My name is John Paul II

'Everyone knows me as John Paul II. They know that I live in Rome, at the Vatican, right next to the famous Basilica of St. Peter. S ome people even think that I live in the Basilica itself, but actually I live beside it, in quite a modest flat. And I have my own f irst and last name - Karol Wojtyla. My picture is often in the newspapers, and I`m often shown on television. Older people have memo ries of me as a young person, while children and youngsters remember me already as the old person I am now, walking with a cane or s eated in armchair. People think of me as somebody very important, but I don`t think about myself that way.'

• author: Jan W. op Góra