On the recordApril 6, 2005
I am saddened today, as a lifelong Catholic, at the thought of the death of our great Holy Father, John Paul II. As I stand in the well of this Chamber, it also strikes me as curiously ironic that we come to commemorate the life of John Paul II, who spoke with enormous moral clarity, and I stand staring at the image of Moses, the first of our lawgivers, who defined moral clarity for us in those early beginnings of civilization and humanity. The early years for John Paul II were a journey of hardship and sacrifice. Born Karol Wojtyla in a small town outside of Krakow in 1920, the same year of my mother's birth, by the way, he was the second of two sons. His mother died when he was but 9 years old, and by the time he was 21, he had lost his dear brother and his father as well. Young Karol found himself alone. He worked in a rock quarry and then a chemical factory to earn a living and to avoid being deported to Nazi Germany.
Source
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