All language subtitles for Witness.To.Hope.The.Life.Of.Karol.Wojtyla.Pope.John.Paul.II.2002.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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- [Narrator] Friday
September 1st, 1939, 6:00 AM.

A university student
assists at morning Mass

in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral.

Poland has suffered
invasions before,

but the nightmare to come
lies beyond the imagining

of all who have worshiped
here for centuries.

[priest speaking in
foreign language]

[sirens blaring]
[planes buzzing]

The student's thoughts turned
toward his ailing father,

alone at home.

[bombs bursting]

World War II has begun.

[bombs bursting]
[dark ominous music]

forged by the fires of war,
and the subsequent brutalities

of the communist regime,

that student, Karol
WojtyBa from Poland,

becomes Pope John Paul
II, one of the world's

great defenders of religious
freedom and human rights,

preaching the power of the word
over the power of the sword.

He is a major catalyst

in the nonviolent
collapse of communism.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

John Paul II has been
seen by more people

than any other human being.

His appeal and
charisma reach beyond

the billion members
of his flock.

Yet this Pope remains
one of the most

controversial
figures of our times.

A revolutionary thinker rooted

in ancient religious traditions.

he is both revered and vilified.

He is a man of many
faces, poet, playwright,

actor, philosopher,
mystic, pastor.

Above all, John Paul
II describes himself

as a witness to hope.

[majestic solemn music]
[audience applauding]

[crowd chanting in
foreign language]

[soft gentle music]

To understand this complex
man from the inside,

we begin in Poland.

[soft gentle music]

The Second Polish Republic arose

out of the ashes of World War I.

Two years later
on May 18th, 1920,

Karol WojtyBa, the
future Pope, is born.

[birds flapping]

His father, Karol
Sr., is a military man

stationed at the
Garrison in Wadowice,

a small town outside Krakow.

[bells clanging]

The family lives in
a modest apartment

across from the church.

For his mother Emelia, young
Karol is a gift from heaven.

She lost a baby girl in infancy,

and her older son is
already a teenager.

- According to
various local legends,

she would walk her son in a
pram through the town streets

and say, "My Lolek,"
the diminutive form
of his name Karol,

"will be a great man one day."

I don't know whether
that's true or not,

but it's a nice story and
it's been told so often

that perhaps we can give it
the benefit of the doubt.

[children chattering]

- He is known as
Lolek the Goalie.

He is happy and carefree,

but tragedy strikes
him at an early age.

[soft poignant music]

He is nine years old when his
mother dies of heart disease.

Three years later, he is
shocked by the sudden death

of his older brother
Edmond, a doctor,

who succumbs to Scarlet fever
while caring for a patient.

- [John Paul] My mother's
death left a deep impression

on my memory, and my
brother's death perhaps

an even deeper one.

I was left alone with my
father, a deeply religious man.

After my mother died,

his life became one
of constant prayer.

Sometimes I would wake up
in the middle of the night

and find my father
praying on his knees.

- He never talked about
his mother to me, you know?

He was, because he was, he
seemed, well inside-minded.

He didn't say words
outside his soul, you know?

He was always
keeping his sorrow.

[soft poignant music]

- Still mourning their
loss, Lolek and his father

come here to Kalwaria
Zebrzydowska, a
vast outdoor shrine

devoted to Jesus Christ
and his mother Mary.

On their pilgrimage,
this impressionable child

witnesses the reenactment
of Christ's passion.

[soft solemn music]

Along with thousands
of other Poles,

they kneel in prayer
before the most powerful

icon of hope in Polish
culture, the Virgin Mary,

who will remain a protector
throughout Karol WojtyBa's life.

- [George] Church, culture,
nation are intensely intertwined

in Poland in a way that
is not easily replicated

in other parts of the world.

[worshipers singing
in foreign language]

Poland has been and
arguably is today,

the most intensely Catholic
country in the world.

And that's the atmosphere,
that's the culture,

the normality of faith, the
normality of intense piety,

in which Karol WojtyBa grew up.

[soft solemn music]

- [Narrator] Shortly
after his mother's death,

he makes his first
Holy Communion.

[priest speaking in
foreign language]

as an altar boy, he goes
back and forth from church

to his apartment
across the street.

His faith deepens.

[priest and altar boys
speaking in foreign language]

- His religious faith, I mean,
he was exceptional among us

because of the early
loss of his mother.

And every day he was
twice or even three times

going to the church.

- [Narrator] At home, under
the wings of the church,

he observes his
father's constant prayer

and his austere way of living.

He later writes that his
home was his first seminary.

- [Interpreter] His father not
only raised him a pious boy,

but he also fulfilled
the role as a mother

to such an extent that
he even cooked, he sewed,

he cleaned, so that
Karol wouldn't waste

even one second on trivial
matters, so he could study.

- [Narrator] His
father, now retired,

becomes an unofficial tutor
for Lolek and his friends

in history and literature,

the foundations of
Polish cultural identity.

He listens with
fascination to the stories

of Poland's tumultuous past,

how the country had been
a conqueror and conquered,

reclaimed and resurrected over
its thousand-year history.

During the entire 19th century,

Poland simply disappeared
from the map of Europe,

partitioned in 1795 among
the Russian, Prussian,

and Austro-Hungarian
empires for 123 years.

- You can look at
any map of Europe

printed during that period,

and there's nothing
called Poland on that map.

And yet Poland
continued to exist

in the minds of
the Polish people,

who preserved their nation
through their culture

when their state was destroyed.

And it was out of that
intense sense of culture,

language, literature, religion,
that the state of Poland

was eventually reborn
in the aftermath

of the First World War.

- [Narrator] Lolek and
the second Polish Republic

grow up together.

[children speaking
in foreign language]

But Poland's newfound
freedom will be short-lived.

[crowd chanting in
foreign language]

in the 1930s, the
world around Poland

is changing drastically.

To the West, Adolph Hitler

and the Nazi party are
transforming Germany.

To the East, Joseph
Stalin presides

over a reign of terror
in the Soviet Union.

Freedom is threatened
everywhere.

Antisemitism is intensifying
throughout Europe.

[orator and crowd speaking
in foreign language]

In the years after World War I,

the largest population of Jews
in Europe lives in Poland.

In Wadowice, one in five
townspeople is Jewish.

Wadowice has a history
of tolerance toward Jews,

and many of Lolek's
friends are Jewish.

One of them, Jurek Kluger,
hearing of their promotion

to high school rushes
to tell Lolek the news.

- He was so pleased
'cause they both passed.

So he rushed to the church
where Lolek was serving Mass,

and a Catholic woman
saw Jurek and said,

"Aren't you the
son of Dr. Kluger,"

and says, "what are you
doing in the church?"

And so, Jurek didn't say
anything, he just sat there.

Then Lolek came out and he
was very cross about the fact

that this woman
had said to Jurek,

"What are you doing
in the church?"

And he said, "What nonsense,

we are all children
of the same God."

And that was at 12 years old.

[soft lively jazzy music]

- [Narrator] Now in high
school, Lolek falls in love

with the theater and with 19th
century Polish literature.

These classics appeal to
Lolek's love of language

and religious nature.

At 14, an important
mentor enters his life.

- He came under the influence
of a remarkable character

named MieczysBaw Kotlarczyk,

a man who had an intense
sense of language,

and who wanted to create
without props and costumes,

a kind of free space
between actors and audience,

in which the truth
of the spoken word

could be best communicated.

[actor speaking in
foreign language]

Wojtyla was deeply influenced
by both this idea of theater,

and by the idea that in fact,

all of life might be
structured dramatically,

that each one of us in our
lives is living a drama.

