The pope was a political revolutionary [View All]

[quaoar]

It seems like so long ago when John Paul II became pope, but it was a very exciting time. He was the first non-Italian to become pope in centuries. He gave a spiritual impetus to the Solidarity movement in Poland at a time when it still seemed like Soviet communism would never end in our lifetimes -- a time when the Russians had just seized Afghanistan.

He was the first pope to set foot inside a sunagogue or a mosque and he made efforts to reconcile Catholicism with other religions. He was passionately anti-war and he was not afraid to chastise world leaders like Bush or Castro or to denounce oppression in places like China.

On the other hand, you can also argue -- as I heard Jeff Greenfield do today -- that the pope's conservative theology made it possible for conservative Catholics and conservative Protestants to come together in the United States -- an alliance that resulted in Bush winning the Catholic vote in 2004.