Warsaw, 1979

During his 27 year-long pontificate, Pope John Paul II made 104 foreign visits - the most important were his pilgrimages to Poland. On the eve of the beatification ceremony in Rome we look at the Polish Pope’s role in changing the course of history.

It was his first visit to Poland in June, 1979 - just seven months after being elected to lead the Roman Catholic church  - that made the greatest impact and re-awakened Poles’ aspirations for freedom and liberty.

“He was a great man because he helped us, as a nation, to be bold again,” Roman Catholic intellectual Andrzej Krszewicz tells our reporter Michal Kubicki. (pg)