The pope who changed history
Jerusalem Post  | 4-3-05 | BINYAMIN NETANYAHU
 

'How many divisions does the pope have?" asked Stalin dismissively. In the case of Pope John Paul II the answer was – plenty. He marshalled his divisions of Catholic believers at a critical moment in the late 1980s when the Solidarity movement toppled the totalitarian regime in his native Poland. Once this brick was removed from the communist wall, it did not take long for the entire edifice to crumble. (That appears to have been the reason for the attempt on his life.) Aside from president Ronald Reagan, John Paul II did more than any other person to bring communism to an end. For that, history shall remember him.

It will also remember him for his tireless efforts to foster reconciliation between the world's great religions, including between Catholics and Jews. His plea for forgiveness from the Jewish people expressed a sincere desire to atone for the past iniquities of Christianity toward its "older brothers," as the pope called the Jews.

His warm embrace of the Jewish people was evident when I visited him in the Vatican as prime minister in 1997. The pontiff emotionally spoke to me about his friendships with Jews going back to his student days in pre-Holocaust Poland. He spoke of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, "the land of our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." He looked at me and my wife Sara and said, "You are so young, and yet you are asked to lead the Jewish people – you must stay strong to carry such a burden on your shoulders."

He responded warmly to my invitation to visit the Holy Land during the millennium celebrations, "if health will permit me." He made good on his promise and in the year 2000 he came to Israel on a visit that symbolized the closing of a historic circle.

Christianity, born 2,000 years ago on the shores of the Sea of Galilee with a message of goodwill to all men, returned there after blood-drenched centuries of religious warfare with a similar message of kindness, so masterfully expressed by Pope John Paul II. Who can deny today the importance to humanity's future of his message of moderating religious fanaticism?

The pope's third great contribution was the removal of barriers between the masses and the Catholic Church. He was the first pope to make the most of television, and in his travels to over 100 lands he sought to win adherence to the traditional values he believed in.

Some of those values are justifiably contested. But the fact that in an overly permissive world millions of young people turned to the pope's message and searched for renewed moral significance in their lives can only evoke great respect for him. The pope at once renewed and preserved his Church.

For all these reasons Karol Wojtyla will be remembered as a man who changed history.