18 February 2016, The Tablet

St John Paul II: A rare glimpse at the humanity of a 20th century colossus


 
Probably the best people to understand the late Pope John Paul II’s relationships with women would be his fellow celibate priests. They may well empathise with the emotional anguish he experienced in the course of his intense friendship with Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka. It is a hazard of the job. She was a Polish philosopher living in America who helped him with his most famous work, The Acting Person, first published in Poland in 1969 when as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla he was Archbishop of Krakow. It was a successful intellectual partnership – she told friends she felt she had contributed to the English version of the book in various important aspects – and led to a lifelong bond. She was with him the day before he died. The broadcaster Edward Stourton has managed to uncover a
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