For more than a quarter century, Karol Wojtyla was the world's spiritual superpower. As Pope John Paul II, his decisions shaped the lives of more than 1 billion Catholics around the world - by far, the largest organized religious group on Earth.
He used his personal charisma in a tireless campaign for a Catholic vision of human rights that helped to topple communism, defend the poor and build bridges to other faiths, especially Judaism.
His followers did not always agree with him, but their affection and respect were obvious in more than 100 tours, when vast crowds around the world were drawn to his outdoor Masses.
"He brought the human face of the Vatican to people of every culture in every part of the world," said Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida. "He showed that the pope is not someone who is locked up in the Vatican, but is truly a man whose mission is bringing the gospel message to the people of the world."
In more than 25 years of travels and Vatican public events, John Paul spoke in person to more people than any other human in history.
"This is the greatest Christian witness of our time," said papal biographer George Weigel.
Historians ranked John Paul as either the third or fourth longest-serving pope, depending on how many years they credited to St. Peter 2,000 years ago. John Paul's impact on the church will be felt for many years to come. He appointed nearly all of the church's top leaders, modernized and clarified the entire code of church laws and supervised a complete revision of the catechism, the official summary of Catholic doctrine.
Though raised in an era of horse-drawn carts, he ended his life recording messages on CD-ROM, hosting a vast Web site, www.vatican.va, and joining passionately in scientific debates on genetic engineering and cloning.
Elected at the relatively young age of 58, he was admired for his courage and vigor. It seemed that nothing could stop him. In his youth, he survived the Nazi invasion of his native Poland and, as a young priest and bishop, survived the communist oppression that settled over his homeland.
Against the odds, in 1978, he became the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
When Mehmet Ali Agca shot him in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, he survived and then turned the near-fatal incident into a moral lesson by visiting his attacker in prison and forgiving him.
As he aged, he was admired for his iron-willed stamina. He kept traveling and celebrating masses despite an abdominal tumor, removed by surgeons in 1992, followed by falls that dislocated an arm and broke a leg. Even when Parkinson's disease made speaking difficult and walking nearly impossible, he persevered.
Over the decades, John Paul devoted much of his energy to challenging the world's political power brokers with his vision of morality and social justice. Presidents and premiers often tried to ignore or take advantage of him, but he was resolutely clear about his vision of human rights even when that vision collided with secular regimes.
In the spring of 2003 in the United States, the combined influence of 36 Protestant and Orthodox denominations at the National Council of Churches couldn't get access to President George W. Bush to deliver an antiwar warning. But, when the pope wanted to weigh in, Bush welcomed Cardinal Pio Laghi at the White House, though Bush knew he was providing a stage for the Vatican's message.
"The president could not turn away the pope's emissary," said Robert Edgar, head of the council in New York. "The pope understood that in this day and age, war is obsolete, and he took a leadership role in speaking out."
The pope could not prevent a war in Iraq, but he is widely credited with playing a catalytic role in toppling the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
John Paul argued that the communist system collapsed on its own flaws. But former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged the crucial influence of John Paul's public support for the Solidarity labor movement in Poland - and his behind-the-scenes negotiations with communist bosses.
John Paul's spiritual legacy stretches far beyond the Catholic Church, said Rabbi James Rudin, coordinator of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee in New York. That's because John Paul was a pioneer in improving Catholic relationships with the world's other faiths.
In 1986, he became the first pope to visit a synagogue. He embraced Jews as "our elder brothers" and bluntly condemned all forms of anti-Semitism.
Then, in 2001 in Damascus, Syria, he made the first pontifical visit to a mosque and tried to improve relations with Islam.
"He was able to put Catholic-Jewish relations into the mainstream of church life, precisely because he was born in Poland in 1920 and was 19 years old when the Germans occupied his village," Rudin said. "It's precisely because he lived through the Holocaust on the ground in Poland."
A passionate concern for the protection of human life led John Paul to speak out against policies that he believed were threats to life. Through the years, he opposed abortion, capital punishment, nuclear weapons, assisted suicide and the oppression of workers both by communism and uncontrolled capitalism.
Sometimes, his audiences listened; sometimes, they did not. Despite his staunch opposition to artificial birth control, for example, many polls of American Catholics have shown that couples almost unanimously ignored his teaching on that issue. And, though he forbade any discussion of the ordination of female priests, a majority of American Catholics tell pollsters that they think it's not a bad idea.
Richard McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, said, "Catholics have learned to make up their own minds and consciences. They know that some of the pope's teaching has been too narrowly crafted. They know that some of his pronouncements are an Old-World vision that goes back to his history in Poland."
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