Drawing on hundreds of interviews with the key players in Rome, Washington, Moscow, and Warsaw, Bernstein and Politi tell the Pope's amazing story, recreating the remarkable details of his upbringing in a small Polish town during the Nazi occupation and the early years of the Soviet control of the country. Despite the Soviets' attempts to halt the growth of the Church in Poland, his career included assignments as the bishop of the archdiocese that contained Auschwitz and a role at Vatican II as well as a growing presence within the Vatican during John Paul I's papacy.

At once compelling journalism, drama, history, and biography, His Holiness reveals how John Paul II used his global pulpit to put the Church on an unmistakable theological course with regard to such issues as the role of women, sexuality, and abortion -- and, in the political arena, to force the Vatican to recognize the state of Israel, work with the CIA, and influence the rise of Solidarity.