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Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Poland in 1920. He studied philosophy and theology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and was ordained a priest in 1946. He served as archbishop of Kraków from 1964 to 1978, when he was elected pope. Pope John Paul II was a powerful advocate for human rights, and he played a key role in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.