WHEREAS, Karol Józef Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Cracow, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died in 1929. His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father, a noncommissioned army officer died in 1941; and
     WHEREAS, He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Upon graduation from Marcin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a school for drama; and
     WHEREAS, The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry (1940-1944) and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany; and
     WHEREAS, In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, Archbishop of Cracow. At the same time, Karol Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theatre," also clandestine; and
     WHEREAS, After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, 1946; and
     WHEREAS, Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange. He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross. At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium, and Holland; and
     WHEREAS, In 1948 he returned to Poland and was vicar of various parishes in Cracow as well as chaplain for the university students until 1951, when he took up again his studies on philosophy and theology. In 1953 he defended a thesis on "evaluation of the possibility of founding a Catholic ethic on the ethical system of Max Scheler" at Lublin Catholic University. Later he became professor of moral theology and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of Theology of Lublin; and
     WHEREAS, On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak; and
     WHEREAS, On January 13, 1964, he was nominated Archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal June 26, 1967; and
     WHEREAS, Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978, Pope John Paul II has completed 104 pastoral visits outside of Italy and 146 within Italy. As Bishop of Rome he has visited 317 of the 333 parishes; and
     WHEREAS, No other Pope has encountered so many individuals as has John Paul II: More than 17,600,000 people have participated in more than 1,160 General Audiences held on Wednesdays. Such figure is without counting all other special audiences and services held, including more than 8 million people during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 alone and the millions of faithful met during pastoral visits made in Italy and throughout the world. It must also be remembered the numerous government personalities encountered during 38 official visits and in the 738 audiences and meetings held with Heads of State, and 246 audiences and meetings with Prime Ministers; and
     WHEREAS, During his over a quarter-century reign, Pope John Paul II amassed a legacy of historic achievements, from his forging of a Catholic-Jewish rapprochement over the Holocaust, to his significant contribution to the decline and fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the 1980s, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the reunification of Eastern and Western Europe;
     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the state of Washington recognize and honor the extraordinary achievements and life of Pope John Paul II, a voice for the voiceless and the vulnerable and a friend to humanity; and
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives to the Papal Office of the Vatican, Rome, Italy.