| Collegian Archives
A biographer of Pope John Paul II credited the former pontiff with toppling the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War in a campus speech on Oct. 26.
“The collapse of European communism and the revolution of 1989 happened the way it did because Pope John Paul II ignited a revolution of conscience in June 1979,” said George Weigel, a Catholic writer and intellectual whose books include “Witness to Hope,” a biography of the saint.
Weigel delivered the lecture, hosted by the Catholic Society, surrounding the details of John Paul II’s resistance to communism with the strength of faith rather than violence.
“The beginning of the end of the Cold War came at 10 a.m. when John Paul II stepped off the plane at the Warsaw airport on his pilgrimage to Poland on June 2, 1979,” Weigel said.
During his visit, John Paul II reminded them of their identity, Weigel said.
“‘You are not who they say you are,’” Weigel said, quoting John Paul II. “‘Let me remind you who you really are. Reclaim your culture and true history and use the tools of resistance that communism cannot match.’”
Weigel said the pope brought a distinctive understanding of the dynamics of history which was the result of his distinctive Polish experience.
“The revival happened through Poland’s culture, through its distinctive language, distinctive literature, and it happened through Poland’s Catholic faith,” Weigel said.
Upon the pope’s election, the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, perceived the pope’s election as a mortal threat to not only the communist position in Poland, but to the whole Soviet enterprise, he said.
Weigel said Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the moment well when he said, “This is the greatest thing that has happened since the first World War. It will change everything.”
John Paul II entered his pontificate realizing the weakness of the Vatican’s diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, Weigel said. Through a leak within the Vatican, the Soviet Union had infiltrated the diplomatic process of the Vatican. John Paul II sought to rebuild this structure, and made it clear that this relationship would be a zero-sum game: one side would win and the other side would lose.
In continuing his mission of peace, John Paul II collaborated with other world leaders to establish the Solidarity Movement in August 1980.
“He analyzes John Paul II’s life from a historical perspective,” freshman and attendant Liam Regan said. “He gives an outside perspective, looking at the historical events and how the church and John Paul II reacted to them. It was very powerful.”
President of Catholic Society and senior David Strobach commented on the way in which John Paul II struck his life.
“Truth itself can take down communism,” he said. “It gives you hope if you live out the faith in any day and age. The prudence of John Paul II of understanding what he was doing was absolutely masterful.”
“We can live that lesson if we live our lives from the inside out as he did, praying our lives into a better future,” Wegel said.