life in Poland at that time was very hard. People had money, but there wasn’t enough food to buy in stores. Food like bread, sugar, meat and dairy products could be bought only with ration cards. Many Polish people couldn’t buy anything because there was no food. There was embargo against Poland (because of Polish regime and Marshal Law) and nobody would sell anything to our country. In addition people couldn’t go anywhere, except other communist countries. After the end of communist era, life in Poland became better. Polish officials could buy food from other countries and people were happier and healthier. After all years of repression, the government was more tolerant and was giving people passports to visit Western European countries and USA. That was when my mother applied for passport and after receiving it, she came to Chicago to visit her brother. My uncle escaped from the concentration camp in Germany and migrated to USA during War World II. After a couple years when my mom got a job and saved enough money, she sent for me and I moved to USA to find a better life.

Finally John Paul II was also the first pope invited to White House. After his first visit in 1979 people everywhere started to show respect to the Polish people. Before the Polish pope, I was sometimes a subject of racist comments and some people were telling Polish jokes in front of me, especially at work. Whenever a Polish name was mentioned on the news in connection with some crime, the next day my boss would be sure to mention it to me. Her comments were: “our government takes everybody, all those criminals. Deport them back to their countries, we don’t need them. They take our jobs and commit crimes”. One of my coworkers was telling Polish jokes whenever he was pleased. After Karol Wojtyla became the pope, suddenly everybody loved Polish people. A man, who used to tease me so much told me that his mother was Polish. Whenever I sad that I am Polish, people would telling me about John Paul II and how much they admired him.

It is amazing how one man can change the life of one nation. The Polish Pope received the Nobel Peace Prize in February 2004 for his life’s work in opposing communist repression and helping to reshape the world. President George W. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S.’s highest civilian honor to John Paul II on June 4, 2004, which recognized “this son of Poland” whose “principles stand for peace and freedom has inspired millions and helped to topple communism and tyranny”. The world needs more people like him, and then maybe the world would be a better and safer place for all people, regardless of race and religion. He helped the Polish people a lot, and thanks to him I am and many other people proud to be Polish.