KAROL Josef Wojtyla had been many things before he became Pope. Among these many things, he had been a theatre actor and nothing had been more dramatic than the events that led to the day he was presented to the world's stage as the newly elected Pope on October 27, 1978.
In 1968, Morris West's bestselling novel, "Shoes of the Fisherman" became a movie blockbuster. Released at the height of the Cold War, the film captured the imagination of the free world because it told the story of how a Russian, a Siberian prisoner for 20 years, ended up playing a key role as pope in a very troubled world facing the horrid prospect of a nuclear world war. Kiril Lakota turned out to be a revolutionary pope who extended his papal influence beyond the boundaries of the Vatican and the spiritual needs of the Catholic Flock.
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