Karol Wojtyla, before becoming Pope John Paul II, wrote that opposing public education can be an act of solidarity.

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Karol Wojtyla was appointed an archbishop in Cracow in 1964 but still continued to ski well into 1993, long after he became pope.

ECONOMIST: Pope John Paul II

The Mass marked the role played by the Roman Catholic Church in toppling communism, particularly that of Poland's Karol Wojtyla, then newly-elected as Pope John Paul II.

BBC: The event is being marked by three days of celebrations

The car is as modest as they come, but its provenance is divine: Before Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, he tooled around the Polish countryside in it.

FORBES: Taken for a Ride

For example, Karol Wojtyla, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan did not win the peace prize for winning the Cold War (and, consequently, also keeping Europe pretty darn peaceful), but they did award the prize to Mikhail Gorbachev for losing the Cold War.

FORBES: The EU, Mikhail Gorbachev and Al Gore Have This in Common

In his later years O'Quinn, childless, unmarried, workaholic and recovering alcoholic, found solace in building one of the world's finest collections of automobiles--Dusenbergs, Bugattis, even the original Popemobile, a 1975 Ford Escort once owned by Karol Wojtyla before he became Pope John Paul II.

FORBES: Magazine Article

With a puff of white smoke at the Vatican on Oct. 16, 1978, a Polish cardinal Karol Jozef Wojtyla was chosen as the first non-Italian pope in more than 400 years.

WSJ: Book Review: Strange Rebels