The eventful life of a humble Polish priest who once decried the pomp of the Catholic Church "a circus" and labeled the Pope a "prisoner of the Vatican" before ascending to the papal throne to usher Catholicism into the 21st century. Born in Poland and forced to carry on following the untimely death of his family, Karol Wojtyla endured both personal hardships and the rape of his homeland by the Third Reich to spread the word of God through the Catholic Church. Later, as Pope John Paul II, Wojtyla was beloved by millions of Catholics worldwide. From the sexual-abuse scandal that shook the American Catholic Church in the later-20th century to the murder of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and the near-fatal assassination attempt made on his own life, Pope John Paul II endured to bridge the gap between various faiths until his death resulting from Parkinson's disease in April of 2005.
Thomas Kretschmann
Pope John Paul II
Bruno Ganz
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski
Joaquim de Almeida
Archbishop Oscar Romero
John Albasiny
Father Stanislaw Dziwisz
Charles Kay
Pope Paul VI
Sabrina Jàvor
Ginka
Jasper Harris
Young Karol Wojtyla
Peter Goranov
Karol's Father
