KAROL WOJTYLA AND EMILIA KACZOROWSKA | KAIROS GLOBAL | MARCH 2024

Author: Jisha John

John: Maria, I am afraid. I can’t let this happen.

Maria: Calm down my love! Trust God.

John: No, We can have a baby sometime later. I can’t think of living without you.

Maria: I can’t think of killing it. It is precious.

John: But still…

Maria: Shh! John, you know, just like us… a couple were asked to abort their child but they refused. The baby was born in his time, caused no trouble to his mom. Do you know him?

John: Hmm! 

Maria: C’mon John, He is your most favourite saint. 

John: What, Papa John Paul?

Maria: Yes, he is the one.

John: No Maria. Don’t say that. Are you sure?

Maria: Yes Jo. The doctor advised his mom to have an abortion as it was life-threatening. But she insisted to have him. See John, imagine if he was not born…!

John (takes a deep breath and sighs): We will have our baby. I never knew Papa John Paul’s parents were this important.

Maria: Yes, their decision to have him brought peace to the world. Indeed, they resemble Jesus’ parents.

John: Have you read about them?

Maria: I read about them the night we went to the hospital. And I reckon, I was directed by the Holy Spirit.

John: Mm… Tell me about them Maria… I would like to know.

Maria: Sure, my darling. Emilia and Karol Senior, his parents were the real reason for his holiness.

He was the youngest of their three kids. Karol Senior was a non- commissioned Austro-Hungarian army officer. He married Emilia on February 10, 1906. Theirs was an ordinary family. The couple loved and cared for each other. The three kids, included two sons and a daughter. The eldest of them, Edmund, was a doctor. The second one, the only daughter, Olga died sixteen hours after her birth. The family was truly a courageous one, living through the troubles that stood before them. They started and ended their days in prayer. Karol Senior read the Bible to the family. And, it was his mother who taught him to pray. She was mostly home due to her poor health. The Pope once recollected how precisely his mom taught him to make the Sign of the Cross in his childhood. Emilia didn’t live long. She died when young Karol was nine-years-old. Her passing had a deep effect on Karol. Another tragedy hit the family three years later. Edmund, Karol’s elder brother, died after contracting scarlet fever from his workplace. 

John: How sad! Two deaths!

Maria: Yeah, Karol was left alone with his father, who showed great faith amidst the rising waters. Karol Senior was determined to bring his only treasure in love and faith. He was very prayerful and hard working. This had a great impact on Karol. See, I will read it to you, how Papa recollected his father.

John: Sure, I’m listening.

Maria: Got it, it reads, ‘My father was admirable and almost all my memories of my childhood and adolescence are connected with him. The violence of the blows which had struck him had opened up immense spiritual depths in him; his grief found its outlet in prayer. The mere fact of seeing him on his knees had a decisive influence on my early years. He was so hard on himself that he had no need to be hard on his son; his example alone was sufficient to inculcate discipline and a sense of duty. He was an exceptional person. He died almost suddenly during the war, under the Nazi occupation. I was not yet twenty-one.’

John: Inspiring. I’m sure now. Family is the place where holiness roots. 

Maria: Yes John. Though Papa John Paul was left alone and orphaned at an early age, see how his parents impacted him. He was not there when his father had died. He came home, found his father dead, and stayed along with the body the whole night, praying incessantly. I don’t get it, how could such a young person do all that! 

John: I get it. If Papa could pray the whole night, and as I remember, leave his home for the seminary, it is certain that every goodness in him was from his family.

He outlived three deaths in his early life. He trusted God even after losing his family. That’s not something easily done. People hardly have faith in God when they lose everything. It contradicts when you decide to serve God and be there for him when it seems he is not there for you.

A Job is rare. A John Paul is rarest. 

Maria: I now understand it. The faith, love, kindness and a plethora of qualities he lived in his life are not acquired with effort. It was his parents. His parents actually lived through him a hundred years and more. 

John: His goodness was in-built. 

Maria: Yes, his parents baked a saint. I doff my hat to them. So John, what about our future saint?

John: Oh yeah, a warm welcome. I’m waiting.

Maria: Really?

John: Yes, and let us start praying for the baby with Papa’s saintly parents.

Maria: I was about to say it.

John: Oh my love! 

Maria: I’m blessed.

John: We are. Totus tuus, Maria.

Maria: Totus tuus, Maria.