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| | Then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla distributes communion
in 1969 (Photo courtesy Felician College) | |
In the early 1960s, Angelo Battisti held two important positions in the Church. He was the administrator for Padre Pio’s hospital, the Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza, located just across the piazza from the Capuchin friary at San Giovanni Rotondo. In addition, he worked in the offices of the Vatican secretary of state.
Shuttling back and forth between Rome and San Giovanni was a weekly occurrence for Battisti, and he was known as a close personal friend of Padre Pio’s. So it was not altogether unusual when, in November of 1962, he was asked by a colleague in the secretariat, Guglielmo Zannoni, to deliver an urgent letter to Padre Pio. The letter was composed by a bishop from Krakow by the name of Karol Wojtyla.
Bishop Wojtyla was in Rome as a member of the Polish episcopate that was attending the opening session of the Second Vatican Council, which had convened in October. Not long after his arrival in Rome, he received disturbing news about a close friend and collaborator, Dr. Wanda Poltawska. Wojtyla had known Poltawska and her husband Andrei from his earliest days as a priest in Krakow. She had been very active in various Catholic youth movements in Poland prior to the Second World War. But when the Nazis came to power, she was arrested and imprisoned for five years in a concentration camp, where she underwent intense sufferings. Along with other Catholic women, she was forced to submit to “medical experiments” performed by Nazi doctors at the camp.
After the war, she resumed her university studies and her involvement with Catholic youth.
At that time, Karol Wojtyla was assigned by his superiors to St. Florian parish in the center of Krakow, where he was in charge of the student chaplaincy. This enabled him to personally reach out to the younger men and women. One of ways he did this was by holding conferences to discuss theology and philosophy, areas in which he was already degreed. The popularity of his conferences drew a large following, including the young couple, Wanda and Andrei, who were pursuing careers in medicine.
The bond between the new prelate and those who attended his talks and discussions was cemented by his charisma, intelligence, and warmth. He became the spiritual leader and mentor of a close circle of friends. Soon, small groups of students, inspired to learn more about the humanitarian, social, and religious discussions that Wojtyla led, joined him on week-long mountain retreats, which included kayaking and camping. Although Poland was under Soviet communist domination, they celebrated Mass together in the open, which was forbidden by the regime.
These excursions were held a few times each year, and were usually attended by the Poltawskas. Specializing in psychiatry and the family, the couple made important contributions to the group’s discussions about the married state, making a great impression on Wojtyla. Many of their ideas were incorporated in his first non-fiction book,
Love and Responsibility (1960), and eventually influenced Pope Paul VI’s encyclical
Humanae Vitae.
