Documentary will spotlight Pope John Paul II

Perhaps more than any major religious figure of the 20th century, the life of Pope John Paul II has both intersected with and shaped major world events.

When he was elected to the papacy in 1978, he was seen as an actor, a poet, an athlete -- a pope for modern times. But as time went by, it became clear that many of his beliefs were rooted in the church's traditional teachings, which ran headlong against modern culture.

His gripping story will be told in a 21/2-hour "Frontline" documentary titled "John Paul II: The Millennial Pope."

The expansive program, produced by award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney, will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday on KTWU-TV, Channel 11, and KCPT- TV, Channel 19.

It includes historical footage and interviews with those who know or who have studied the pope. Only rarely does the pope, now 79, speak directly in the film.

For the pope, born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, and elected to the papacy in 1978, much of his life has been spent experiencing first-hand the major upheavals of the tumultuous 20th century.

Early segments of the documentary detail his childhood and devotion to his parents, both of whom died by the time he was 21. The loss of his mother when he was 8 profoundly affected him and would deepen his life-long devotion to the Virgin Mary.

In 1939, when he was a 19-year-old youth, the Nazi invasions of Poland leading to World War II began. Jewish friends disappeared, and many were killed in the Holocaust.

The documentary takes an in-depth look at the far-reaching effect the Holocaust had on the pope, and the lingering sadness he has felt over personal and church inaction on behalf of Jews.

Although he has taken dramatic steps to heal the ancient enmity between Christians and Jews, the documentary states, the pope has been criticized by some for not going far enough in criticizing the Catholic church for its role in the Holocaust.

After World War II, he also was in Poland, serving as a priest to a population whose morale was at risk because of Soviet domination.

Drawing upon his past experiences of actor, poet and altar boy, he helped resurrect the Catholic church into a powerful force in Poland and inspired hope among the church's vast constituency.

Not long after his first visit as pope to Poland in 1979, the labor movement known as Solidarity took off, and priests and countrymen engaged themselves in a new kind of courage that would lead to the fall of communism in the late 1980s.

Says author and former Polish senator Andrzej Szczypiorski: "I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that his pontificate was responsible for the downfall of communist rule worldwide. Because Poland in a way set the pace. It was the little stone that started the avalanche."

However, the documentary states the pope "stumbled" when responding to violent civil wars in Latin America in the 1980s when right-wing regimes battled Marxist revolutionaries.

He also wasn't supportive of "liberation theology," which claimed the Catholic church for too long had aligned itself with the rich and powerful, when its energies should have been spent on the poor and bringing about social change.

The pope's devotion to the Virgin Mary, made particularly apparent in the 1981 assassination attempt on his life at St. Peter's Square, is juxtaposed with his viewpoints of women's roles and steadfast opposition to contraception, abortion and female ordination.

Also included is the pope's denunciation of materialism and consumerism, and an examination of his 1995 encyclical the "Gospel of Life," which portrays the world in the grips of "a culture of death." In it, the pope denounces abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.

In one of the few instances when viewers actually hear the pope speak for himself, he says: "Because human life is created in the image and likeness of God, nothing surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person."

Above all else, say some interviewed for the documentary, the pope is counted as a man of great faith and, perhaps, a modern-day prophet.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.