Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/09/2005 4:22:50 PM PDT by MadIvan
AN 83-year-old Polish widow who knew Pope John Paul II as a teenager before he took holy orders has described him as the “love of my life”.
Halina Kwiatkowska’s friendship with the pontiff has been known for several years but she had always denied any degree of intimacy between them. Shortly before John Paul’s death last weekend, however, she fell ill and was taken to hospital, where she revealed that there was more to their relationship in the early days.
“He was the love of my life,” Kwiatkowska said in an interview with BZ, a Berlin newspaper, published last week. “You must excuse me not feeling well — the Pope and I have known each other for 71 years.”
As a young man in the town of Wadowice, Karol Wojtyla — or Lolek, as the future pope was known — called his childhood sweetheart Halinka. She watched him play football and still recalls the sight of his broad shoulders when he went swimming in a local river.
At school he had been marked out as intellectually gifted by Kwiatkowska’s father, who was his Latin teacher. “His eyes blazed,” she said. “He was different from the other boys.”
They first became acquainted when he was 13 and she was 12. Both were keen on amateur dramatics and she played Antigone in a play by Sophocles in which he was cast as her fiancé, Haemon. “I was sure he would become an actor, an excellent actor,” Kwiatkowska said.
Then came his decision to take holy orders, which destroyed her hopes of a life together. Wojtyla moved to Krakow and they initially remained close friends. After she married, Wojtyla baptised her first child.
They then lost contact, but after she was widowed Kwiatkowska travelled to the Vatican in 1979. As the Pope passed her early one morning in St Peter’s Square, she shouted: “Wadowice.” He did not appear to hear but a car was sent and the driver said that the Pope wanted to see her.
“My heart almost stopped and I was weak at the knees. I didn’t even know whether to call him Lolek or Holy Father,” she said, recalling an emotional breakfast reunion. “We sat at the table, just the two of us, and I couldn’t eat anything.” From then on they kept in touch.
On Friday, as the Pope was laid to rest, Kwiatkowska checked out of hospital and returned home to Krakow, still torn by thoughts of what might have been. “Who knows where it would have led us?” she said.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
We may never see the like of him again, in our lifetime.
Wow. I just got an idea for a book!
Sweet story ping.
Unfortunately, you're probably correct. But maybe the next generation will, or their children.....
.
Praise GOD that...
LOVE is the Only Reality and that...
GOD is LOVE..?
.
holy cow. can you imagine a former boyfriend as Pope. even a young crush from elementary school would seem weird to me.
BTW, this month it's 'holy smoke!', holy cows are Hindu.
Awwwwww!
I hope that we do. He set the stage nicely by burning his papers and believing to the end. I have high hopes that our next Pope will be just as strong.
It sounds like you feel there was something bad about this story. Do I understand you correctly? If so, what, exactly, is the problem with the story?
The article implies that there was "something more" between her and JPII, but it doesn't reveal anything that isn't already public knowledge. They were young teenage sweethearts; they each had a crush on each other. That certainly doesn't mean that they slept together. She is mentioned in George Weigel's biography of JPII, and there isn't anything here that wasn't mentioned in there.
What's wrong with this story? One who is truly Holy is one who is just a common man.
I'm very skeptical of the media, and will never look at an article without looking at it from the negative side first. Clinton/Libs/Dems have made me a skeptic of the whole damn media system.
TPD
See # 17
Yah think! WOW! Soon to be a major motion picture?
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