Word: wojtyla
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...longtime photographer of Pope John Paul II, Gianni Giansanti was just 22 when he took his first shot of the just elected and virtually unknown Karol Wojtyla as he emerged above St. Peter's Square from the last conclave which ended on Oct. 16, 1978. Having just bid farewell to the photogenic figure who helped launch his career, Giansanti, now 48, recalls with a lump in his throat that it was John Paul himself who assured him that his own Vatican career was really just beginning...
...there are signs of what might be called a movement against the tyranny of charisma. "The people are voicing their opinion for another figure who can hold the spotlight like Karol Wojtyla," says Vittorio Messori, a church historian who helped focus that spotlight by editing the late Pontiff's best seller Crossing the Threshold of Hope. "But what the church needs now is structure, governance and patient service." That sentiment is echoed by a surprisingly wide cross section of clerics who think that the former Pope's flair for the symbolic gesture sometimes came at the expense of administrative housecleaning...
Born Karol Wojtyla in 1920 in a small Polish town near Krakow, the Pontiff led a difficult and often sorrow-filled life: his mother died when he was eight years old, his elder brother died of scarlet fever a little over three years later, and his father succumbed to the ravages of old age before seeing his son enter the priesthood. He narrowly escaped deportation to Germany during the Second World War, and Communist domination forced him to go to an underground seminary. For a long time, his life seemed destined not for greatness, but rather for anonynimity...
...voting Cardinals, don't expect a clone of the departed Pontiff. The outcome is often an expression of a pent-up desire to adjust the church's compass, however subtly. That said, the Italian members of the Sacred College had established, before the ascension of the Polish Karol Cardinal Wojtyla in 1978, a 456-year tradition of selecting from among themselves. Though the percentage of electors from Italy has plummeted from the 33% who helped elect John XXIII in 1958 to 17% today, the 20 Italians who can cast ballots remain powerful, and the next Bishop of Rome could...
...list extends from here, and as Wojtyla's extraordinary election more than a quarter-century ago proved, there is absolutely no predicting what will occur when the Cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel beneath the Michelangelo frescoes and devoutly swear to "preserve a scrupulous secrecy regarding everything that relates in any way to the election of the Roman Pontiff." Having pledged, they will get down to their task, filling in their ballots under the words "I elect as Supreme Pontiff." Outside, St. Peter's Square will be filled with pilgrims, gazing up at the chimney, awaiting the puff of white...