Vatican City, May 19, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Following a screening yesterday of the new film, “Karol, A Man Who Became Pope”, Pope Benedict XVI decried Nazism and communism, saying that “We have the duty to remind ourselves and others…what forms of unprecedented violence can be reached by scorn for human beings and violation of their rights.”
The film, which is based on a script written by Italian journalist Gian Franco Svidercoschi, spans the life of the late John Paul II up until his election as Holy Father.
The late Pope experienced first hand the horrors of Nazism, growing up in World War II-ravaged Poland, and fought through the first part of his papacy to abolish communism.
Pope Benedict, who delivered an address after the showing, noted that the first half of the film "highlighted what happened in Poland under Nazi occupation," and referred to the "repression of the Polish people and the genocide of the Jews.”