The drama lived in the gap
between the person I am

and the person I ought to be.

That's the drama of the moral
life, as Wojtyla would later

come to describe
that philosophically.

So his early
theatrical experience

both gave him some skills,

but also gave him a
view of the world.

- [Interpreter] Karol
Wojtyla as a young man

had an extraordinary gift.

He spoke intellectually,
intelligently,
straightforwardly,

more like we act today.

Beyond all that, he
was very handsome,

well-built broad shouldered,

but already as a young man
he bent his head a little.

Moreover, he had a head of hair

which refused to listen to him.

He couldn't help himself.

It was so unruly that he had
a problem keeping it in order.

So we as friends made up
a little poem that ended,

"Doesn't Wojtyla have a comb?"

- Karol Wojtyla as a young
man is in some sense,

almost too good to be true.

He was an extremely
gifted student.

He was a natural athlete.

He was deeply involved
in the theater.

He had a wide range of friends
and most astonishingly,

no one seemed to
resent all of this.

He was not a grind.

He had the normal social life
of a teenager of those days,

and in a culture in which piety

was considered
normal and admirable,

his intense piety was regarded
as normal and admirable.

- [Narrator] In fact,
he and his friends

believe he is destined
for the stage.

After graduating
from high school,

he moves to Krakow
with his father

to study Polish literature at
the Jagiellonian University.

For centuries, Krakow has been

the center of Poland's
cultural life.

For the next year,
he immerses himself

in his university studies
and amateur theater.

Yet all around him, sense
of foreboding grows.

To the South on
March 14th, 1939,

the Nazis complete their
occupation of Czechoslovakia.

[dark somber music]

A possible invasion
of Poland looms.

Antisemitism casts
a deepening shadow

over much of the nation.

- [Interpreter]
Wojtyla as a student

witnessed antisemitism at
the Jagiellonian University.

Whenever there were
manifestations of antisemitism,

he was always with
the Jewish students,

always against those
who were antisemitic.

He made clear his solidarity
with his Jewish colleagues.

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] One of
his Jewish friends,

Ginka Beer, decides to
leave Poland forever.

As her friends see her
off at the train station,

Karol's father reminds her

that not all Poles
are antisemitic.

Karol is too upset
to say a word.

- [George] Wojtyla
would often be found

in argument with others,
asking how people

could be antisemites
when Christianity

emerges out of the
Jewish tradition.

It makes no sense
to Karol Wojtyla

for the followers of a Jewish
prophet to be antisemites.

[Hitler speaking German]

- [Narrator] On
September 1st, 1939,

Poland's worst fears are
realized as Hitler invades.

As the bombs fall
on Krakow's suburbs,

Karol rushes home to
his ailing father.

The Polish army fights
bravely for weeks,

but it is no for the
German juggernaut.

[airplanes buzzing]
[soft poignant music]

The Second Polish Republic
comes to an abrupt end.

With only a battered suitcase,

Karol and his father
abandon their apartment.

They joined thousands
of other refugees,

fleeing eastward to
escape the German army

advancing from the West.

They find themselves in ditches,

seeking shelter from the
strafing German aircraft.

- After 10, 12 days
of flight eastward,

it became clear
that another army

was about to invade Poland,

the Soviet army from the East.

So they turned around
and walked 200 kilometers

back to Krakow, where
they found the swastika

flying from the ramparts
of Wawel Castle.

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] The rule
of law ceases to exist,

and a reign of terror begins.

- [Hans] Every vestige
of Polish culture

should be eliminated.

They will work, they
will eat little,

and in the end
they will die out.

There will never
again be a Poland.

Hans Frank, Governor
General, Krakow.

[soft somber music]

- [George] The German
occupation of Poland

during the Second World War

was an indescribably
brutal business.

Its intention was to
eliminate the Poles,

as a race of subhumans,
from the face of the Earth.

The first tactic in that
strategy of extermination

was a decapitation tactic.

Poles of learning and culture
were to be eliminated.

- [Narrator] The Nazis
invite the faculty

of the Jagiellonian University
to a special meeting.

All those who come are arrested.

184 professors are sent
to the Sachsenhausen

concentration camp,
where many perish.

Wojtyla's life as a
student abruptly ends.

[soft somber music]

Nearly two million Poles are
shipped out of the country

to slave labor camps.

Anyone over the age
of 16 without a work
permit is a target.

[dynamite exploding]

Through a family friend,
Karol lands a job

in a limestone
quarry outside Krakow

as an assistant dynamiter.

Here, he discovers a
world he has never known.

- [George] It was an
immensely important

influence on Wojtyla's thinking.

This was his real introduction
to the world of manual labor,

and he came out of that
with a tremendous respect

for the dignity of work
and the dignity of workers.

- [Narrator] Extreme hardship
becomes a way of life.

For Karol and his father,
hunger is a constant companion.

Roundups and executions
are commonplace.

- [Interpreter]
The sense of dread

was terrible for me as a child.

As for detailed memories,
undoubtedly the most

intense memory is the
memory of that moment

when the Gestapo
came to our house,

arrested my father,
took him away,

assured us that he would
return in a few days,

and my conviction that I
would never see him again.

And indeed he was
shot nine days later

in a street execution.

That I will have
etched somewhere in
my mind until I die.

All of those experiences,
moment for moment.

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] It is not
a question of knowing

whether you will
be alive next year.

The question is whether
you will be alive tomorrow.

University, cultural, and
religious life go underground.

The Catholic Church is targeted
by Poland's Nazi masters,

who understand that
decapitating Polish society

means decapitating the church.

Overlooking the old town sits
the majestic Wawel Cathedral.

Many of the country's political

and cultural leaders
are buried here.

Wawel Cathedral has
been the magnetic pole

of the nation's emotional
life since the 14th century.

The Nazis take it over.

Nearly 5,000 priests and
nuns throughout Poland

are sent to concentration camps.

[choir soloist singing
in foreign language]

The terrors of the
war are inescapable.

Karol's father is
now gravely ill,

and Wojtyla lives in a
frightening and brutal world

that seems to have gone mad.

During this time he
meets Jan Tyranowski,

a mystic whose relationship
with God is extremely personal.

Meeting this mystical
man will change

Karol's experience
of faith forever.

Through Tyranowski,
Karol discovers

a deeper relationship with God
through contemplative prayer.

He learns to pray as a means
of entering God's presence.

That experience of presence

then animates every
aspect of his life.

[birds tweeting]

Tyranowski introduces him
to the poetry and theology

of the 16th century
Carmelite mystic,

Saint John of the Cross.

Carmelite mysticism
is a spirituality

of abandonment centered
on the crucified Christ.

This idea of abandoning
oneself completely

to the will of God so
seizes Karol's imagination

that he considers joining
a Carmelite monastery,

but the monks tell him

they are not accepting
candidates during the war.

[choir soloist singing
in foreign language]

In February, 1941, Karol faces

another great loss
in his young life.

- [John Paul] I lost my father.

I remember the day so clearly.

I returned home from work
and found my father dead.

I never felt so
alone in my life.

I had already lost all
the people I loved,

and even the ones
I might have loved,

such as a big sister who had
died six years before my birth.

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] At 20, he is
left alone in the world,

without a family, an orphan.

- [Interpreter] He joined
a secret organization

which formed part of the
resistance in Poland,

and called itself UNIA.

He was sworn in in 1941.

UNIA had various chapters,

including a chapter engaged
in armed resistance.

Wojtyla was not a
member of that chapter.

He was active in
the UNIA of culture.

