(Vatican Radio) 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 himself tells us
in the last book of his pontificate "Memory and Identity, Conversations at the Dawn
of the Millennium .." And again what happened exactly on that day in Poland's Warsaw's
Victory Square on June 2, 1979? That's what the man who coordinated that encounter,
Jesuit Cardinal Roberto Tucci tells Veronica Scarisbrick, sharing with her the impression
of euphoric welcome on the part of the huge crowds as the Polish Pontiff appeared
to them. As they recognised in their fellow countryman a messenger of hope and herald
of freedom for their common homeland which at the time was stifling under the choke
of communism. In this programme Cardinal Tucci gives a first hand account of that
historic event. One which as we know was to produce a ripple effect across Poland
and behind the rest of the iron curtain.. Listen to this programme presented and
produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: