John Paul II had 'intense' friendship with married woman: BBC

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"Pope John Paul II had a close relationship with a married woman which lasted over 30 years according to letters which feature in a documentary being shown by the BBC on Monday.

The documentary does not claim he broke his vow of celibacy with Polish-born philosopher and writer Anna-Teresa , although the tone of some of his letters to her points to intense feelings between them, the broadcaster says.

The two spent camping and skiing holidays together and went on country walks.

In one letter from September 1976, he calls her a "gift from God".

"My dear Teresa," he writes. "You write about being torn apart, but I could find no answer to these words."

Also in September 1976, he writes: "Already last year I was looking for an answer to these words, 'I belong to you'...

"The dimension in which I accept and feel you everywhere in all kinds of situations, when you are close, and when you are far away," he adds...

A close associate of John Paul II said it was "possible" that a married woman had fallen in love with him before he became head of the Roman Catholic church...

"If she was in love with (Karol) Wojtyla, she was most likely not alone," said Boniecki, himself the author of a detailed account of the pontiff's life...

Investigative journalists Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi in 1979 named a young Jewish girl, Ginka Beer, and Halina Krolikiewicz, the daughter of the school vice-chancellor, as two close friends of the youthful Wojtyla.