n>When Karol Wojtyła was elected as the new Pope on October 16, 1978, it was not only the start of a 26-year journey in which St. John Paul II became one the most influential figures of the 20th century; in many respects, it was also the beginning of a “revolution of conscience,” as George Weigel has called it, which would ultimately bring down the Soviet Empire in 1989. The peaceful revolutions that occurred all around Eastern Europe were proof that, against the tyranny of communism, no remedy was stronger than the faith in a God that was greater than utopian Marxism. Read Full Article »