“Communism is the only serious rival to Christianity.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Communist prisons were filled with Christians of every denomination, from lay believers to senior religious leaders. Churches of all traditions were demolished, the property of religious institutions was confiscated, and religion itself was targeted for elimination. The Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand once stood before the United Nations, stripped to the waist, displaying the scars left on his body by imprisonment to diplomats who still believed there was freedom within the communist bloc.
In the United States, Christian activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. were convinced that the communist system, with its atheistic foundation and totalitarian ambitions, posed a threat to human freedom and, consequently, to the proclamation of the Gospel. Against this backdrop, the pope played a decisive role, both as a moral and as a political authority.
If Joseph Stalin once asked rhetorically, “How many divisions does the Pope have?”, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev stated much more explicitly on one occasion: “The fall of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II.”
Without weapons or armies under his command, Pope John Paul II played a pivotal role in one of the greatest geopolitical dramas of the twentieth century—the struggle against Soviet domination in Asia and Eastern Europe.
A pope from the communist bloc
It all began on October 16, 1978, when the Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected pope of the Catholic Church. Seven months later, he visited Poland, where millions watched televised speeches about the country’s Christian roots and the transitory nature of the communist regime. “He morally discredited the regime…It created a sense of alternative possibilities,” said Anthony Judt, a historian at New York University.
Nearly a year and a half after the Gdańsk strikes, Solidarity had become the first independent trade union in the communist bloc, with more than 10 million members. The equation was simple: “Without the pope, there would have been no Solidarity movement; without Solidarity, there would have been no Gorbachev; without Gorbachev, without Gorbachev, there would have been no 1989,” says Timothy Garton, Oxford historian. Dr. Guy Emery Shipler, editor-in-chief of The Churchman, reminds us that “no political event or circumstance can be evaluated without the knowledge of the Vatican’s part in it. And no significant world political situation exists in which the Vatican does not play an important explicit or implicit part.”[1]
The Vatican and the United States: a moral-political superpower
On the international stage, change came through the Washington–Vatican axis. The nuclear programs of the major powers, the situation of the leaders and members of the Polish Solidarity movement, human rights in the communist bloc, and the deterioration of relations with the Muslim world—all of these were on the agenda of Pope John Paul II and U.S. President Ronald Reagan (along with Vice President George H. W. Bush).
Time magazine gave extensive coverage to what it called the “Holy Alliance,” in which the two powers—one moral and the other political—devised a plan to pull Poland out of the communist orbit. The Vatican would use its moral authority, the infrastructure of the Church in Poland, and popular support, while the United States would contribute CIA operations and funding for the activities of trade unionists and their collaborators in Poland. While some journalists claim that the CIA provided the Pope with weekly briefings on developments in Poland, others argue that there was no alliance or conspiracy, but rather a “common purpose born of a set of shared convictions.”
“When the Soviets faced these two leaders of shared purpose and conviction, they faced their worst-case scenario: a moral-political meta-power.”[2] The Pope’s role was acknowledged both officially and unofficially on countless occasions. Among the most significant recognitions were his 2004 nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor in the United States—by President George W. Bush. The ceremony took place at the Vatican, where the pontiff was praised for his commitment to peace and freedom, which “inspired millions and helped to topple communism and tyranny.”
In 1989, communism began to crumble. When asked whether the collapse of the Soviet Union could be attributed to God, the Pope replied:
“It would be simplistic to say that Divine Providence caused the fall of Communism. In a certain sense Communism as a system fell by itself. It fell as a consequence of its own mistakes and abuses. It proved to be a medicine more dangerous than the disease itself. It did not bring about true social reform, yet it did become a powerful threat and challenge to the entire world. But it fell by itself, because of its own inherent weakness.”
In his book Memory and Identity, the Pope claimed only a modest share of the credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union. He attributed a major role to economic problems, while also highlighting spiritual and moral factors. The collapse could not be explained solely by economic causes, but, as the Pope wrote, “it would be equally ridiculous to believe that it was the pope who brought down communism with his own hands.”[3] The BBC concluded that communism would probably have fallen in any case, but that without a Polish Pope, the process would likely have taken much longer. [4]
