How a young Polish Catholic boy went from an aspiring actor and an athlete to become the first non-Italian pope in 400 years is a dramatic story. How John Paul used his high office to undermine and help destroy Communism in Eastern Europe while at the same time transforming the Papacy onto a world stage was revolutionary and inspiring, if not controversial at times. Filmed on location in Poland, Rome, London, and the United States, leading churchmen, friends and colleagues, historians, journalists, and his personal biographer examine the character and forces that enabled John Paul II to be acclaimed universally as one of the most important personalities in the twentieth century. watch
How a young Polish Catholic boy went from an aspiring actor and an athlete to become the first non-Italian pope in 400 years is a dramatic story. How John Paul used his high office to undermine and help destroy Communism in Eastern Europe while at the same time transforming the Papacy onto a world stage was revolutionary and inspiring, if not controversial at times. Filmed on location in Poland, Rome, London, and the United States, leading churchmen, friends and colleagues, historians, journalists, and his personal biographer examine the character and forces that enabled John Paul II to be acclaimed universally as one of the most important personalities in the twentieth century. watch
Karol J?zef Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in the Polish town of Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Krakow, on May 18, 1920. Throughout his early twenties, and during World War II, he had to work in a Nazi-run rock quarry to earn a living and to avoid being deported to Germany. In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Krakow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Krakow, and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Sapieha in Krakow on November 1, 1946. He carried out his priesthood under the constant watchful eye of Poland's communist regime. The Cardinals elected him Pope at the Conclave of October 1978, and he took the name of John Paul II. His election sent cheers through his native Poland since he was the first Slav ever to take the seat of St. Peter. His pontificate, one of the longest in the history of the Church, lasted nearly 27 years. During tha watch