Standing up to the
Germans did not mean

just throwing grenades and
blowing up armament transports,

but also cultural resistance,

underground education,
underground universities,

and they cultivated theater.

It doesn't sound perilous,
but it was mortally dangerous.

You could be sent to
Auschwitz for that.

One actually risked
one's life for that.

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] All Polish
cultural activity

is strictly forbidden.

Even the composer
Chopin is banned.

In this draconian atmosphere,

his mentor Kotlarczyk and Karol

create a clandestine
theater group.

- [George] The Rhapsodic
Theater was an attempt

to save Poland through
saving its memory.

The Germans were
saying in effect,

"You are no nation,
you have no culture."

The most effective form
of resistance to that

was to keep alive
Polish culture.

- [Interpreter] We
simply stood and recited.

There were no scenes,
no contact between us.

[actors speaking in
foreign language]

These were typically recitations
of epic or lyrical poems.

It was a dialogue between
us and the audience.

[soft gentle piano music]

- [Interpreter] The shows were
performed in private homes.

It was dangerous, we
entered and left one by one.

Arrests were frequent then,
those were terrible times.

The Rhapsodic Theater
gave us wings,

and made us feel that
we were doing something

that lifted the spirit of
our poor, tormented people.

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] The Nazi presence
is impossible to escape.

- [Interpreter] We were
performing fragments

from the great Polish
epic, "Pan Tadeusz",

and in the course of
Karol Wojtyla's monologue,

a loudspeaker came on,
announcing more victories

of the occupation army.

The loud speaker was blaring
and completely drowned out

what was being said
in the apartment,

and also Karol's voice.

No one could hear
what he was saying,

but Karol did not stop speaking.

[officials speaking
in foreign language]

- I think that has
become in my mind,

a metaphor for Karol
Wojtyla's life.

He doesn't ignore the
evil that's around him.

He has tremendous faith
in the power of the word

to cut through the static
of the world's wickedness.

[dark somber music]
[gunfire blasting]

- [Narrator] All of Europe
is engulfed in warfare.

[gunfire blasting]

Hitler begins his
demonic Final Solution,

the wholesale murder
of European Jews.

Wojtyla's Jewish
friends disappear,

childhood friends are killed,

and Jurek Kluger
flees the country.

- [Interpreter] Certainly the
tragedy that befell the Jews

has been and still is something
very personal to Wojtyla.

Of course he knew
that Jews needed help,

but how do you help the
Jews who were sequestered

in a ghetto, who were
guarded by cordons of police?

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] During the
nightmare of the war,

he looks for answers
to the meaning of life.

Why is he alive while
others are dead?

At 21, he has emerged
as actor, student,

mystic, playwright, poet,

but he is uncertain
which path to follow.

- Karol was in a struggle
of vocational clarification.

That vocational struggle
clearly intensified

in the wake of his
father's death.

Was it the stage,
or was it perhaps

a different kind of stage in
a different kind of drama?

And he wrestled with
this throughout 1941.

- [John Paul] I
was devoting myself

as far as the terrors of
the occupation allowed

to my taste for
literature and drama.

My priestly vocation took shape
in the midst of all of that,

like an inner fact
of unquestionable
and absolute clarity.

I knew that I was called,
I would be a priest.

- [Narrator] He goes to
the Archbishop of Krakow.

Adam Sapieha is conducting
an underground seminary,

and Karol enters his fold.

[soft somber music]

He now lives a double life.

One night on his
walk home from work,

what could have been a tragedy
becomes a sign from God.

[car rumbling]
[man exclaiming]

He is hit by a German truck,

and suffers a severe concussion.

Left for dead, he is only
discovered later by a passerby.

This brush with death
deepens Wojtyla's conviction

that God has a plan for
him, his life has a purpose.

- I think what Wojtyla decided,

certainly by the time he was 21,

was that he was not
in charge of his life.

God was in charge of his life.

But I think that's the
source of his fearlessness.

It's the fearlessness of
someone who has, in a sense,

handed himself over to the
power of God at work in his life

and is prepared to go with
that power to the end.

[soft thoughtful music]

[gunfire blasting]

- [Narrator] Nearly five years
into the war in August, 1944,

the Polish resistance
launches the Warsaw Uprising.

Despite remarkable
heroism, it fails.

In retaliation,
Hitler orders the city

destroyed block by block.

[bombs exploding]
[soft somber music]

To prevent a replication
of the Warsaw Uprising,

the Gestapo sweep the city of
Krakow, arresting young men.

They search Karol's house.

He is behind a closed door,

praying that the
Nazis won't find him.

Sapieha orders his
underground seminarians

to make their way
to his residence.

Karol works his way across
town, avoiding the Nazi patrols.

[soft tense music]

He disappears behind these
doors, erased from society,

hidden with a dozen
other seminarians
until the war is over.

[singer singing in
foreign language]

In May, 1945, the
war in Europe ends.

The Nazis have been defeated,

but Poland's freedom
is short-lived.

[singer singing in
foreign language]

As the Soviets begin
their 40-year-long attempt

to turn the country into
a communist satellite,

Poles describe World War II
as the war they lost twice.

- With communism, we
were already so tired

after one occupation
when the second one came,

and not so much changed.

Well, that was a feeling of,

many people were
completely discouraged.

When I make a list
of my best friends,

practically none
of those whom I had

before the war is alive
anymore, people to whom

we pinned our best
hopes for the future.

So human losses were such

that it became a
different society.

- [Narrator] But
Poland is different

from the other
satellite countries.

The Church remains a powerful
force in Polish society,

challenging the atheistic
doctrines of the regime.

- Poland was first of all,
overwhelmingly Catholic.

Poland was very nationalistic.

Poland has a tradition
of national resistance.

So Poland was always different.

Poland was the most
difficult pill to swallow,

and the Soviet leaders
knew that, and that's why

they tended to treat
Poland very carefully.

- [Narrator] Poland has
been shattered by war.

Karol comes to terms with
the tragedies he has endured

and his own survival through
a deep, mystical spirituality.

Wojtyla is once again
drawn to the monastic life,

but Archbishop Sapieha
does not approve.

He knows the Church
is facing a new battle

with the communist
regime and its atheism.

The Church needs charismatic,
young intellectuals

like Wojtyla working
actively in society.

So the hand of Sapieha leads

a young man of
mystical intuition

into the active world
of the priesthood.

On November 1st, 1946,
Karol Wojtyla is ordained.

- [John Paul] I can still
remember myself in that chapel,

lying on the floor,
awaiting the moment

of the imposition of hands.

I was overwhelmed with emotion.

[soft gentle music]

- [Narrator] The next
day, Father Wojtyla

celebrates his first Mass
in St. Leonard's Crypt

in Wawel Cathedral.

- [John Paul] All who
visit the cathedral

find themselves immersed
in the nation's history.

This was why I wanted to
celebrate my first Mass

in the Crypt of St. Leonard.

I wanted to express my
special spiritual bond

with the history of Poland,

a history symbolized
by the hill of battle.

[soft thoughtful music]

- [Narrator] At 26, Father
Wojtyla leaves his homeland

for the first time, sent to Rome

to get his doctorate
in theology.

His thesis on the
nature of faith

according to St.
John of the Cross

explores the personal nature

of the human encounter with God.

He concludes that this
encounter with God

is the center of every
human life, and without it

one loses what is most
truly human in all of us.

Here Wojtyla defines
the line of battle

on which for 40 years, he
will challenge communism

for the soul of Poland.

- There's an immense
struggle going on

for the next generation,
who are being bludgeoned

day in and day out
with Marxist ideology

and propaganda in
the university.

