Pontiff a political player as well as spiritual leader

The impressive thing about Pope John Paul II is that he saw the evil of economic ideologies, both communism and capitalism. He lived through both the Nazi occupation and the Soviet ocupation of Poland.

Both, taken to their extremes, can be used to oppress people. We saw that in Stalanist communism, as practiced in the Soviet Union, and we are seeing the oppression inherent in extreme capitalism, which we call corporatism, begin in earnest in the U.S.

If it cannot be stopped, it will be every bit as bad a communism was in Russia and her satellite nations.

Chron.com Pontiff a political player as well as spiritual leader:

He's going to go down as the most important world leader in the second half of the 20th century,' said Thomas Reese, an American priest and author of a book on the inner workings of the Vatican.

While some may think that opinion overstated, John Paul certainly will stand among the most prominent, and longer reigning, leaders during one of the most trying times of the modern age.

From his outspoken criticism of communism and capitalism to his conservative social views, his steadfast opposition to war and his advocacy of the world's poor, John Paul was a political player as well as a spiritual leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics.