Press Coverage and Reviews

Inspiring Witness, Inspiring Testimony (From the National Review)

The new DVD Testimony takes viewers inside the life of Pope John Paul II

By Thomas S. Hibbs

National Review ‘God wants it, so I accept it.” The words of Pope John Paul II, from the newly released DVD Testimony: The Untold Story of Pope John Paul II, express his attitude toward suffering and physical disability. In a culture increasingly inarticulate about death, and riddled with contradictory instincts concerning the disabled and the infirm, the life of John Paul II is a moving and instructive testimony.

Narrated by Michael York with commentary by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, a childhood friend of the pope and his personal secretary in Rome, Testimony has a reverent and personal tone. The film does not delve into Cold War politics, nor does it investigate the origins of the assassination attempt, nor does it mention, let alone assess, the pope’s handling of the sex-abuse crisis in the church. Yet, it is a captivating portrait of the life of Karol Wojtyla. It covers his entire life, from his childhood in Poland, his youthful and abiding interest in art and theater, his time under Nazi rule, his vocation to the priesthood, his elevation to cardinal and eventually to pope, his conflict with the Soviet empire, the birth of Solidarity in Poland, the attempts on his life, his world travels (particularly his trip to Israel), to his declining health in later life and his death.

Dziwisz’s behind-the-scenes observations about the two assassination attempts, almost exactly a year apart (1981 and 1982), are informative. He notes that the first attack, in St. Peter’s Square, left the pope badly in need of a blood transfusion. The first transfusion did not take, as his body rejected the blood. A second attempt succeeded with blood from the doctors themselves: “That’s how the doctors saved the pope,” Dziwisz explains, “They donated their own blood.” Because the attempt on his life occurred on the anniversary of the first appearance of our Lady of Fatima in Portugal in 1917, the pope credited his survival to her intervention. A year later, on a pilgrimage to Fatima, where he delivered the bullet that nearly killed him, there was a second attempt on his life, this time by a deranged priest. Dziwisz reveals that the knife attack actually wounded the pontiff — information not made public until recently. (Read the full article on the National Review site)

Review: Testimony: The Untold Story of Pope John Paul II

Moving and uplifting 90-minute documentary profile of the Polish pontiff based on a memoir written by his personal secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, now Pope John Paul's successor as archbishop of Krakow, Poland, who appears throughout the film. As penned for the screen by Msgr. Pawel Ptasznik, head of the Polish Section of the Vatican's Secretariat of State, director Pawel Pitera's biography -- elegantly narrated by actor Michael York and featuring atmospheric music by Vangelis -- uses archival footage and stunning shots of Poland and the Vatican to reveal its subject's lifelong devotion to the Holy Spirit, the origin of his custom of kissing the earth on foreign journeys, his incognito getaways to the Italian countryside and his role in establishing a homeless shelter in the shadow of St. Peter's, all the while emphasizing his exercise of fortitude. The widescreen DVD features a 10-minute making-of featurette. 2008 (Visit the US Conference of Catholic Bishop's Web Site.)

Film on John Paul II reveals 1982 knife attack drew blood

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — A film on the late pope John Paul II reveals that a crazed priest who tried to assassinate him with a bayonet in 1982 managed to reach him and draw blood with the weapon, a senior religious figure told AFP on Wednesday.

The film based on the memoirs of the Polish pope's personal secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz recalled the incident in Fatima, Portugal, which came almost exactly a year after John Paul II nearly lost his life to Turkish would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca.

"There was blood," Dziwisz says in the film "Testimony," according to the the Vatican prelate who viewed it in a special advance screening at the Vatican.

The injury was not revealed at the time.

Read full story by AFP (French news service in English)

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John Paul Aide Reveals 1982 Pope Stabbing Cover-Up

John Paul’s former top aide opens up about the pope in a new documentary film called “Testimony.”

The film was made from Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz’s memoir, published last year.

View coverage by Fox News (English)

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Aide: John Paul was wounded in 1982 stabbing

Pontiff wounded by priest a year after being shot, documentary reveals

MSNBC VATICAN CITY - The late Pope John Paul II was wounded by a knife-wielding priest in 1982, a year after he was shot in St. Peter's Square, but the injury was kept secret, his former top aide says in a documentary film.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz also disclosed that when John Paul was unable to pronounce words several days before his death in 2005, he told his aides that if he could not speak any more the time had come for him to die.

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In the footsteps of John Paul II

Thenews.pl meets British actor Michael York at the Vatican, Rome, and asks him how working on the film Testimony - the story of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz’s time serving John Paul II - was a ’voyage of discovery’?

Michael York stars in the movie version of Testimony, the world premiere of which takes place in the Vatican, October 16, 30 years to the day since Karol Wojtyla was elected to the pontificate.

The film is a documentary, interspersed with re-enacted scenes from the memoirs of Cardinal Dziwisz’s autobiography, which sold over one million copies in Poland alone. Michael York narrates the film from behind, and in front of the camera.

The movie elaborates on the original book by Cardinal Dziwisz, with new revelations and details of Karol Wojtyla’s life and work.

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Benedicto XVI asiste a estreno de película sobre Juan Pablo II

Televisa CIUDAD DEL VATICANO, oct. 16, 2008.- Benedicto XVI asistió al estreno mundial de la película "Testimonio", basada en el libro "Una vida con Karol", del cardenal Stanislaw Dziwisz, que revela en el filme que Juan Pablo II fue herido en 1982 en Fátima (Portugal) por el sacerdote ultraconservador español Juan Fernández Krohn.

El purpurado, que fue secretario del Papa durante 39 años, también cuenta un hecho que ya era conocido, que Juan Pablo II realizó un exorcismo en el Vaticano a una mujer endemoniada.

View Televisa coverage (Spanish)

Coverage on Terra.com (Spanish)

More Press Coverage

Visit the Radio Vatican site for audio from the press conference (Italian)

View story on TheNews.pl (Polish site in English)

Read coverage in Gazeta Wyborcza.pl (Polish site in English)