So Sapieha wanted to put
able, bright, attractive

young priests in active
contact with these students.

- [Narrator] Sapieha appoints
Wojtyla assistant pastor

at St. Florian's church
in the center of Krakow,

an urban parish frequented
by university students

and intellectuals.

- He was shy to the point of
being sometimes even awkward,

but so interested in people
and so forgetful about himself.

That was a feature which
struck you at first.

His early sermons were very
philosophically oriented,

in a way also
mystically oriented,

because he was fascinated
by St. John of the Cross,

and therefore they
were difficult.

And I think little by little,

he realized that he must
make himself accessible

to a less educated listener,
as well as an educated one.

- [John Paul] I
spoke to the students

about the fundamental problems

concerning the existence of God

and the spiritual nature
of the human soul.

These were important issues,
given the militant ideas

being promoted by
the communist regime.

- In Poland we were lucky
enough to have the Church

much more free than in any
other communist country,

and the church gave
people this feeling

of authenticity
and of integration.

If there was one place at
least where people could think

and express themselves
and sing and pray

in a way which made sense.

- [Narrator] Despite the
freedom felt inside the church,

once the parishioners leave,

they enter the stifling
world of Stalinist Poland.

[priest speaking in
foreign language]

All sense of
community disappears.

- There was a kind of fear

so that people couldn't be
sincere with each other.

Of course, they couldn't
express their views openly

in no way, because
that would be,

mean going to prison directly.

So many people imagine that
they will live their whole life

in this realm of grayness,
and there was no hope.

[soft poignant music]

- [Narrator] The
communist regime forbids

people to gather spontaneously

outside
government-controlled events.

Despite this, Father Wojtyla
clandestinely escorts students

into the natural world of
the Polish countryside,

making friendships that
will last for decades.

[birds tweeting]

The mountains have been
part of Karol Wojtyla's life

since he was a boy.

[soft gentle music]

It was his father
who passed on to him

his love of the Polish landscape

and his special
connection with nature.

- He has a very strong sense
of nature as the image of God,

the extremely important
part of creation itself.

He experienced that
excursions in the nature

as a quite special kind
of moral experience.

[soft thoughtful music]

- [Narrator] Accompanying
a group of students

into the countryside
is dangerous business

in communist Poland.

This new form of resistance
marks Karol Wojtyla

as a different kind of priest.

- [Interpreter] A
priest who gathered

a group of young people
outside of church

could easily have been accused

of plotting against
the government,

so there was
certainly that risk.

- Some aspect, it was dangerous.

For me no, because
I was studying

and then I was working at the
university, but for him, yes.

- [George] All of this
was pretty radical stuff

in the Polish
Catholicism of the 1950s.

He was creating a zone
of freedom for people

to live as they truly were.

And as they would say, the
young people in this group,

"We were never more truly
ourselves than when we were

in conversation with him
and with each other."

[soft gentle music]

- [Narrator] His friends
introduced Father Wojtyla,

whom they all call Uncle,
to the world of kayaking.

It is a perfect vehicle for him.

As they glide across the water,

he gets to know each person
on an individual basis.

- [Karol] He didn't
want to impose his view.

He was always questioning.

This, his attitude
of questioning,

of listening and
questioning rather than,

than to answer immediately
with, you know,

with his knowledge.

And that is why
he himself learned

from the people
to whom he spoke.

[soft gentle music]

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- [Narrator] Father
Wojtyla celebrates Mass

with his friends each morning
in a most unusual way.

The overturned kayak becomes
an altar, the paddles a cross.

- [Interpreter] And here
again was an element of risk.

One can say the risk was such
that we had to be careful

not to offend anyone.

At that time, if someone
from a nearby village

saw us taking part in
a Mass in the forest,

I think he would've
been shocked,

and it wouldn't have
been good for us.

- This was a man, remember,
without a family at this point,

and they became his
extended family.

And I think it's fair to
say, I think he would say,

that these young men
and women formed him

into the kind of
priest that he became.

This is one of the most
interesting dimensions

of Wojtyla's priesthood,
is that this intensely

priestly priest was formed
into that in large part,

by an intense series of
friendships with lay people.

- [Narrator] These experiences
would ultimately end up

on the written page
in poetry and plays.

In poems, Wojtyla can express
his spiritual insights

in ways that are impossible

in sermons or
philosophical essays.

His first published poem, "Song
of the Brightness of Water",

appears under a pseudonym
in the fiercely independent

Catholic newspaper,
"Tygodnik Powszechny".

- [Interpreter] In 1950, it
is the period of the heaviest

communist terror in Poland.

There are about 400,000
people in prison.

There are endless executions,
especially involving those

who fought for the
freedom of Poland.

And suddenly there
appears a mystical voice,

addressing things about which
no one speaks or thinks,

or if one wanted to
express these things

in ideological terms,
they would be arrested.

It is very difficult poetry.

If he had not become Pope,

his poetry would
not be so famous.

- [Narrator] Wojtyla's poetry
is filled with natural images

that speak metaphorically to
the mystery of the human soul.

Shimmering light, flowing
water, deep reflections,

all these images touch a
people's yearning to live free.

[priest speaking in
foreign language]

A constant struggle ensues

between the communists
and the Church.

In 1953, the Primate of Poland,
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski,

is imprisoned for three
years for refusing

to be subservient to
the communist party.

Finally, Wyszynski strikes
a deal with the government.

The communists will tolerate
the Church at least formally,

and in return, the
Church will not interfere

with politics, at
least directly.

Wyszynski feels that for the
Church to survive and prevail,

he must play a
careful, steady game.

Wojtyla will join Cardinal
Wyszynski as a major force

in the Church's battle
against communism.

But for the moment,
Father Wojtyla's years

as a risk-taking parish
priest come to an end.

In 1954, 34-year-old
Father Wojtyla accepts

a teaching position at the
Catholic University of Lublin

in the philosophy department.

In Poland, the Nazi past
and the communist present

have created a crisis
of ideas and ideals.

Students and professors
like Father Wojtyla

feel compelled to reexamine
the most fundamental questions

about human nature and society.

Why is there evil?

What is the nature of good?

What are the basic rights
of every human being?

- [Interpreter] These
were the worst years,

the somber years of Stalinism,

but it was the only university

where philosophy
was not Marxist.

The only place where
philosophy was free,

between Berlin and Seoul.

- [Narrator] Wojtyla
will teach here

for the next 24 years,
specializing in ethics.

His philosophy classes
are standing room only.

- [Narrator] I was
a beginning student

and he was professor of ethics.

I couldn't understand a
thing that he was teaching.

To me, he was a
terrible professor

because I had no idea
what he was talking about.

I know that he had among
the advanced students,

some who absolutely worshiped
him, fans, enthusiasts.

I really tried to
see that enthusiasm,

but I could not keep it up,
it was too difficult for me.

- [Narrator] These impassioned
years at the university

honed Wojtyla's most important
ideas about human rights

and religious freedom, and will
ultimately shape his papacy.

His teachings, writings,
and pastoral experience

do not go unnoticed.

At 38, he becomes the
youngest Bishop in Poland.

From this point forward,
his rise in the church

will be nothing
short of meteoric.

[birds tweeting]

[soft thoughtful music]

in 1962, far from Karol
Wojtyla's homeland in Poland,

Pope John XXIII is
setting in motion the most

important event in the
history of the Catholic Church

since the Reformation
in the 16th century.

[soft thoughtful music]

Over the next four
years, the Church

will be radically changed as
the Second Vatican Council

brings this ancient
institution into open dialogue

about its mission
in the modern world.

