As the news spread everywhere that the non-Italian, Polish Cardinal Wojtyła had been elected Pope, in distant Poland, an elderly priest named Edward Zacher, the parish vicar of Wadowice, opened a thick register with trembling hands. Except for one column, the other four columns were marked ‘death’: “God, did you leave him on this earth without relatives or descendants, so that you could claim him for yourself? Or to make him a father to many?” Father Zacher sobbed gratefully. With tears streaming down his face, he touched the fifth column with his finger and read: “.. Karol Józef Wojtyła (Lolek): Born May 18, 1920…Baptism…Confirmation…First Holy Communion…Priesthood…Bishop…Metropolitan…Cardinal….” By the time he reached this point, tears had fallen and wet the page. 

The priest got up from his chair. He knelt down slowly. Then, with trembling hands, he added: Die 16-X-1978 in Summum Pontificem Ioannem Paulum II imposuit. Thus, the auspicious day when little Lolek was enthroned as Pope John Paul II, the Supreme Pontiff, was also recorded in it. On that day, no one in Wadowice could sleep. It was their night of celebration. The church bells did not stop ringing. From the church, verses of psalms and hymns of praise were heard; some recited the rosary with tears of joy before the Black Madonna. They hugged and cried out loud. 

“Our dear Lolek has become Pope!” shouted Freddy, a quarry worker. On the streets of Poland, soaked in the warm blood of martyrs, young people threw flowers and dust. On the porch of Lolek’s small house, a photograph was raised. The history of the quarry worker… the factory worker… the seminarian who hid in fear of the army… the orphan boy who experienced endless sorrow when his siblings and finally his father passed away, was heard there again. After many days in constant communion with God, the enthronement of the Pope-elect took place on October 22nd. 

Beneath the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, in front of the sacred tomb of Saint Peter, the 264th Bishop of Rome knelt. He raised his eyes to the heights. Then he read what was written in Latin on the inside of the dome: ‘Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum…’ As he read ‘rock,’ a trace of grace appeared in the eyes of the old youth who had once broken rocks. Humbly bowing and kissing the ground, the Pope prayed with a melting heart.

Little Lolek, Pope John Paul II, on the day he was canonized as a saint, someone in the Wadowice register must have surely recorded it, right?"