HUMAN PROBLEMS – PLAYS

Plays constitute a unique phenomenon in the literary output of Karol Wojtyla. He wrote them not only as a poet and playwright, but above all as an actor of the Rhapsodic Theatre who contributed to the development of this form of dramatic form.
In the sphere of poetry, the Pope from Cracow had a predecessor in the person of pope Pius II – Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1405-1464), who before his election to the Holy See, was a historian, humanist and court poet laureate at the court of emperor Frederick III. He won fame as the author of love poems, of Boccacio type novels, such as Euralio and Lucretia as well as of a Latin comedy Chrysis written before the year 1444, that is before he became a priest.

IV. The Testimony of a Christian

Participation in the work of the Second Vatican Council in the years 1962-1965 and the nomination to the office of archbishop metropolitan of Cracow, marked a new phase in the life of Karol Wojtyla. It also constituted a direct preparation to undertaking the mission of the Peter of our times. The experience the universal Church, contacts with the Council Fathers from all over the world as well as numerous foreign trips, particularly to the Holy Land, enriched the Cracow Bishop with new experiences which found their reflection in his poems. The new poems reflect the process of the inner maturing of the Poet who now becomes a Church dignitary and who takes upon his shoulders the responsibility for faith and the community of the faithful.

III. PROFESSION OF FAITH

Poetry accompanied Rev. Karol Wojtyla throughout his entire life becoming a means of expressing his personal feelings and experiences: his relations with God, with other people and his attitude towards the world. It revealed the process of his spiritual maturing and self-identification. In it, the Poet found space to express his personal experiences, doubts and problems which were encountered by him in everyday life. From issues concerning friendship, he passed to problems associated with his ministry as bishop presenting forever new aspects of life which confronted him as a young Poet.

II. Discovering God in the Poetry of Karol Wojtyla

The juvenile poetry of Karol Wojtyla comprising the war years up until the time when the author decided to join the Religious Seminary in Cracow, is characterized by a search after God. At the beginning of this road one finds the experience of God's presence in the world, in the beauty and greatness of nature, in the natural phenomena and in the infinite depth of the human spirit. From taking delight in the stream of light, the poet passes to asking questions about its beginning and ultimate goal. He discovers God who is the beginning of everything and towards whom all of creation is striving towards. He takes up the existential issues in his post-war poems, in which he tries to describe his own experience of the encounter with Jesus and His Mother.

INTRODUCTION

The poetry of Karol Wojtyła, a young high school student from Wadowice, and subsequently student of Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, cleric in the Major Seminary seminary, priest, bishop, cardinal and Pope John Paul II – continues to arouse a big interest among readers, particularly from the moment of his election to the Holy See. The poems are undoubtedly an important key to getting to know the spiritual interior of the Holy Father John Paul II, his spiritual maturing and his personal relation toward God. They reveal his vision of the world, his way of understanding values, inter-personal relations and his attitude towards himself.
Poetry accompanies the spiritual maturing of Karol Wojtyła from his early high school days when young Karol became aware of his own spiritual identity, through the stormy years of the war and German occupation, the difficult times of Socialist communism, up to the moment of accepting the responsibility for steering the boat of Peter – the universal Church in Rome. The beginnings of this spiritual journey should be looked for in the period when Karol Wojtyla attended High School in his native Wadowice, particularly in the writings which reveal his first ideological fascinations and his attempts to define himself and determine his own place in the world. The beginnings were very important for the young poet. The themes which he took up then continued to arouse his interest throughout his entire life.