Bradford’s practising Roman Catholics have a bond with the Pope, their spiritual leader in Rome. But for the city’s Polish community, Pope John Paul II was specially beloved.

His funeral on April 8, 2005, mirrored the scenes worldwide in 1978 when, as 58-year-old Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, he was elected head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Karol Wojtyla had been imprisoned by the Nazis and barely tolerated by the Communist authorities who followed them after the war. To Poles in Bradford and to Poles everywhere his election in 1978 was miraculous.

Jan Niczyperowicz, who became chairman of Bradford’s Polish Federation, was in Poland at the time of Pope John Paul II’s election.

“Church bells were ringing. The country went ballistic. The Communists blocked the broadcast on polish radio,” he said. Later, he met the Pope briefly. So the death of John Paul II meant a lot to him.

“He was a Christian convinced of the truth of Christanity, but was unafraid to engage in meaningful dialogue with all the world’s faiths – and those people with none.

“Above all, the Pope was a witness to hope. There is hope in this world if you turn to higher things and search for the truth. Youth is cynical, but look at the way they reacted to a geriatric man: they can sense authenticity,” he added.

Unlike most of his modern predecessors, Pope John Paul II was not content to sit in the Vatican and let the world come to him. He went out into the world, kissing the ground whenever he alighted from an aircraft.

In May 1982 he became the first reigning Pope to visit Britain. It was a pastoral visit rather than a state occasion, so the Church paid for the six-day tour during which the Pope held vast open-air masses in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, went to nine cities and gave 16 major addresses. Two million or more people saw him.

Only the year before, Pope John Paul had survived an assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square. Mehmet Ali Aga fired at the Pope, hitting him four times and seriously wounding him. The Pope forgave his would-be killer.

The triumph of Poland’s Solidarity movement with shipyard trade unionist Lech Walesa becoming President of the country, indeed the eventual fall of Communism throughout Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1990, was attributed in part to the steadfast example of John Paul II.

“He took an interest in everybody. The Pope was close to the people but people were very close to him,” Ryszard Wolny, chairman of the Polish Parish Community in Bradford, told the T&A.

“Some people think he should have looked after the Church more; but by going out he brought the Church to the people. He steered away from liberalism: you cannot change religion that goes back 2,000 years.

“He was strict because religion is strict, it has to be; but he was compassionate.”

In May 2004, the year before the Pope’s death, the European Union increased its membership from 15 to 25 states, including Poland.

An estimated 500,000 Poles came to Britain, some of them to Bradford. The evidence of Polish supermarkets and restaurants in and around central Bradford indicates that many of them have stayed.