Pope John Paul II had a close relationship with a married woman which lasted over 30 years, according to letters which feature in a documentary being shown by the BBC on Monday. The documentary does not claim he broke his vow of celibacy with Polish-born philosopher and writer Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, the broadcaster claims.
Edward Stourton, the senior BBC journalist who made the documentary, claimed that more than 350 letters were found at the National Library of Poland, the first dated in 1973 and the last a few months before his death in 2005. A close associate of John Paul II said it was "possible" that a married woman had fallen in love with him before he became head of the Roman Catholic church.
"Women fall in love with priests all the time, and it's always a big headache," Father Adam Boniecki, editor-in-chief of the progressive Tygodnik Powszechny Catholic weekly, told AFP. "If she was in love with (Karol) Wojtyla, she was most likely not alone," said Boniecki, himself the author of a detailed account of the pontiff's life. Tymieniecka "translated Karol Wojtyla's books into English, making his work known to US academics... but her translations caused tension between the two", Boniecki said. The BBC has only seen John Paul II's letters, not Tymieniecka's side of the correspondence. She died in 2014.
John Paul II was pope from 1978 to 2005.