John Paul the Great A Pope Who Made History (2007)

During his near27year reign John Paul II Karol Wojtyla was known as the people s Pope traveling countless miles to greet both the faithful skeptics carrying a message of peace Christianity to his vast audiences While the Nazis were tyrannizing Europe the young Wojtyla worked in a rock quarry where he acquired a lifelong respect for the dignity of labor In his spare time Wojtyla hiked enjoyed other athletic pursuits wrote poetry dabbled in acting on the stage but he increasingly felt called to the priesthood Ordained in 1946 Wojtyla the Catholic church faced fresh challenges after the fall of Hitler as new Communist rulers were quick to curtail religious civil liberties The documentary profile John Paul the Great follows Wojtyla s path from his birth in the Polish town of Wadowice in 1920 to Rome where in 1978 s year of three Popes he unexpectedly ascended Saint Peter s throne to become head of the Catholic Church serving until his death in 2005