Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Pope John Paul II (Polish Catholic Religious Leader)

St. John Paul II (1920–2005,) originally Karol Józef Wojtyła, was the bishop of Rome and the pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church 1978–2005. He was the first Slavic pope and the first non-Italian elected to the See of Peter since 1523. Spearheading the Church’s relationship to the new modern world, John Paul II’s personality, pastoral approach, and magisterium left an enduring impact on Catholicism.

Born in Wadowice, Poland, Wojtyła attended Jagiellonian University for Polish studies and philosophy. There he developed a keen interest in drama and poetry. During Poland’s Nazi occupation during World War II, he joined the underground student resistance movement to pursue his studies, working in a stone quarry during the day.

In 1942, Wojtyła started to study theology clandestinely at his university. He was ordained in 1946. He obtained a doctorate from the Jagiellonian University and served as a professor of theology at the Catholic University of Lublin. He became auxiliary bishop of Kraców (1958,) archbishop (1964,) and then cardinal (1967,) before becoming pope in 1978.

John Paul II’s papacy provided important moral and political support for the uprising against Communism in Poland and other countries in Eastern Europe. Theologically conservative, he defended papal infallibility and upheld the Church’s long-established opposition to the ordination of women, artificial birth control, and homosexuality. He was increasingly involved with social values and human rights.

During John Paul II’s papacy, revelations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy germinated a worldwide scandal, but the church did little to face up to the problem. His final years were plagued by illness—Parkinson’s disease and respiratory problems. He was canonized in April 2014 by Pope Francis, along with Pope John XXIII. John Paul II’s feast day is October 22.

John Paul II wrote a play and quite a few books, including The Freedom of Renewal (1972) and The Future of the Church (1979.) His Collected Poems appeared in 1982.

Insightful biographies of John Paul II include Tad Szulc’s Pope John Paul II, The Biography (1995) and George Weigel’s Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999.) Luigi Accattoli’s When a Pope Asks Forgiveness: The Mea Culpas of John Paul II (1999) details his unprecedented church apologies.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Pope John Paul II

The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in our century is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.
Pope John Paul II

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
Pope John Paul II

The fear of making permanent commitments can change the mutual love of husband and wife into two loves of self-two loves existing side by side, until they end in separation.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Divorce

Euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person.
Pope John Paul II

From now on it is only through a conscious choice and through a deliberate policy that humanity can survive.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Humanity

Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war, on whose stage of death and pain only remains standing the negotiating table that could and should have prevented it.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Humanity

Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Wildlife

As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Family

Each individual in fact has moral responsibility for the acts which he personally performs; no one can be exempted from this responsibility, and on the basis of it everyone will be judged by God himself.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Responsibility

The worst prison is a closed heart.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Kindness

Another key element of human ecology is the inviolability of human life, especially at its beginning and its end. The Holy See insistently proclaims that the first and most fundamental of all human rights is the right to life, and that when this right is denied all other rights are threatened. The assumption that abortion and euthanasia are human rights deserving legislative sanction is seen by the Holy See as a contradiction which amounts to a denial of the human dignity and freedom which the law is supposed to protect. A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.
Pope John Paul II

To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Parents

Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family—a domestic church.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Marriage

Work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Work

Every generation of Americans needs to know
that freedom consists not in doing what we like,
but in having the right to do what we ought.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Conviction

Pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one. The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Nationalities, Nationality, Nation, Nationalism

The worst prison would be a closed heart.
Pope John Paul II

When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ, who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ, who is the fulfillness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Christianity

The truth is not always the same as the majority decision.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Truth

The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Religion, Churches

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Fear

A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings. You, the people must git it this soul.
Pope John Paul II
Topics: Community

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