Blister pack BU

Johannes Paul II. was born as Karol Józef Wojtyła on 18 May 1920. During the German occupation of Poland, he worked for a time in a quarry and a chemical factory. At the same time, he prepared for the priesthood underground, as the occupying forces had restricted ecclesiastical training. He was ordained a priest in 1946, became Archbishop of Krakow in 1964 and a cardinal in 1967.

In October 1978, the conclave elected him pope. He was the first Pole to hold this office and, for several centuries, the first pope who did not come from Italy. His pontificate lasted until his death in 2005. Johannes Paul II. undertook numerous foreign trips and made public encounters a permanent feature of the papal exercise of office. His visits to Poland strengthened the self-understanding of the Catholic Church and non-state social forces there during communist rule. In this way, he indirectly influenced the developments that led to the end of the Eastern Bloc, although this political upheaval cannot be attributed to him alone.

In matters of doctrine concerning faith and morality, he often represented traditional Catholic positions. At the same time, he sought contact with other Christian churches as well as with Judaism and Islam. In 1981, he was seriously injured in an assassination attempt on Petersplatz. Later, he forgave the perpetrator during a prison visit. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.

The former family home of the Wojtyła family is now a museum. The neighboring church was his baptismal and home parish church and was later granted the rank of minor basilica. Both places link his ecclesiastical career with his origins. For the Vatican, a numismatic tribute was appropriate because Johannes Paul II., as pope, had also been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State.