Pope John Paul II
Following the sudden unexpected death of Pope John Paul I in 1978 a Pole, Karol Józef Wojtyła, was elected the first non-Italian Pope for 400 years and took the name John Paul II.
Shortly afterwards, in 1980, the first cracks in the Soviet edifice began in Poland at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk when a strike led to the Shipyards' worker's Union gaining its independence under the name of Solidarity. Lech Wałęsa, the Solidarity Union leader became known worldwide and other unions across the Soviet Union demanded the right to local independence.
Solidarity went on to demand free democratic elections in Poland and a decade later Lech Wałęsa was elected President of Poland.
Solidarity
As subsequent disclosures around the Vatican bank revealed, hundreds of millions of Western dollars had been secretly fed to the Solidarity movement through the resources of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.
Thus historians generally agree that John Paul II substantially hastened the demise of the Soviet Union and Saint John Paul II became a hero of the Western World and he remains so in Poland.
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John Paul II still most popular in Poland
Now 83% of Poles are Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox heretics have been vanquished. Unlike many Roman Catholics elsewhere who identify as Catholic but do not practice, over 63% of Poles are regular church goers attending more than once a month. Protestants, unbelievers and assorted eastern religions account for most of the remainder. Jews are virtually nonexistent.
Poland now challenges Malta as one of the most Roman Catholic countries in the developed world and this is in evidence everywhere.
Public Christianity
When a large sample of Poles were asked: 'Is religion an important part of your daily life?', three quarters affirmed that it is.
This is extraordinary in a Europe where there in hardly another country, except of course Malta, where a majority of those polled answered Yes. In northern Europe three quarters of those polled answered No.
In addition to being credited by some with the demise of Communism in Europe the Polish Pope, John Paul II, was first and foremost an ecumenicalist.
In 1982 he met with the Queen of England, head of the Church of England, and attempted to reconcile Roman Catholicism with the Anglican tradition, only to be foiled by the ordination of women in that tradition.
He was also first to publically recognise the hurt that the Church, and some twenty previous Popes, had inflicted on the Jews.
In some degree this was a response to Jewish and secular historians pointing to the Church’s early accommodation with and encouragement of Hitler. For example, when Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland and Catholic priests blessed the invading soldiers and Cardinal Karl Joseph Schulte held a Mass at Cologne Cathedral to give thanks.
Catholic historians have responded that the Church strongly admonished Hitler for ethnic cleansing, particularly in relation to Poland where huge numbers of people were driven out of their homes to make way for German settlers; and children were 'stolen' from parents to be taught German and German culture.
For example in 1939 Pope Pius XII published his Summi Pontificatus after his election. This encyclical, subtitled 'On the Unity of Human Society', proclaims the equality of all humans born of Adam. It is said to have been an implicit condemnation of ethnic cleansing as it specifically condemns the killing of the disabled and genetically defective. A later encyclical letter: Mystici Corporis Christi (1943) clearly condemns the destruction of Poland, calls its immediate restoration and denounces the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Although Jews are not specifically identified in these and similar admonishments of Nazi wrongdoing, Jews were obviously included among those injured.
As an underground priest in training Karol Wojtyła had firsthand experience of the Holocaust.
To make amends for the Church for its numerous acts of oppression against Jews, in 2000 John Paul II visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the most holy Jewish place of worship, prayed and left a letter of apology in a crack.
The Western Wall - see our trip to Israel
The following year he attempted a reconciliation with Islam by praying in the Great Synagogue in Damascus and proclaiming Islam a religion in the Abrahamic tradition.
The Great Synagogue in Damascus - see our Middle East trip
His successor Benedict XVI was far less conciliatory.