The Vatican announced Saturday evening that the pope died. With his globetrotting and visits to more than 100 countries, he increased the international presence and clout of the papacy and drew attention to human rights and world peace.
In many areas John Paul II was ahead of his time, and even began to use his position in the Church to speak out on world affairs. His relentless fight against human rights breaches, oppression, bondage and war gained him not only admirers within the Church, but worldwide.
Since his first days in the Vatican, he showed an impressive grasp of peace-making diplomacy, which the most-traveled pope in history often translated into action on his numerous visits to foreign countries. Nor die he shy away from entering the political fray and criticized world leaders for waging war and neglecting the poor in their quest for ever-more material gains.
«In the East, atheist regimes left behind a spiritual wasteland, while in the West a disproportionate focus on capitalism threatens to choke the spiritual values of a whole civilization," he once said, endearing himself to the opponents of communism and globalization.
The pope’s unflagging appeal for mutual respect among the world’s religions was a grand gesture in the name of peace. He set himself apart from his predecessors by seeking an ecumenical dialogue with Protestant leaders and by becoming the first pope to visit a synagogue and a mosque. His effort to bring together religious leaders from around the world in Assisi in the name of peace was a milestone in the history of civilization.
Even though opinions about John Paul II differed; he will undoubtedly go down in history as a Pope of superlatives and a towering figure at the moral center of modern life. He was a charismatic, visionary and strong-minded successor of St. Peter. In the words of an Italian writer, he was a «giant among the giants of the Earth." His successor will surely have a difficult time measuring up to John Paul II. The Chechen Times http://www.chechentimes.org/en/comments/?id=27764
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