Archbishop Karol Wojtyla's role in Vatican II

When, on October 16, 1978, TV cameras turned to the balcony of St Peter's Basilica in Rome with St Peter's Square filled with people, and millions of faithful all over the world were following on television and radio the election of the new Pope to succeed John Paul I, Cardinal Pericle Felici announced that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was the new Pope, very few seemed to have heard of this brilliant Polish cardinal.

However, for the over 2,000 bishops who had participated in Vatican II, the new Pope was far from an erudite but unknown archbishop, as he had participated very intensely in most of the Schemas under discussion at the Council. But perhaps his major role was that in Schema XIII, Gaudium et Spes (joy and hope).

Scholars, students and the faithful are all very grateful today to historian George Weigel who in his famous book Witness to Hope - the biography of Pope John Paul II - provided the world with very precious information which throws further light on John Paul the Great.

Weigel highly praises Archbishop Wojtyla's participation in Vatican II when working in the group which included such great names as Archbishop Garrone, the Dominican theologian Yves Congar, and the Jesuit scholars Henri de Lubac and Jean Danielou. De Lubac stated that he had "worked side by side" with the young Archbishop of Krakow and that "it did not take long to discover in him a person of the very highest qualities".

"But it was the French Dominican, Fr Congar, also under suspicion throughout the 1950s for his writings on the nature of the Church and on ecumenism, who left a striking written recollection of Karol Wojtyla as a partner in drafting Gaudium et Spes. Congar kept a diary, and its entry for February 2, 1965, describes Wojtyla's work at a meeting in Ariccia, outside Rome.

"At the afternoon meeting, which was devoted to discussion of the second chapter, Bishop Wojtyla made a few remarkable comments. 'One exclusively considers here,' he said, 'the problems and questions that have arisen from the new situation of the world...

'However, the contemporary world also gives some answers to these questions, and it is necessary for us to consider these answers as well, because they conflict with the Church's answers. In the text that has been presented to us, there is no reference to the answers that the contemporary world is offering, and no discussion about the problems that are created because of these conflicting answers'."

Congar concludes the entry in his diary with this highly appreciative remark: "Wojtyla made a remarkable impression. His personality dominates. Some kind of animation is present in this person, a magnetic power, prophetic strength, full of peace, and impossible to resist" (Witness of Hope, pp. 167, 168).