Blessed John Paul II: some very personal memories...

(Vatican Radio) Veronica Scarisbrick brings you a programme to mark the election to the See of Peter of Karol Wojtyla who took the name of Pope John Paul II. The date was the 16th of October 1978.

A programme in which you can hear Vatican Radio archive recordings of the booming voice of John Paul II speaking in English at the beginning of his pontificate, as well as personal memories of some of those who knew him.

People who share with us their memories who include a late Polish countess, a late childhood friend whose father was the Chief rabbi of Wadowice, the town where Wojtyla was born, an American cardinal who visited Auschwitz with the then Cardinal Wojtyla and a former Vatican Radio journalist who happened to be in Saint Peter's Square at the time of the election.

Listen: