We remember our Professor

Students, staff and friends of the Catholic University of Lublin laid 45 white roses at the monument to John Paul II and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, thus symbolically commemorating the 45th anniversary of the election to the See of Peter of Karol Wojtyla, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Lublin. - Today, on the 45th anniversary of the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to the papacy, we come here, at his monument, at his university, to express our attachment to his person and to his teaching, which he left to us," stressed the Catholic University of Lublin's Vice-Rector for Mission and Digitization, Prof. Adam Zadroga.

Addressing the students, the largest group of whom were Hispanics, Romanists and Italians, and their professors, he emphasized that the University is concerned that the students know who the patron of the University is. - We want you to know John Paul II," said Prof. Zadroga.

The meeting brought back memories. Among the professors of the Catholic University of Lublin there are some who remember the moment when Wojtyla was elected to the See of Peter. One of them is Prof. Dorota Sliwa of the Department of French Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin, who was then a student at the Jagiellonian University.

- It was in the evening, my colleagues at the university told me that Cardinal Wojtyla had become Pope, and we spontaneously went to the Krakow Market Square, where many people were already gathered. The atmosphere was full of euphoria, we were overwhelmed by a great joy," Prof. Sliwa recalled. The KUL lecturer noted that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is particularly close to her - it was he who gave her the sacrament of confirmation and made her feel his paternal care: "Today, with my students, I analyze translations of texts by Karol Wojtyla - St. John Paul II into various languages, mainly French. I am always moved when they discover and learn by heart selected passages from French translations of the texts of St. John Paul II, our patron," she adds.

Karol  Wojtyla worked at the Catholic University of Lublin for 24 years. As John Paul II, he always had warm memories of the university community. On June 17, 1983, during a ceremony at the Primate's Palace in Warsaw to receive an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), he told a delegation from the Catholic University of Lublin: "I very much wished - and still wish - to be at the Catholic University of Lublin, which for many years was my workshop of work. I owe a lot to the work of your University and I appreciate it very much". After his death on April 2, 2005, the Senate of the Catholic University of Lublin, wishing to honor its distinguished professor, decided to change the name of the University to the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.