This recording is the sound of many voices and of one. That single voice rises with authority above the others, speaking to them and for them. The voice of His Holiness John Paul II is unique: the voice of the frail leader of a Church with a membership of over a billion, representing multiple cultures expressed in a multitude of tongues. When, in Bede’s day, East met West in the appointment of Theodore to the See of Canterbury, the Greek Archbishop was able to govern through the services of another voice, that of his interpreter. Today’s Pope is a versatile linguist. He speaks with his own voice many languages, with supremely persuasive powers of oratory. Moving easily from language to language, he traces the history of mankind from the creation of the light: ‘Let there be Light!’. He brings the world face to face with the meaning of the millennium: a date to mark the Incarnation, the coming of Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity – ‘Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee’. He is not afraid to listen to the voice of popular culture and even to sing his ‘Pater noster’ with an echo of its beat and lilt. Amid the applause of a massive audience, he slowly declaims the ‘Alma Redemptoris mater’, translating each phrase from Latin into modern Italian: and the opening verse of the Alleluia ‘Dies sanctificatus’ – ‘a holy day has dawned for us’ – is slipped in as a refrain, leading to the Pope’s solemn recitation of the Beatitudes ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit …’. He lays the emphasis on love and reconciliation, justice and peace, and we hear the whole of this message against a background of many cultures – an Eastern rite litany, an African hymn, a Western chant … at times the secular world surges up with such strength as to make his voice almost inaudible. Yet it reasserts its power, retaining throughout its unmistakable note of conviction and calm authority.'