- [Reporter] The Vatican
Ecumenical Council-

- [Narrator] Pope John
summons 2,500 bishops to Rome.

- [Reporter] The first
Ecumenical Council in 93 years.

- [Narrator] The Council
will address issues

that Bishop Wojtyla has
been struggling with

behind the Iron Curtain.

[train clattering]

It is a turning point
for Karol Wotjyla.

- Western culture,
he seemed to think,

had gone off the rails sometime

in the past several
hundred years.

And if you asked the question,

why did the first half
of the 20th century

produce within 50
years, two World Wars,

three totalitarian
systems, oceans of blood,

mountains of corpses?

Wojtyla's answer to that
was, "It's because our idea

of the human person, our
idea of the innate dignity

and value of every human
person has gotten lost."

- [Reporter] The Council's
immediate aim is to-

- [George] One of Wojtyla's
principle accomplishments

at the Second Vatican Council
was to help the world Church

in the person of
these 2,500 bishops,

come to understand
that religious freedom

was the first of human rights.

And he worked very hard
on what came to be called

the Declaration on
Religious Freedom,

which was adopted by
the Council in 1965.

- [Reporter] Of earthly
grandeur, and spiritual-

- [Narrator] He makes
a name for himself

as a formidable
thinker at a Council

that will shape his Papacy.

- The Second Vatican
Council was the time

in which the rest of the world
Church began to understand

what the Polish
Church already knew.

Namely that in Karol Wojtyla

there was a pastor,
an intellectual,

a priest of extremely
high voltage pastorally,

who had a lot to
say about how to be

the Church in the modern world.

- [Narrator] Back in Poland,
the struggle persists

between communist atheism

and the Christian
belief of the people.

[bells tolling]
[soft solemn music]

One great symbol of this
struggle is Nowa Huta,

a steelworks town built
on the outskirts of Krakow

after World War II.

Nowa Huta is the first
town in the thousand-year

history of Poland
constructed without a church.

- [Interpreter] The communists
declared that atheism

would be the foundation
of that town.

They said that this
would be a great town,

but it would be a
town without God.

- [Narrator] When the
communists bulldoze across,

it is back again the next day.

For the next 20
years, Bishop Wojtyla

supports the workers of this
town who defy the communists

and attend Mass every
Sunday in an open field.

[soft hopeful music]

[Jozef speaking in
foreign language]

- [Interpreter]
Thousands of people came,

regardless of the weather.

Heat, frost, rain or snow,
they came to that place

where the church was
supposed to stand.

There was no church there,

it existed only in
their imagination.

- [Narrator] Nova Huta
becomes the proving ground

for Wojtyla's style of
tenacity and prudence

in dealing with the
communist regime.

His quest for a church
in this city without God

will be unrelenting.

[soft thoughtful music]

To get away from the public eye,

he seeks the solitude
of the mountains.

His more contemplative
side is always present.

[soft thoughtful music]

He finds solace and inspiration
in the Polish landscape

that is so much a part of him.

Closer to nature, closer to God.

On camping and skiing trips
with university students,

he developed many of the
insights for his first book,

"Love and Responsibility",
published in 1960,

which explored the ethics
of sex, love and marriage.

Each of these
personal encounters

shapes this intellectual man

and his understanding
of the human experience.

- [Interpreter] He wrote a
book that was a sensation

in Poland because no one
had ever talked about sex

that way in Poland, and
especially in the Polish Church.

Neither the language
nor the emphasis

was something
natural at that time.

- Wojtyla was simply
quite a good theologian

and quite a good philosopher.

So as a Christian,
as a man of Bible,

he was convinced that
the creation is good,

and so the sex is good also.

And he knew also very
well that the very place

of this good use
of sex is a family,

you know, is a marriage.

- [Narrator] Wojtyla's
frankness on the beauty

of sex in marriage marks him

as a distinctive
Catholic thinker.

The current Pope, Paul VI,
reads his book and asks Wojtyla

to help draft an encyclical
on family planning.

The encyclical's opposition
to artificial contraception

creates a tremendous
controversy in the Church

and around the globe.

Wojtyla becomes one of
Paul's most ardent defenders,

and a deep mutual
respect develops.

In 1963, Pope Paul appoints him

the new Archbishop of Krakow.

Cardinal Wyszynski, the
powerful Primate of Poland,

fears that Wojtyla
is too much the poet

to be an effective
public leader.

The communists
however, look fondly

on the new choice of Archbishop.

They think Wojtyla
is an intellectual,

uninterested in
affairs of state.

- They thought, "Here we have
an old Cardinal in Warsaw,

and a young
Archbishop in Krakow.

Let us try to oppose one
against the other and so on."

But here they were bitterly
disillusioned, I must say,

because he was absolutely
loyal to Wyszynski.

Even when he didn't agree
with him completely,

he was still very loyal.

- [Narrator] At the only two
outdoor religious processions

permitted each year
by the government,

Archbishop Wojtyla evolves,
finding his public voice.

- [Interpreter] As Bishop
he could not be indifferent.

If he felt it was
right, he gave sermons

at large religious gatherings,

such as the Corpus
Christi processions,

that touched on
matters the government

did not want discussed in
public, acts of intolerance

and discrimination
against religious people.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- He talked very
openly in his sermons.

He tried to explain to
people our motivation,

"These young people have the
courage to feel responsible

for this country and it's
our duty to be with them.

And what do you do?"

I remember such a sermon,
"What do you do to help them?"

It wasn't a political support.

It were values, you know?

Like freedom is a value and
these people want to live free,

but it wasn't
directly political.

[choir singing in
foreign language]

[soft somber music]

- [Narrator] By the late '60s,

unrest deepens behind
the Iron Curtain.

In 1968, Moscow proclaims
the Brezhnev Doctrine,

declaring it legal
to use brutal force

to maintain communist control
of East Central Europe.

Two years later, three
Polish cities erupt

when the state
raises food prices.

The Polish government
uses the Polish army

against the Polish
people, 44 die.

[tense somber music]

- There were many
kinds of harassment.

They tried to discourage
us as much as possible,

and as successfully as possible.

So they would, for example,
interrogate us for hours.

The whole day one
was seated somewhere,

and interrogated for hours.

Then you could be
put to an arrest

for 48 hours without any reason,

and that would happen
every now and then.

The nasty thing about
those arrests was

that they didn't inform
anybody where you were.

And we lived with our
families and we were young,

and the families were
often very worried.

[tense somber music]

- [Narrator] Wojtyla, now
a Cardinal, is convinced

that the Church must protect
those fighting for freedom.

His residence becomes a
meeting place for dissidents,

the very same place
where he was hidden

as a young seminarian
during the war.

- [Interpreter] Wojtyla created

a kind of protective umbrella
for members of the opposition.

In fact, all important
opposition people

at one time or another
were at his residence.

He organized symposia
where one could

think through various problems.

He encouraged me, a priest,
to take certain actions

which were forbidden
by the government,

saying that we should expand
the sphere of freedom,

even at the risk of a fine,

or having to stand
before a tribunal.

Those activities might
not have been spectacular,

but they were very
deep-reaching,

and because of that,
long-lasting and effective.

- There were several
churches in Krakow

that would open their
doors for such lectures,

and these churches or
these parish priests

were encouraged by our
Bishop Wotjyla to do this,

so we knew that we had
this support there.

- [Narrator] In Nowa Huta,
the town without a church,

Wojtyla's perseverance pays off

after two decades of struggle.

A campaign of steady, careful
pressure on the regime

results in the building
of the Arc Church,

[soft gentle music]

constructed entirely
with volunteer labor.

