Writer/Director John Kent Harrison was able to speak to some of John Paul II’s closest friends and associates as part of his research for the miniseries. He heard great personal stories about the Pope, some of which he incorporated into the movie. Here are a few that we did not have time to include in the film.

From STANISLAW DZIWISZ, John Paul II’s longtime personal secretary and now Archbishop of Krakow:

The Pope loved to ski. During his pontificate, we quietly slipped away to ski at least 250 times. On most of these occasions, he would not be recognized. Even people who thought they saw the Pope would say, “No, how could that be the Pope? He wouldn’t be out here skiing!” There was, however, one time when the Pope stopped on the mountain to pray. A little boy came up to him and said, “Il Papa!” Then the boy ran down the mountain yelling to everyone that the Pope was there.

On another occasion, while the Pope was on one of his trips, he took some time to hike in the local mountains. During the hike, he encountered a man who lived in the woods with his wife. The man asked if the Pope would sit and have some wine with him. The Pope really enjoyed meeting people individually, so he accepted the invitation. The two of them shared wine and conversation for quite some time before the man started laughing. What was so funny, the Pope asked. The man said that his wife had gone into the village to try to get a glimpse of the visiting Pope. She will never believe that the Pope spent the afternoon with her husband!

From MARCO FRISINA, composer for our film and a close friend of John Paul II:

The Pope didn’t have any particular preferences or needs when it came to food. In fact, he never cared what he ate. During lunch once with a group of seminarians, he knocked a piece of cheese off his plate and onto the floor. To everyone’s surprise, he picked the cheese up off the floor and put it back on his plate. His personal waiter saw this happen and was aghast. He hovered nearby until he saw the Pope preoccupied with conversation. Then he discreetly snatched the cheese off the Pope’s plate and put it into his pocket.

Thousands of people wrote to the Pope, asking for his prayers. Many of those letters were placed next to the Pope’s prie dieu in his private chapel. He would pray for them, and sometimes they would write back to say that their situation had a good outcome. Once, when a Cardinal visited the Vatican and revealed that he had throat cancer, the Pope gently massaged the Cardinal’s neck for fifteen minutes. We later learned that the Cardinal’s cancer disappeared.