A documentary was aired last night on the British television station BBC One about the friendship between St. John Paul II and a female philosopher named Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, erroneously implying that although the pope never “broke his vow of celibacy”, the relationship was much closer than it should have been.

According to the BBC, the friendship between Ms. Tymieniecka and the future pope began in 1973 when she contacted him during his tenure as the Archbishop of Krakow about a book on philosophy that he had written. The Polish-born Tymieniecka, who was living in the US at the time, traveled to Poland to discuss it with him. The two decided to collaborate on an expanded version of the book entitled The Acting Person. Even after this work was completed, their friendship continued via correspondence which the BBC implies was at times a bit too close.

“She appeared to have revealed intense feelings for him because his letters immediately afterwards suggest a man struggling to make sense of their friendship in Christian terms,” the BBC reports. In one, dated September 1976, he [Cardinal Wojtyla] writes: ‘My dear Teresa, I have received all three letters. You write about being torn apart, but I could find no answer to these words’."

They also reveal photographs which show Cardinal Wojtyla and Tyminiecka on a group camping trip, saying that he also invited her to join him on country walks and skiing holidays. After he became pope, there are photos of her visiting him at the Vatican.

"Here is one of the handful of transcendentally great figures in public life in the 20th Century, the head of the Catholic Church, in an intense relationship with an attractive woman," says Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge University.

Apparently, Tymieniecka sold their correspondence to the Polish National Library which housed them in their archives, making them unavailable for reading. This is how the BBC got away with calling the documentary, “The Secret Letters of John Paul II.”

According to CNA/EWTN, this documentary appears to be more bluster than fact.

“John Paul II's friendship with her was neither secret nor extraordinary,” said a representative from Poland's national library to Agence France Presse. “The statements made in the media have no basis in the content of the letters of John Paul II to Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka which are in the National Library of Poland’s archives.”

That a man as approachable and affable as St. John Paul II would have a lot of friends during his lifetime should not surprise anyone.

“ . . . [I]t comes as no great revelation that Pope John Paul II had deep friendships with a number of people, men and women alike,” said Greg Burke, vice-director of the Holy See Press Office.  “No one will be shocked by that.”

John Paul's long-time personal secretary agrees. “Those who lived at John Paul II's side knows very well that there is no space for malicious conspiracy theories,” said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz in a statement. “He was free and transparent, he lived with no complexes because he was a very pure man, as he respected every person in every life's situation. This is the only key of interpretation of his exemplary and holy life.”

As for the Tymieniecka and John Paul going on walks and trips together, Gianfranco Svidercoschi, a veteran Vatican observer and a biographer of John Paul II, told CNA that he did this with a lot of people, including Wanda Poltawaska, a Polish doctor and concentration camp survivor with whom he was also close.

“John Paul II loved to meet people. When he wanted to discuss something, he used to invite someone for a walk in the mountains. And he loved to go boating,” Svidercoschi said.

Unfortunately, this disingenuous reporting has started internet rumors about an affair between the late pope and Ms. Tymieniecka which may prove difficult to undo. We can only hope that spreading the facts as far and wide as possible will get the word out that, once again, the mainstream media got it all wrong.

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