John Paul II. [antikvár]

On 16 October 1978, a few minutes after 6 p.ma new popé was elected by the College of Cardinals on the second day of the Conclave. The election was announced to the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square by Cardinal Periele Felici according to the traditional formula: Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus papam (I announce to you a great joy: we have a popé). He announced that the new popé was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who had taken the name of John Paul II. This is how the pontificate of the new Popé, the first Popé from Poland, began. The world news média broadeast the amazing announcement and within seconds people began to talk about the Cardinal from far-away Cracow and to look on the map for foreign-sounding place-names - Wadowice, Lublin, Czqstochowa - and everywhere people were talking about Poland. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Cracow, was already well-known in Poland. He was so well-known in fact that really the Poles knew little about him apart from somé generál facts, and it was not until his name came to be known all over the world, until reporters began to trace almost his every step from birth, that they saw how interesting and rich his life had been.