Cardinal Karol Wojtyla surrounded by children during a visit to a village near Krakow, a few months before he became Pope.
In 1948 he became professor of moral theology and social ethics in Krakow's main seminary and at the faculty of theology at Lublin.
Later he founded and ran a service that dealt with marital problems, from family planning and illegitimacy to alcoholism and physical abuse. Time magazine called it 'perhaps the most successful marriage institute in Christianity.' These were not easy times to be a priest in Poland, perhaps the most important nation after the Soviet Union in the Warsaw Pact, the Communist answer to the US and NATO.
Even though most Poles were devout Catholics -- they vigorously practiced their faith in the officially atheist State -- priests had to be careful not to cross the line and incur the Communist leadership's wrath.
On January 13, 1964, in recognition of his commitment to the Church and evangelistic zeal, Pope Paul VI appointed Karol Wojtyla Archbishop of Krakow. Three years later, June 26, 1967, the Pontiff nominated him a cardinal. He was the youngest bishop and cardinal in Polish history.
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