Max Pearson

He took it off when he got up onto the stage.

It was just so moving seeing this person all in white leading everybody, and all the Catholic people, just thousands and thousands of people,

just so enthused and following, you know, and I think it was genuine for many, many people, this following of it.

It wasn't sort of, oh, the Pope says it, let's do it sort of thing.

I think it was a bit more than that.

It was very uplifting spiritually, very much so, knowing that you were being guided and directed by the head of the church, you know, the number one.

Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

I rejoice to be in your midst.

Photographs of the time show some members of the crowd took the religious occasion as a chance to demonstrate their political beliefs.

Alongside flags are some banners of the Polish Solidarity Trade Union.

It encouraged protest against the government and was banned by the communist authorities in the Pope's home country.

For Michael, who'd visited Poland just a few years before, it was important to show support publicly.

If I wore a solidarity button or a T-shirt, I would have more than likely been arrested over there because when I was there, I remember in 1984, 85, the only place you would see solidarity ephemera and things like that was within the church.

But if you stepped outside wearing something solidarity, you'd have either got thumped over the head or you'd have been arrested and ordered to remove it.

We had the freedom to do it here and also being so far away, we were showing our solidarity with the Poles who were still in the country.

In New Zealand, the Pope has called on world leaders to put ideological issues aside and promote world peace.

Christ's love breaks down the hostility and barriers that keep people divided from one another.

The world was in quite a bit of turmoil in 1986, especially in his homeland and in Europe.

But his message to us was, yes, was to live in peace, live in harmony with each other, but also do not lose sight of your faith.

Michael's faith has led him to a papal audience in Rome with Pope Francis in 2018, but the open-air mass with Pope John Paul II at Auckland Domain more than 30 years before remains a highlight of his life.