Nine Days That Changed the World

CCM screened the documentary Nine Days That Changed the World this past Sunday. We have been preparing for this event since last semester, when an alum who works for the company that produced it approached Asher, a CCMer who is now a graduate student, about showing the film. Over the past few weeks, Asher and our campus presence team have worked tirelessly to promote the film on and around campus. Asher and the alum also put together an eclectic panel to speak about the film after the screening.

I was nervous, because we reserved the auditorium that seats over 400 people, so even a respectable showing of 60 people would look small. To my shock and joy, over 200 people showed up, including many parishioners and members of a Polish heritage group from a couple towns over.

The film, which is officially one of my favorites, is about the nine day pilgrimage Pope John Paul II made to Poland in 1979. The makers of the film contend that this pilgrimage sparked the downfall of communism in Poland and thus through all of Europe. I would like to say "JPII single-handedly brought down communism," but that is not the claim they make. Rather, they show how this trip acted as a catalyst that helped move Poland to freedom.

I cannot sing the praises of this film enough. I saw it twice in a week and half, and both times it made me cry. Not just get misty-eyed, but cry. It begins by chronicling the history of Poland in the 20th century and showing how JPII emerged from a specific socio-historical/political context to be an unexpected pope. Then it moves into the nine-day pilgrimage itself, explaining everything the Pope did in his native land, and the power of his journey to awaken the people of Poland who were living in fear, forgetting hope, and without a sense of themselves. When the Pope left, the people were awake, alive, and aware -- and the Pope's sparks led to Solidarity, which led to the peaceful overcoming of communism, ten years to the day of the Pope's pilgrimage. Poland's fall, of course, toppled the rest of communism like dominoes.

When the film ended, one of the field producers, a Slovakian priest, and a W&M alum who had studied Polish American communities spoke on a panel about issues discussed in the film. When someone asked a question about Mary, however, we got an answer from the audience. We had a few Polish immigrants in the house, who were overjoyed to share the story of Our Lady of Czestochowa (the Black Madonna). The whole evening made me proud to be a Pole.

If you want to know more (which you should), you should watch the movie. I have it in my office, if you are near me.