Two million stones are
brought from the river beds

of Poland to
decorate the facade.

The workers from
the Lenin Steelworks

forge a giant figure of Christ.

In 1976, 70,000 people
stand in the rain

to be a part of this
historic occasion,

the dedication of
the Arc Church.

An emotional Cardinal
Wojtyla speaks to the crowd.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

He tells them, "This
city belongs to you."

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

"No one can arbitrarily
dictate your beliefs."

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

"This city is the city
of the children of God."

[soft thoughtful music]

Two years later,
startling events catapult

the Archbishop of Krakow,

Karol Wojtyla, to
the world's stage.

[soft thoughtful music]

In August, 1978, the Catholic
Church has a new Pope.

[crowd applauding]

John Paul I radiates
hope and confidence,

precisely what the
Church is looking for.

33 days after his election,
a household Sister

finds the Pope dead, stricken
by a massive heart attack.

Catholics around the
world are stunned.

[soft serious music]

John Paul's sudden death is
a psychological earthquake

for the Cardinals charged
with electing a new Pope.

They convene in the Sistine
Chapel for the second time

in less than two months.

Many Cardinals believe
God is asking them

to act boldly, even radically.

[soft thoughtful music]

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla,
the Archbishop of Krakow,

enters the Vatican to
vote for a new Pope.

The first day ends deadlock.

The next day, October
16th, after eight ballots,

the Cardinals elect
Karol Wojtyla,

the first non-Italian
Pope in 455 years,

and the first Slavic Pope ever.

Wojtyla is overwhelmed.

He bends over, his
head in his hands,

as alone as a man can be.

- The terror of the
papacy, the enormous burden

of the papacy was that you
were called to a greater love.

You were called to a more
intense outpouring of yourself,

a more intense self-sacrifice.

He has to be more the
lover of the Church

and less and less and
less the lover of himself.

After he formally
accepts the office,

he walks through
the Sistine Chapel

and proceeded to break
precedent right away

by receiving the
Cardinals standing up.

When of the master of
ceremonies tried to point him

into a chair so that this
procession could come up

and they could genuflect,
and Wojtyla says,

"I receive my
brothers standing,"

the first signal that things
were going to be very different

in the pontificate
of John Paul II.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer speaking
in foreign language]

The election of
Cardinal Wojtyla as Pope

was a tremendous surprise to
many people around the world.

This was not so
much of a surprise

to those churchmen
who knew Wojtyla well,

and perhaps it was not so
much of a surprise to him.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

The normal pattern
was simply to give

his first Papal
blessing in Latin.

Wojtyla began
talking to the crowd

from the balcony St.
Peter's in Italian.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

[John Paul speaking
in a foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

[bells clanging]

- [Narrator] The news
quickly reaches Poland.

A spontaneous celebration
erupts throughout Krakow.

The gigantic nine-ton bell
at Wawel Cathedral rings out.

[bell clanging]

Soon, every bell in
Krakow is ringing.

[bells clanging]

- For the people
behind the Iron Curtain

and in Slavic countries,
that was an explosion of joy,

but not only of joy,
an explosion of hope,

because in that situation,
which was of persecution,

it was like a
light in the night.

It was nothing rational.

It was more a kind of intuition
of expectation of new times.

- In fact, we were in tears,
also because we are moved,

but also because we
realize now he's gone.

And a friend of mine
said after the Mass said,

"You know, that would be
too wonderful to keep him

just for us the whole life.

We have to share
him with the world."

- [Narrator] In Rome
at his installation,

John Paul II exudes confidence.

He insists that
Stefan Wyszynski, the
Primate of Poland,

be the second
Cardinal he greets.

Out of deep respect for
this towering figure

in the Polish church,
the Pope bends down

and kisses the Cardinal's ring.

Karol Wojtyla, who in
Poland could rarely speak

to large gatherings, now
has a global audience.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

He calls out to the
world with words

that will be emblematic
of the years to come,

"Be not afraid."

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- I think Pope John Paul
II came to the papacy

with a profound experience
of the 20th century

as a century of fear,
as a century of terror,

as a century of unprecedented
human suffering.

And so in his first public
address to the world,

he wanted to challenge the
world to a new fearlessness.

[soft thoughtful music]

- Vatican City, the Pope's
residence and a sovereign state,

is a place of protocol,
tradition, even intrigue.

The Pope is the
successor of St. Peter,

and to hold Peter's
office is to inherit

2000 years of history.

Many Renaissance Popes came
from the aristocratic class,

sons of the most powerful
families of Italy.

Inside the Vatican, their
influence is evident

in the works of great artists,

Michelangelo,
Botticelli, Raphael.

[soft thoughtful music]

Karol Wojtyla brings a
new energy and freshness

to this venerable institution.

He is determined not to be
a prisoner of the Vatican.

[John Paul and audience
speaking in foreign language]

John Paul II takes on the
papacy with great zeal,

abandoning himself once
again to God's will.

[John Paul and audience
speaking in foreign language]

Drawing on his
experience as an actor,

he instinctively knows
how to act like a Pope.

After nine months of
tough negotiations,

the communist regime in Poland

finally allows him
to return home.

No hero in Polish history
ever entered Warsaw

as John Paul did on
this June day in 1979.

- [Interpreter] His
first announced visit

was something
magnificent for Poland.

Our heads were bowed under
the weight of humiliation.

He came and raised them up.

We were able to lift our
heads because of him.

[crowd cheering]

- It was for the first
time in our lives

is that we have the feelings
we are here together

because we have to, we are
here because we want to,

look how many of us, and it's
okay, and it's all right.

And we can listen to someone
who is very important

and he's with us.

And I think this was the
first experience of freedom

for very many people.

And once you enjoy
freedom, [laughing]

it changes all your behavior.

- The Pope comes and the
whole nation turns out,

and the regime can't control it.

And all of a sudden the regime
discovers it has no choice

but to permit the
Pope to celebrate Mass

right in the middle
of its capital,

with a million or two of
the people turning out,

and everywhere he's adulated,
and that had an impact.

[soft poignant music]

- [Narrator] An estimated
three million people

gather to see John Paul
as he enters Krakow.

During his farewell
Mass, he asks them

to cherish their
spiritual heritage.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- [Narrator] These powerful
words touch deep chords

in the Polish soul.

For many, it is a turning point

with profound
historical consequences.

Poland will never be the same.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- What the Pope
did in those days

was to give the
Polish people back

their authentic history and
their authentic culture.

And by giving his people
back their identity,

he gave them tools
of resistance,

which communism
had no antidote to.

He gave them back
their identity.

- [Narrator] 13 Million
Poles, more than one-third

the national population,
see the Pope in person.

Virtually everyone else
watches him on television

or hears him on radio.

John Paul finds it
hard to say goodbye.

- [Interpreter] It was
really a very painful moment

for the Pope when he had
to leave us in Poland.

And by chance I met him when
he was getting into the car

to go to the airport.

I asked if he was leaving.

He didn't even look
at me or answer me,

because he was
suffering so much.

I believe that was perhaps
his greatest suffering,

that he had to abandon
everything that
he loved so much.

- [Narrator] As he
climbs up the ramp,

he brushes away a tear.

John Paul leaves his country,
but not without leaving

an indelible mark
on his countrymen.

[soft thoughtful music]

13 months after
he leaves Poland,

thousands of workers at the
Lenin shipyard in Gdansk,

go on strike in August, 1980.

This marks the birth of
the Solidarity movement.

Their leader, an unemployed
electrician named Lech Walesa.

