ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER Saints celebrated on the 22nd of October WELCOME! SAINT JOHN PAUL II., POPE ⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index Karol Wojtyla’s story was in many ways that of the Church in the 20th century. He lived under the false gods of National Socialism and Communism, eventually triumphing over both. Although his pontificate coincided with a profound crisis in western Christianity, worldwide Catholicism grew rapidly. Saint John Paul II guided the Church firmly into the new millennium. CHILDHOOD He was born in Wadowice, near Krakow, in 1920, the youngest of three children of Karol and Emilia Wojtyla. A doctor reportedly advised Emilia to have an abortion, insisting that she would not give birth to a live child. But, of course, she refused. Emilia died when Karol was just eight and, along with the premature deaths of his sister and brother, this would deeply affect him. His father died in 1941. And so, he later reflected, by 20 he had lost his entire close family. PRIESTHOOD W...