The only Pope to visit New Zealand

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In November 1986, Pope John Paul II visited New Zealand as part of his longest ever world tour.

He gave an open-air mass at Auckland Domain in front of thousands of people.

He remains the only Pope to have visited the country.

Jen Dale speaks to Michael Jarka who was in the crowd and performed as part of a Polish cultural dance group for the pontiff.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.

(Photo: Pope John Paul II kisses the ground upon his arrival in Auckland airport. Credit: Jean-Claude Delmas/AFP via Getty Images )

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	An early start here. It's time to kick off.
0:10.0	Your day. Morning!
0:11.9	What a line-up.
0:13.3	Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show.
0:16.1	The crowd is loving this.
0:18.3	Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind.
0:20.2	From morning chaos to match day commentary. And everything in
0:24.4	between. BBC sounds packed with personality. Hello, welcome to witness history with me,
0:37.2	Gendale. Now, if this is one of your favourite podcasts already, feel free to skip a Hello, welcome to Witness History with me, Jen Dale.
0:38.1	Now, if this is one of your favourite podcasts already, feel free to skip ahead a little bit.
0:42.8	But if you're listening for the very first time, welcome.
0:45.8	We look at a moment in history told by the people who were there.
0:49.2	We use incredible archive and hear amazing stories.
0:52.4	New nine-minute episodes drop every weekday. So if that sounds
0:55.9	like your thing, hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts and turn on your notifications
1:01.2	so you never miss an episode. But for now, let's get to the story. I'm taking you back to
1:07.1	November the 22nd, 1986, when Pope John Paul II, leader of the Roman Catholic Church,
1:13.3	visited New Zealand as part of a whirlwind Six Nations tour.
1:17.5	It's Pope John Paul's longest ever foreign tour, and it also promises to be his most grueling.
1:23.1	Over a two-week period, he's scheduled to travel more than 30,000 miles visiting Bangladesh,
1:28.4	Singapore, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and the Seychelles.
	...

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