Priesthood, Bishop, and Cardinal

Priesthood
On completion of his studies at the seminary in Kraków, Karol Wojtyła was ordained as a priest

on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1946, by the Archbishop of Kraków, He was then sent to study theology in Rome, at the Pontifical International Athenaeum Angelicum, where he earned a licentiate and later a doctorate in sacred theology. This doctorate, the first of two, was based on the Latin dissertation The Doctrine of Faith According to Saint John of the Cross.
He returned to Poland in the summer of 1948 with his first pastoral assignment in the village of Niegowić, fifteen miles from Kraków. Arriving at Niegowić during harvest time, his first action was to kneel down and kiss the ground. This gesture, adapted from French saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, would become one of his ‘trademarks’ during his Papacy.

In March 1949, he was transferred to the parish of Saint Florian in Kraków. He taught ethics at the Jagiellonian University there and subsequently at the Catholic University of Lublin. While teaching, Wojtyła gathered a group of about 20 young people, who began to call themselves Rodzinka, the "little family". They met for prayer, philosophical discussion, and helping the blind and sick. The group eventually grew to approximately 200 participants, and their activities expanded to include annual skiing and kayaking trips.
In 1954 he earned a second doctorate, in philosophy, evaluating the feasibility of a Catholic ethic based on the ethical system of phenomenologist Max Scheler. However, the Communist authorities' intervention prevented his receiving the degree until 1957.
During this period, Wojtyła wrote a series of articles in Kraków's Catholic newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny ("Universal Weekly") dealing with contemporary church issues. He also focused on creating original literary work during his first dozen years as a priest. War, life under communism, and his pastoral responsibilities all fed his poetry and plays. However, he published his work under two pseudonyms – Andrzej Jawień and Stanisław Andrzej Gruda – to distinguish his literary from his religious writings (which were published under his own name) and also so that his literary works would be considered on their own merits. In 1960, Wojtyła published the influential theological book Love and Responsibility, a defence of the traditional Church teachings on marriage from a new philosophical standpoint.

Bishop and cardinal
On 4 July 1958, while Wojtyła was on a kayaking vacation in the lakes region of northern Poland, he was appointed to the position of auxiliary bishop of Kraków by Pope Pius XII. He was then summoned to Warsaw, to meet the Primate of Poland, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, who informed him of the appointment. He agreed to serve as auxiliary to Archbishop Eugenius Baziak, and he was ordained to the Episcopate (using the title, Bishop of Ombi) on 28 September 1958. At the age of 38, he was the youngest bishop in Poland. Baziak died in June 1962 and on 16 July Karol Wojtyła was selected as Vicar Capitular, or temporary administrator, of the Archdiocese until an Archbishop could be appointed.
Beginning in October 1962, Bishop Wojtyła took part in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), where he made contributions to two of the most historic and influential products of the council, the Decree on Religious Freedom (in Latin, Dignitatis Humanae) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes).
Bishop Wojtyła also participated in all of the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops. On 13 January 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków. On 26 June 1967, Paul VI announced Archbishop Wojtyła's promotion to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
In 1967, he was instrumental in formulating the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which deals with the same issues that forbid abortion and artificial birth control.