184 PIOTR H. KOSICKI
Even though his time at the Council was limited, Stefan Swie-
żawski’s presence there substantially raised Polish Catholicism’s
profile abroad. He actively promoted his home institution, the
Catholic University of Lublin—the only nonpublic university be-
hind the Iron Curtain. When the formation of a pontifical commis-
sion called Iustitia et Pax was announced to oversee the implemen-
tation of Gaudium et spes, Swieżawski was chosen for a five-year
term as one of its thirteen members.181 The rector of the Catholic
University of Lublin delighted in the spotlight that Swieżawski’s
distinguished service shone on his university, and he squared off
against the Communist security apparatus again and again to as-
sure that Swieżawski would “be able to travel freely and to partici-
pate continuously in all of the work of the Commission.”182
Who Is Karol Wojtyła?
Although Swieżawski’s activities at the Council have thus far re-
ceived little scholarly attention, much has been written about
the conciliar work of his longtime Lublin colleague, Rev. Karol
Wojtyła. Though already an accomplished philosopher when he
became auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Kraków in 1958,
the future John Paul II was merely thirty-eight years old at the
time. He would later be young for an archbishop, young for a car-
dinal, and young for a pope.
When Vatican II began, Wojtyła was one of the Council’s most
junior bishops. Nonetheless, having completed his doctoral dis-
sertation in Rome at the Collegium Angelicum in 1948, fluent in
six languages by the time he received the bishop’s miter, Wojtyła
- Paul VI created Iustitia et Pax with “Catholicam Christi ecclesiam,” Acta
Apostolicae Sedis no. 59 (1967): 27. On the commission’s early work, see W. M. Cash-
man, “The Laity Council’s First Year,” Furrow 21, no. 4 (1970): 248–55. - Wincenty Granat to Passport Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, June
24, 1967, Archiwum Uniwersyteckie Katolickiego Uniwersytetu im. Jana Pawła II (Ar-
chives of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin), Lublin: File 311A.