- [George] John Paul II ignited
the Solidarity movement,

an utterly unprecedented
mass movement of resistance,

labor resistance first,
political resistance second,

in the communist world.

- Many, many people in
Poland opposed communism,

didn't like the
Soviet-imposed reality,

but many of them also
thought that perhaps

they were a little
isolated in that view.

- [Narrator] In direct defiance
of their communist rulers,

the workers organize a
free, self-governing union.

They attend daily
open-air Masses,

and decorate the shipyard
gates with religious symbols.

John Paul clearly
indicates his support

for the Polish workers and
their call for freedom.

- [Zbigniew] He had a very
deep feeling for Solidarity,

and how much can be
achieved by a common action

with a common feeling,
with a common aid,

with a common effort with
a kind of brotherhood.

And that was something,
almost a discovery

that was a powerful
boost for people.

[crowd cheering]

- [Narrator] A nonviolent
revolution has begun.

From the Soviet point of
view, John Paul had done

enormous damage during his
epic pilgrimage to Poland.

The Solidarity movement is a
profound threat to communism.

Now the Soviets plan to reassert
their dominance in Poland

as they had done
in Hungary in 1956,

and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

In December, 1980,
Warsaw Pact troops

are poised on Poland's
borders, ready to strike.

At the last minute, the
Soviet tanks pulled back.

- For one thing, the Soviet
leaders were concerned

that there would be
resistance in Poland.

Secondly, they had a lot
of reason to be concerned

that the United States
would not be indifferent.

And of course there was the
question of the moral authority

of the Pope and the likely
reaction of the world at large.

They knew damn well if
they entered Poland,

there would be blood
on the streets,

and not just Polish blood.

I phoned the Pope on the
President's instructions

to alert him.

It was rather amusing in a way,

because we didn't
have his phone number.

And to my knowledge,
no one prior to that

had been phoning the
Pope in this way.

But finally, when I
got him on the line,

I think around 11:30
at night Vatican time,

and I briefed him.

And then at the
end, I said to him,

"I may have to call you again,
as the situation unfolds.

Could you give me your
private personal number?"

And he says, "Well,
wait a minute."

And then I can hear
him speaking in Polish,

"Father Givish, do I have a
private number?" [laughing]

- [Narrator] Five months
after that phone call

on May 13th, 1981,
John Paul II arrives

in St. Peter's Square
for a general audience.

Tension between the Soviet Union

and the Church still runs high.

[crowd cheering]

- The Pope came,
we saw him going

on the [speaking in
foreign language]

and suddenly we listen to the
thousand of pigeons going out.

And after that, we
hear the pistol shot.

[gunshot blasting]
[soft solemn music]

- [Narrator] The Pope is
shot at point blank range.

Amidst the chaos of the
moment, the assassin,

Mehmet Ali Agca, is
quickly apprehended

by the Italian police.

[soft solemn music]

But the Pope is gravely wounded.

He receives the Last
Rites of the Church.

[soft solemn music]

- I still suspect
that in some fashion,

the KGB was behind the
assassination of the Pope.

It was the KGB that
had the biggest stake.

And we do know that
the Soviet leaders

thought the Pope to be a menace.

[soft solemn music]

- [Narrator] The
shooting stuns the world.

In Krakow, nearly one million
people dressed in white

come to the main square
to pray for the Pope.

- It's interesting
that the Pope himself,

in talking about
that experience,

said that he had the
presentiment that
he would be saved.

And certainly he felt that
Mary had been at his side.

As the Pope once put it,

"One finger fired and
another directed the bullet."

[footsteps clacking]

- [Narrator] The
Pope is convinced

that nothing in
life is accidental,

remarking one year
after he was shot,

"In the designs of Providence,

there are no mere coincidences."

[soft solemn music]

By the mid 1980s, East
Central Europe is changing.

In Poland, martial law is lifted
after two difficult years.

Mikhail Gorbachev,
the new leader

of the Soviet communist party,
calls for economic reforms.

In this atmosphere in
1987, the Pope returns

to Poland for the third time.

[crowd cheering]

In Gdansk, the
birthplace of Solidarity,

he tells the crowds, "Human
life should be governed

by truth, freedom,
justice, and love.

There is no freedom
without solidarity."

[crowd cheering]
[soft poignant music]

In 1989, the communist
regime collapses in Poland.

From Czechoslovakia
to Lithuania,

captive nations
claim their freedom.

A complex of forces causes
the Iron Curtain to crumble.

The Berlin Wall, the great icon
of Soviet oppression, falls.

- By igniting a
revolution of conscience,

in Poland and indeed throughout
the region in June, 1979,

he helped make
possible a nonviolent

political transition in 1989.

And this is not the way
massive social change

has usually happened
in the 20th century.

I mean, it's usually been
blood all over the place,

enormous violence,
great destruction.

That did not happen
in this case.

Something was different here.

And I think the answer
to that difference

is that this was
a moral revolution

prior to being a
political revolution.

- What was done several times

was to compare the
Pope with Gandhi.

And I think it's
not unjustified,

in the sense of nonviolent
means achieving something

which people wouldn't
have expected

to be able to achieve, finally.

[lively upbeat music]

- I never dreamt that I would
live or die in a free Poland.

That was far too optimistic.

It really overcame
all my expectations,

that I have children who
live in a free country.

Never did I dream
that Poland would

in my life get rid of communism.

Poland today looks very
different from then.

You know, then that
colors were gray

and the people were gloomy, and
walked with their heads down

not to be noticed was
the most important.

Don't be different
than everybody else.

And today, you know,
the streets are colorful

and people carry their
heads in a different way.

[lively upbeat music]

- [Narrator] 70 Years
of fierce anti-Catholic

Soviet propaganda
comes to a halt.

Two years later, the Soviet
Union no longer exists.

[crowd applauding]

After the downfall of communism,

John Paul returns to Poland,
but with an unexpected message.

Rather than
congratulate the Poles

on their new-found
freedom, he warns them

of the dangers of
a new materialism.

The Pope believes the
fundamental crisis

of the modern world
remains unresolved.

This vigorous
opponent of communism

is convinced that capitalism
undisciplined by morality

will ultimately self-destruct.

As events unfold behind
the Iron Curtain,

the Pope's strong critique
of Marxism gets a different,

even conflicted reception
in Latin America.

Here, the politics of the
1980s are dividing the Church.

Military dictatorships,
social upheaval

and civil war are
creating turmoil.

Some priests believe
social change

requires a violent revolution.

They adopt a Liberation
theology that combines

Marxist ideas with
Catholic social doctrine.

The Pope insists that this
is an impossible compromise.

- The Pope throughout his
entire life has been a man

who believes it is a moral
duty to resist tyranny.

He has also come to the view
that in most circumstances

that is most appropriately done

through nonviolent
means of resistance.

- John Paul's critique
of Liberation theology

creates a decade and
a half of controversy.

In March, 1983 in Nicaragua,

the Pope publicly
scolds a priest

who is an official of the
Marxist Sandinista regime.

John Paul insists that his
clergy must not be partisans.

- A priest is to be a sign
of unity within the Church,

and he can't be that if he's
a partisan political actor,

much less a violent
partisan political actor.

In fact, the Pope
went to Latin America

to encourage a much more
vigorous presence of the Church

in the public life
of those countries.

The question was,
what were the terms

in which that was gonna be done?

What was the message the
Church was going to preach?

The Church cannot
preach a message

of class warfare, of
division, of violence.

- [Narrator] This
man, a rigorous and
worldly intellectual,

has confused many
around the globe.

