To all Christians, Roman Catholic and of other denominations, John Paul II, who died on Sunday morning, was a remarkable pope and a remarkable man. He was the first non-Italian to be head of the Catholic Church in 455 years: the last had been Hadrian VI, from the Netherlands. John Paul II, born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, was from Poland, and his ministry in Rome had momentous consequences for his motherland. He became pope under extraordinary circumstances. His predecessor, John Paul I, died, somewhat mysteriously, 34 days after he had been elected pope. John Paul II?s reign began in October 1978. This means that only one of his 261 predecessors served longer than he did. Some of the other statistics of his ministry are equally staggering. Until the beginning of 2005, he had made 104 foreign visits and had visited 317 of the 333 parishes in the See of Rome. He canonized 482 saints and had appointed 232 cardinals. Around 17 million persons attended his weekly audience in Rome. Under him, the number of Catholics across the world rose from around 757 million to more than 1.1 billion. To these billion people, John Paul II was the personification of their faith and all that they consider holy. John Paul II was orthodox in his views on abortion, contraception, homosexuality and in his rejection of liberation theology in the church in Latin America. He was a Marian who worshipped at the shrine of the Virgin of Czestochowa in Poland. He supported the sect called Opus Dei, known for its orthodoxy bordering on fanaticism.

John Paul II?s impact on the history of the 20th century went far beyond the sacred. Like popes in the medieval and Renaissance periods, John Paul dabbled with vital pieces of history. The Solidarity movement in Poland was born with his blessings and it will not be an exaggeration to say that the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Europe would not have happened ? or happened as swiftly as it did ? without the intervention of the pope. John Paul II did this quietly as an extension of Christ?s work on earth. He worked also to heal the breach between Christianity and Judaism: he prayed in Auschwitz and at Yad Vashem. He pledged friendship to the ?people of the Covenant?, and in 1994, Israel and the Holy See exchanged ambassadors. When, in a few days? time, a sliver of white smoke comes out of a chimney of the Sistine Chapel, the man whom the cardinals will elect as pope will have a difficult act to follow. In devotion and in service to humanity, John Paul II strove to be the imitation of Christ.