Rome, Italy, Feb 14, 2011 / 13:29 pm
Seventy years ago this week, Karol Wojtyla was “pushed” forward in his vocation by the death of the last member of his close family.
The anniversary was recalled on Italy’s national television channel RaiUno on Feb. 13 by Italian journalist and writer Gian Franco Svidercoschi. He was close to Pope John Paul II and has written numerous books about the late pontiff’s life.
Svidercoschi was given a couple of minutes during regular programming to offer an anecdote about his friend Pope John Paul II’s life.
The tragic event of his father’s death is one that many books on the late Pope “seem to neglect,” said Svidercoschi. For the journalist, however, due to this event—which took place 70 years ago this week—the future Pope was given a further impulse to pursue his vocation.