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| Pope John Paul II being seen off at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by the then President Daniel arap Moi after his visit to Kenya in 1985. | Pope John Paul II Pope did not play favourites in world affairs. He did not shy away from telling the West his mind.
During that first triumphal visit to the United States, he warned his hosts about the dangers of materialism, selfishness and secularism, and suggested lowering the standard of living and sharing the wealth with the developing world.
The message didn't play well, and still doesn't. But that did not stop the Pope from insisting that materialism - he regarded capitalism and communism as flip sides of the same coin - was not the answer.
"This world," he said, "is not capable of making man happy." Prayer and faith can make man happy, he believed, and he led by example. Indeed, he was so often in prayer that he was said to make his decisions "on his knees."
He had been found kneeling on the ground in the middle of winter before a statue, and deep in prayer with his head resting on an altar. Even when not interacting with others, he had been seen moving his lips, apparently in prayer.
Pope John Paul's papacy was not without conflict. Buddhist priests boycotted a trip to Sri Lanka after he described their religion as a largely "atheistic system." After the visit, the Pope tried to make amends, by declaring he had "profound respect and sincere esteem" for Buddhism, but the tensions still persisted.
The Catholic Church John Paul II inherited in 1978 was in a shambles. Reforms begun by the Vatican Council II shook the church to its foundation, and the tumult within the church could be compared to the turmoil in the outer world during the 1960s era of peace, love and protests over the war in Vietnam.
"The church went through a tremendous crisis," says Moynihan. "It knocked the church to its knees. It lost one-third of its priests and a tremendous number of nuns."
John Paul II embarked on nothing less than a restoration of the church, one grounded in its conservative tradition. His rejection of contraception and abortion was absolute and unbending, and his almost dictatorial manner did not always play well.
People magazine observed that the Pope - who had no qualms about silencing those within the church family who disagreed with him - was "more given to self-discipline than self-doubt."
"It's a mistake to apply American democratic procedures to the faith and truth," the Pope has said. "You cannot take a vote on the truth."
Hans Kung, a liberal Catholic theologian who crossed swords with the Pope, told Time: "This Pope is a disaster for our church. There's charm there, but he's closed-minded."
The Economist magazine reported that another troublesome theologian, Bernard Haring, compared the questioning he underwent at the Vatican "to the treatment he once received under Hitler."
Margaret Steinfels, the editor of The Catholic magazine Commonweal and a more moderate critic of the Pope, accused him of polarising issues.
In his opposition to contraception, abortion and euthanasia, for example, he accused the industrialised world of fostering "a culture of death."
"I don't deny that there are many problems in the U.S. and the West," she said, "but I don't think that calling it a 'culture of death' and the church the 'church of life' is a useful way of dealing with things. I disagree with his metaphors."
The pope also has confounded Steinfels and many others with his insistence that church doctrine prohibits the ordination of women. In affirming his position in a letter to bishops in 1994, he wrote in uncompromising fashion: "This judgment is to be definitively held by all the church's faithful."
"A nation that kills its own children has no future."
The Pope's reaction to the liberalisation of the abortion law in Poland in 1996
The Pope often explained himself with dense, closely reasoned and deeply philosophical encyclicals. His encyclicals, letters and other writings fill more than 150 volumes.
"It's first-rate prose, and work that will last," says Jude Dougherty of Catholic University in Washington, D.C. "Trouble is, they're not all that easy to read. His book is a very good document, too."
In 1994, the pope wrote answers to written questions posed to him by Italian journalist Vittorio Messori. Messori then edited them into "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," a book that became a best-seller in many countries.
Many observers say John Paul's record is mixed. Although the church has expanded in Africa and Latin America - the latter accounts for about half of the estimated one billion Catholics - it has lost followers in the industrialised world, including Poland.
His inflexibility on issues with international ramifications - birth control in Africa, for example - has drawn strong criticism.
"The church's refusal of condoms even for saving lives is absolutely incomprehensible," French journalist Henri Tincq told Time. "It disqualifies the church from having any role in the whole debate over Aids."
Nevertheless, said Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the Catholic magazine First Things, "This pope has the church in a stronger position than it's been in since the Protestant division in the 16th century. When has the Catholic church had as much respect as it does today?"
It is doubtful there has ever been a pope who has so successfully translated his strength, determination and faith into such widespread respect and goodwill. In a world of shifting trends and leaders of questionable virtue, John Paul II has been a towering figure at the moral centre of modern life.
"This is not a Pope who looks at the public opinion polls," says Father Thomas Reese, editor of America magazine and author of the book Inside the Vatican. "He says what he thinks is right and wrong from conviction. And that's why people admire him. He's a man of integrity and prayer, even if they don't agree with him."
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