[crowd chanting]

Catholics and non-Catholics
alike are disturbed,

angered, even embittered by
John Paul's unshakeable stance

on birth control, homosexuality,
abortion, celibacy,

and women's ordination
to the priesthood.

The Pope doesn't take
these issues lightly.

He writes extensively,
trying to place

these traditional
Catholic teachings

in a modern theological context,
but debate and controversy

continue inside and
outside the Church.

- [Interpreter] His teaching
should be understood

within the context of his faith.

I think this is a person
who cannot be understood

without Christ, without God.

If one looks at the Pope from
the religious point of view,

his teachings cannot be
other than what they are.

- People often try to understand
him from the outside in.

They see an enormous
presence on the world stage.

They see someone who's
had a great impact

on the politics of our time,

but that's to try to get
him from the outside in.

To get him from the inside
out, you have to reckon

with the fact that this is a
man who is first and foremost

a Christian disciple,
who secondly is a priest

of the Catholic
Church, and who thirdly

is the Bishop of Rome,

the holder of the world's
oldest institutional office,

which happens to be
a religious office.

It's not a political office,
it's not a diplomatic office.

It has those dimensions
to it, but at it's heart,

it's a pastoral office.

[crowd applauding]

- [Narrator] At the age of 74,

John Paul faces another
personal challenge

when he is diagnosed with a
form of Parkinson's disease,

a degenerative illness
of the nervous system.

Despite this, he
relentlessly pursues

the great themes of his
papacy, including his outreach

to other religions and to
the youth of the world.

[upbeat majestic music]

On this day, the king of Morocco

is making a state
visit to the Pope.

[upbeat majestic music]

This young King's father,
Hassan II, had invited John Paul

in 1985 to address Muslim
youth in Casablanca.

This was the first time the
leader of an Islamic country

had invited a Pope to
address a Muslim audience.

[crowd chanting in
foreign language]

- [George] He didn't back away

from the religious differences

between Christians and
Muslims, but said to them,

"Let's concentrate on those
convictions we have in common

and see if we can
build out of that

a better relationship
for the future."

- He is in many
respects, the first truly

ecumenical religious
figure in the world,

in the sense that he has
managed to personalize

the spiritual dimension
of human existence

in a way that no other
religious leader has done.

- [Narrator] As the first Pope
to visit a synagogue in Rome,

he tells the congregation
that there is

no theological justification
for antisemitism.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- John Paul II is
truly charismatic.

Everybody feels it.

For instance in India,
they were not Catholics.

They were not Christian.

They have seen in him
in India the man of God,

or the holy man,
or the saintly man.

It is a kind of
category we don't know

in our Western cultures.

[crowd singing in
foreign language]

- Many countries in
Africa have still

to deal with the problem
of national unity,

harmony between people
of varying backgrounds,

people who were put together
by colonial masters.

The Pope's visits to
various countries in Africa

have been like moments of grace,

when even people of
varying political parties

were together as they
never were before.

They felt one, they
felt challenged

to face a common necessity
to build up their country.

[choir singing in
foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

- [Narrator] By the late 1990s,

the Pope's physical
difficulties are unmistakable,

but despite age and illness,

his charismatic appeal to
young people is astonishing.

Surrounded by
enthusiastic crowds,

he is still the young priest
who creates a zone of freedom

for the younger generation,
but now on a grand scale.

On one occasion in
the Philippines,

he gathers the largest
crowd in human history,

nearly seven million people.

[crowd chattering]

- [Interpreter] Once I
asked the Holy Father

how he could explain the
youths' attraction to him.

He's getting old, and
the young generation

is rebelling against
the older generation

within families, everywhere,

and he attracts
them magnetically.

And he looked at me, it
was during a meal and said,

"Marek, it's the Holy Spirit."

That's his explanation.

Coming from his lips,
it can't be banal.

- There is a dimension
of his interior life,

a dimension of his
spiritual life,

which takes place in
a world without words.

It's beyond words,
it's before words,

it's a dialogue
that's indescribable.

And in that sense,
the deepest dimension

of Pope John Paul
II's spiritual life

is literally indescribable.

- [Interpreter] This
encounter with God,

one can see it in
his face, his hands,

the position of his body.

Even in his back, one sees
a man bent over in prayer.

- [Interpreter] When
the Pope is praying,

he looks like a rock,
he cannot be moved.

When he is praying, the world
around him ceases to exist.

Then suddenly he gets up
from his knees after praying

and with a radiant, smiling
face he turns around and asks,

"Now, where are you from?"

Those are two different worlds,

his conversations with God

and his conversations
with people.

I think he lives in both
worlds with all his might,

and he gives his
all to both worlds.

- [Narrator] During the
Jubilee year of 2000,

John Paul continues to pursue
the key ideas of his papacy,

human rights,
religious tolerance,

and respect for all cultures.

In an unprecedented sermon
in St. Peter's Basilica,

John Paul publicly asks
forgiveness for all the sins

Catholics have committed against
their fellow human beings.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

- [Narrator] Nine days
later, John Paul travels

to the Holy Land, fulfilling
a dream he has had

since the first days
of his pontificate.

On this 91st international
trip, he reaches out

to other Christian
communities and to Islam.

But even more significantly,
this pilgrimage marks

his most dramatic gesture
towards the Jewish people.

At the Western Wall of
the temple in Jerusalem,

he once again asks
God's forgiveness

for the suffering
Christians have caused Jews.

- When the Holy Father
was in the Western Wall,

the most sacred place
for Jews in Jerusalem,

and he was there.

I can tell you that
almost all the country

was watching that on television.

[soft poignant music]

- I almost cried.

It was for me it really,
I would not believe,

to place inside of that stone

the prayer that he had recited
in St. Peter to ask pardon.

That was really a
dramatic gesture.

[soft poignant music]

- I have come to Yad
Vashem to pay homage

to the millions of
Jewish people who,

stripped of everything,
especially of their
human dignity,

were murdered in the Holocaust.

In this place of memories,
the mind, heart and soul

feel an extreme
need for silence,

silence in which remember,
silence in which to try

to make some sense
of the memories which
come flooding back.

Silence, because there
are no words strong enough

to deplore the terrible
tragedy of the Shoah.

- He is above all else, a
person who has somehow or other

in a very charismatic fashion
managed to create a link

between humanity and divinity

in the age of modern
communications,

and that no other religious
figure has been able to achieve.

The age that we
are about to enter,

which risks of becoming the
first truly post-human age,

is an age which could threaten

the transcendental mystery
of the human being,

and then the response to
that has to be somehow

found in the area of
religion and spirituality.

He embodies that,
he conveys that,

he personalizes and
dramatizes that.

And I think that is the key

to his very special
place in the world.

[crowd chattering]

- He is today an old
man, slightly younger
than myself only.

[chuckling] And
still has, I think,

the knack of making new
spiritual discoveries,

of paving new ways, and
of rethinking old truth.

And he is a man who
will continually evolve.

[choir singing in
foreign language]

- On some occasions
you get the idea

by seeing the Holy
Father that here,

you see a soul draw in a body,

and couldn't be otherwise.

I think this is the reality.

I can tell you that I
don't remember an occasion

in which, because of his health,

he couldn't do what
he wanted to do.

- He is for a man, as I've
known him in his eighth decade,

remarkable in that
he rarely if ever

lives his life in
the rear view mirror.

John Paul II is always
living in the future.

- [Narrator] This son of
Poland, poet, philosopher,

mystic, Pope, has marked
our world forever.

[soft thoughtful music]

At the dawn of a new millennium,

he looks to humanity's
future as a witness to hope.

[John Paul speaking
in foreign language]

[crowd cheering]
[soft thoughtful music]