By CNA Staff, Oct. 22, 2024
This story was first published on Oct. 22, 2021, and has been updated.
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Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 05:00 am – You probably know that St. John Paul II was the second-longest-serving pope in modern history with 27 years of pontificate, and he was the first non-Italian pontiff since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI in 1523.
But did you know that he also changed the Catholic Church forever during those 27 years? Here are five ways he did that:
1. He helped bring about the 1989 fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
The pope’s official biographer, George Weigel, who for decades chronicled the pope’s engagement with civic leaders, noted that the way Pope John Paul II influenced the political landscape was enormous. His political influence is seen best in the way his engagement with world leaders assisted the downfall of the U.S.S.R. …
