April 29, 2011

A special broadcast focusing on the figure of the Servant of God , John Paul II due to be beatified by Benedict XVI on May 1st, Divine Mercy Sunday, in Saint Peter's Square.
Victory Square and all that - What exactly did Pope John Paul II mean when upon his election he told the crowds he came from a far away country? That's what he tells us himself in his last book "Memory and Identity, Conversations at the Dawn of the Millennium ..".And again what happened exactly on that day in Warsaw's Victory Square? We speak to the man who organized that encounter. He's Jesuit, Cardinal Roberto Tucci .Also in this programme you can hear the voices of both John Paul II and indeed Benedict XVI speaking of Solidarnosc, as well as a feature focusing on the role the Polish Pontiff attributed to himself, in the collapse of communism .
Suffering never crushed his love for life- It was to Poland that John Paul II dedicated the last words of his spiritual testament. Offering us perhaps an insight into the more human side of Karol Wojtyla whose suffering never crushed his love for life. Join us and our guests as we step back in time and bring you echoes of this Polish Pontiff's early days as a child, when he went on on pilgrimage with his father to pray at a Marian shrine nestling in the Beskidy hills. Or again when he played table tennis, acted or went dancing . But also years later as pope, unusual moments during his summer holidays in Castelgandolfo, when he met with peripatetic Polish intellectuals to chat of philosophy or chaos theory ...Among the guests in this programme are childhood friend, Jerzy Kluger and cosmologist Professor Michael Heller.
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