More than 350 letters from Pope John Paul II to the Polish-born American
philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka were found at the National Library
of Poland, said Edward Stourton, the senior BBC journalist who made the
documentary. The first dated from 1973 and the last a few month before
the Pope's death in 2005.
"I would say they were more than friends but less than lovers," Stourton told the AFP news agency. "One of the fascinating stories that comes out of these letters is of a struggle to contain what was certainly a very intense relationship which mixed emotions and philosophical ideas in proper Christian boundaries."
According to the broadcaster, the letters did not suggest the Pope broke his vow of celibacy.
The "intense" correspondence revealed that the two spent camping and skiing holidays together and went on country walks. In one letter, he called the woman "a gift from God."
When he was still Cardinal, he gave Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka one of his most treasured possessions: a scapular, a small piece of cloth worn as part of the habit of monastic orders. "Already last year I was looking for an answer to these words: 'I belong to you,' and finally, before leaving Poland, I found a way - a scapular. The dimension in which I accept and feel you everywhere in all kinds of situations, when you are close, and when you are far away," he wrote in September 1976.
The BBC has only seen the former Pope's letters, not Tymieniecka's side of the correspondence. The philosopher died in 2014.
The National Library of Poland stated that this relationship was nothing more than one of many friendships the Pope enjoyed throughout his life.
"I would say they were more than friends but less than lovers," Stourton told the AFP news agency. "One of the fascinating stories that comes out of these letters is of a struggle to contain what was certainly a very intense relationship which mixed emotions and philosophical ideas in proper Christian boundaries."
According to the broadcaster, the letters did not suggest the Pope broke his vow of celibacy.
Statue of John Paul II in Czestochowa, Poland: The former Pope was declared a saint in 2014
The intense friendship began in 1973 when the philosopher
contacted the future Pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of
Krakow, about a book he had written.The "intense" correspondence revealed that the two spent camping and skiing holidays together and went on country walks. In one letter, he called the woman "a gift from God."
When he was still Cardinal, he gave Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka one of his most treasured possessions: a scapular, a small piece of cloth worn as part of the habit of monastic orders. "Already last year I was looking for an answer to these words: 'I belong to you,' and finally, before leaving Poland, I found a way - a scapular. The dimension in which I accept and feel you everywhere in all kinds of situations, when you are close, and when you are far away," he wrote in September 1976.
The BBC has only seen the former Pope's letters, not Tymieniecka's side of the correspondence. The philosopher died in 2014.
The National Library of Poland stated that this relationship was nothing more than one of many friendships the Pope enjoyed throughout his life.
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