Wadowice Research Paper

On the last day of our pilgrimage we had the opportunity to visit Wadowice. The square was very beautiful, with all of its 19th century burgher-style buildings intact. The church in Wadowice which he attended and had served was decorated with rosaries. The locals were very friendly and eager to share the history of the town along with little stories and anecdotes about John Paul II that had been passed down through their families. Wadowice struck me as a very calm and tight-knit town, where Karol Wojtyla learned that,
Men and women of different religious and ethnic backgrounds could come to common understandings of the truths on which decent societies rested. It took work. But the work paid off in a public spirit of civility and mutual respect. That was the experience of Wadowice- and a lesson the town’s most famous son would try to teach an entire world. (Weigel 32) It is no wonder that Karol Wojtyla’s upbringing in Wadowice greatly influenced his beliefs on religious tolerance and began to form his lifelong commitment to defending the defenseless as defensor civitatis.

Wojtyla and his father moved to Krakow so that he could attend the Jagellonian University. We stumbled upon the university by accident as we were given free time in Krakow, and there is a plaque that commemorates his …show more content…
They are an officer who conducts public business. Functions of a defensor civitatis include, protecting poor from legal injustices, adjudicating minor offenses, and pecuniary matters. They also act as public servants for those who are unable to defend themselves. From his young age and encouraged by his father, Karol Wojtyla began to promote social justice and continued doing so until his death. He played the role of staunch defender, ‘defensor civitatis’ very well, opposing the Nazi Regime, poverty, Communism, culture of death etc with exceptional dynamism and unbroken