Here is an excerpt from Newt Gingrich' Newsletter (April 7, 2010 vol. 5, no. 14):
When Soviet dictator Josef Stalin famously asked "How many divisions has the Pope," he was of course referring to the fact that the head of the Roman Catholic Church commanded no armed forces and therefore could pose no challenge to the military power wielded by the Soviet Union.
But what Stalin did not anticipate was the election of a Polish Pope who would be in a position to go to the heart of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe and provide his countrymen with unbounded hope and inspiration from the simple reminder, repeated everywhere, that God was sovereign, not the state.
George Weigel, biographer of John Paul II, describes it best: "During the Nine Days of June 1979, John Paul II gave back to his people their history, their culture, and their identity. In doing so, he gave Poles spiritual tools of resistance that Communism could not match." ... ... ...We learned about the significance of John Paul II's 1979 pilgrimage during a trip to Europe in 2008 when we were conducting interviews for our documentary, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny. We traveled to Gdansk, Poland, to interview President Lech Walesa, and then to Prague to visit with President Vaclav Havel.
In both interviews, we asked about Pope John Paul II's role in bringing about the end of Communism. Both Presidents described the Holy Father's role as critical and agreed that his 1979 Pilgrimage to Poland was a decisive turning point in undermining Communism.
The more we learned about this historic nine-day pilgrimage, the more we realized that this was not just an incredible chapter of history; it was an extraordinary moment of human liberation, achieved through Pope John Paul II's worldwide message of freedom through faith.
