The film opens with Part 1 's ( December 4 ) Pope John Paul II assassination attempt on May 13 , 1981 , then while he is being taken to Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic , flashes back to his pre-World War II childhood with his mother and older brother , then flashes to 1939 , just before and at the start of World War II when Wojtyla was 19 . Wojtyla watches university professors and many more of Poland 's talented people being rounded up by Nazi troops for slave labor and to further liquidate Polish culture and is told by his father to get a work permit to avoid deportation to Germany as slave labor himself . The following year , he is working in a Nazi quarry while secretly embracing the closed Rhapsody Theatre to keep Polish culture alive . In 1942 , he leaves the theatre to join Archbishop 's Adam Sapieha 's secret seminary to study for the priesthood . In 1945 , the war ends with the Soviet Union 's occupation and eventual Communist takeover . Wojtyla is ordained to the priesthood in 1946 , then travels to Rome for graduate studies while Poland 's Communist Party conducts its deadly purges of the Polish Home Army as suspected future enemies . In 1949 , Wojtyla is transferred to Krakow 's Jagiellonian University as a student counselor . Sapieha dies in 1951 , Wojtyla becomes professor of social ethics at Catholic University of Lublin in 1956 and in 1958 , become Krakow 's bishop . In 1959 , he ends the decade by holding Nowa Huta 's first ever mass on Christmas Eve , then leads a public religious procession of the Black Madonna 's empty picture frame through Krakow , attends all Vatican II sessions and becomes Krakow 's archbishop before the sessions end . In 1967 , he becomes a cardinal by Pope Paul VI , returns to Poland and heals a friend from the Polish Home Army of bone marrow cancer by praying to Padre Pio . Pope Paul VI dies in August 1978 and Albino Luciani succeeds him as Pope John Paul I , only to die late the following month after only 33 days as pope . Wojtyla is told by fellow cardinal Stefan Wyszynski than if he is elected to accept the position for Poland 's sake
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Pope John Paul II (miniseries)