THE CENTRE FOR THE THOUGHT OF JOHN PAUL II IN WADOWICE.
The Thought Center of John Paul II on May 18 started the portal jp2online.pl. All materials about the Pope are there: photographs, films and documents gathered in one place. The Archdiocese of Warsaw is one of the partners of this project. On the jp2online website, Internet users will find, among others a modern computer search engine for multimedia, papal documents and texts, a multimedia biography of John Paul II, thematic publications devoted to various aspects of the pope’s life and teaching, a catalog of papal materials found in the archives of Poland and church institutions, papal organizations and private individuals. Part of the collections will be available for download and use in non-commercial educational, research and dissemination projects.
Although the whole portal is a real treasury of information about John Paul II, special attention should be paid to the multimedia biography – encourages Anna Olesiak, head of the Digital Resources Department, project coordinator at the Center of Thought of John Paul II. With the help of interesting graphics, animation, audiovisual materials and text, we want to show events, people and places that shaped Karol Wojtyła as a human being and a future pope. The seven chapters of the biography, which we will gradually reveal to recipients from May 18 (the date of his birth in 1920) to October 16 (the conclave date in 1978), tells about the next stages and aspects of Karol Wojtyła’s life that led him to the Holy See. We named them: Lolek, Karol, Priest, Uncle, Shepherd, Professor and John Paul II. Some materials illustrating this rich biography will have their premiere here, and many others have not yet been known to a wider audience, such as unique recordings of Karol Wojtyła’s statements at the meetings of the Polish Conference of Bishops from 1968-78 from the resources of the Archdiocese of Warsaw in the form of audio files. Among nearly a thousand broadcasts of Polish Radio, the attention of listeners is caught by numerous comments “hot” after the assassination of John Paul II, as well as the statement of the Primate of the Millennium recorded shortly before his death.
The collection also includes a document from 1946 found at the Institute of National Remembrance in Krakow, which mentions 26-year-old Karol Wojtyła. This is the first mention of a future pope recorded by the communist secret police. The partners of the project are: the Archdiocese of Warsaw, the National Archives, the National Archives in Krakow, the National Film Archive, Audiovisual Institute, the Institute of National Remembrance, the Primate’s Institute of Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, the Tertio Millenio Institute, the Monastery of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual in Niepokalanów, the Chief Directorate of State Archives, Polish Radio SA, Congregation of Priests of Hearts, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). The project is implemented under the auspices of the Polish Conference of Bishops and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
KAI / awo
