Forty-five years ago, Chicago prepared to welcome a visitor unlike any other. Pope John Paul II (formerly known as Karol Wojtyla) was the first non-Italian leader of the Catholic Church in almost half a century. Born in Poland in 1920 but not ordained a priest until after World War II, the master of at least a dozen languages was elected Oct.
16, 1978 — making him among the youngest popes in history — amid much jubilation from Chicago’s Polish American community, which was the largest outside Warsaw. “My parishioners are in seventh heaven,” Bishop Alfred L. Abramowicz told the Tribune at the time.
“Pope John Paul II will be as lovable as John Paul I. He is an extremely holy man and is well-beloved by his people. He is a scholar, but he also has a great touch with the laboring man.
During the war years he was a worker in a chemical factory in Krakow.” Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, right, shakes hands with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who would become known as Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Chicago on Aug.
2, 1976. (Walter Kale/Chicago Tribune) There were three leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in 1978. Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected Aug.
26, 1978, following the death of Pope Paul VI . Yet the pontificate of Pope John Paul I (Luciani’s chosen name) would become among the shortest in the church’s history. He died of a heart attack in his sleep just 33 days after his election.
Pope John Paul I’s successor would become among the church’.
