New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement: The Wojtyla Years: New Catholic Encyclopedia

The volume has two distinctive parts. The first is a series of interpretative essays that survey developments and analyze the principles that have determined church policy in the years of Pope John Paul's pontificate. They trace political and cultural influences that formed the outlook and values that Karol Wojtyla brought with him from Poland to Rome and to the world. Each of the authors focuses on a particular aspect: his personalist philosophy, approach to theology, social thought, implementation of Vatican II, and ecumenical concerns. The essays show that his vision and influence transcend theological issues and extend well beyond the institutional Church to basic human rights and family values, to the arts and science, to economics and geopolitics.

The second part of the volume follows the traditional encyclopedia format in reporting the hard data that one expects to find in a reference work: dates, place names, information about people, institutions, and events. A major section of this second part presents thumbnail sketches of hundreds of saints and beati declared by John Paul II.