Thursday, October 1, 2009

John Paul II and Change in Poland

In a new documentary, Nine Days that Changed the World, Newt and Callista Gingrich, in partnership with Citizens United and Peace River Company, explore this claim.

The Polish trade union movement languished for years prior to June of 1979, attracting only modest popular support. Sixteen months after John Paul II’s nine day visit to Poland, and the 1980 Gdansk shipyard strike, the Solidarity movement became the first officially recognized free trade union in the Communist bloc, with over 10 million members.

What transpired during these nine days that so moved a nation to begin to free itself of its Communist shackles? Why did millions of Poles, almost one third of the entire nation, come to see the Pope during his public appearances? What was the nature of the Communist system in Poland that made John Paul II’s visit a liberating moment?

Nine Days that Changed the World answers these questions and presents the Pope’s historic trip to Poland as the cataclysmic event that transformed Poland and Eastern Europe.

Read more about this project here.


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