Karol Joseph Wojtyla grew up in a hard time. He was born in Wadowice, Poland on May 18, 1920.1 His father was a officer in the Polish Army, and his Mom was a school teacher. Karol enjoyed sports, especially soccer, skiing, kayaking and hiking. When he was young he developed a love of the theater. In his book Witness To Hope, George Weigel stated:

Stealing quietly through Krakow's blacked out streets, the actors and their au

He was 19 when the Nazis invaded Poland. During the time of Nazi occupation he made a living as a stonecutter so he could keep his work permit to avoid deportation. Despite a hard life he still clung on to his hope of a better life. He secretly pursued a life in the clergy. He also was a member in the UNIA, a Christian democratic underground organization. Authorities have testified that he helped Jews find refuge from the Nazis. In 1940 he was hit by a army vehicle and was critically close to death. During his recuperation he was convinced that God saved his life so he could enter the priesthood. In the years of Nazi occupation Karol Wojtyla was not deflected from his calling to the service of God. 3

Pope John Paul played a significant part in the downfall of Communism in Europe. In the last years of the 1980's the USSR was falling apart. Pope John Paul's native country was occupied during World War II, and maybe this is why he worked so hard toward the goal of the fall of Communism. Many things happened between 1988 to 1990 that foretold the coming to an end of the Soviet Union. In 1988, in Stratusburg, Pope John Paul II made a speech against communism saying, "It is time to shed the Stalinist mentality of eastern Europe and western Europe so that 'Europe' can once again reach the dimensions that geography and, even more, history has given it." With Mikhail Gorbachev's appointment to the position of General Secretary in 1985, soon, he started to bring change to the USSR he started to bring around change. On April 18, 1988 Russian troops moved out of their the USSR's most recently occupied country, Afghanistan. On April 29, Mikhail Gorbachev met with officials of the Russian Orthodox to discuss the possibility of freedom of religion. On June 30 Mikhail Gorbachev proposed political reform. August 23, Lithuania, Lativa, and Estonia demonstrate against the 1940 annexation of their countries. Less than 3 months later, November 16, the Estonian Supreme Soviet declared that Estonian laws would take precedent over Moscow's laws. These were the first steps to the Soviet Union becoming a group of sperate free nations once more. The General Secretary of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, knew that a change had to come. On December 30, 1989 the Mikhail Gorbachev did something no other General Secretary had done since the start of the Soviet Union, he paid a visit to the Vatican. On December 30, 1989 a royal procession traveled down the streets of the Vatican. The press set up cameras throughout the palace to watch the historic procession. The pope greeted the president of the USSR with a cordial greeting and then they convened behind closed doors. Meanwhile, Gorbachev's wife, Raisa Maximovna, was visiting St. Peter's Basilica, when she saw Michaelangelo's frescoes, she said that they were inferior to Russian icons. When the pope and Gorbachev reemerged from their meeting, Gorbachev introduced his wife to John Paul, saying,

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Approximate Word count = 1984
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)