The Wanderer of Peace began his way to be one of the greatest world leaders of all times in 1978. No tengais miedo! Don't be afraid, he declared. What a handsome man he was by then.

He has been credited with helping to bring down communism in eastern Europe by sparking what amounted to a peaceful revolution in his Polish homeland; seeking to heal divisions between Christians and Jews and Muslims and all religions; and working tirelessly for peace in the world, most recently in Iraq.

He's known as one of the most influential religious figures of all times as he reached a milestone matched by only three of his predecessors - his soul was restless, seeking to spread messages of peace all over the world.

The Wanderer was also a theologian, a writer and a poet. Darn good poet, by the way. His book "Roman Tryptych - Meditations" (2003) has outstanding poetry, able to touch even agnostic people, and all kinds of spiritual people, especially, of course, roman catholics.

He broke a lot of standards, adding to the Church's conservative and old aged thoughts ideals of freedom and peace between the peoples of the world. The Wanderer was a friend of the Jewish people because he knew Jewish people and respected them... Indeed, he became the first Pope to visit a synagogue and the first to visit the memorial at Auschwitz to victims of the Holocaust. In ending the Catholic-Jewish estrangement, he called Jews "the catholics' elder brothers". Respectfully removing his shoes, The Wanderer became the first pope to enter a Mosque when he tours a 1,300-year-old Islamic house of worship in Damascus, Syria... and in 2000 he met the top political leaders of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian authority. He has also met and established dialogue with many Buddhist and Hindu leaders... and with atheists and Communists as Gorbachev, Fidel Castro... he was also a damn good diplomat.

On church doctrine, John Paul has toed a conservative line: abortion, contraception and euthanasia are all banned in the church under John Paul II. He ruled out letting priests marry or allowing women to be ordained, and recently endorsed a worldwide campaign to keep same-sex unions from receiving legal recognition.

In the 1995 encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" (The Gospel of Life) he reasserted the church's condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment, calling them all part of the "Culture of Death" that pervades the modern world. His stands on capital punishment, world debt forgiveness, and poverty issues are considered liberal, showing that 'conservative' and 'liberal' labels do not ride easily on religious leaders - yet he has done it with glory.

Note that I am not catholic and I do disagree with MOST things that come from the church's conservativeness. But John Paul, Second, was a master of my generation, he was the only one in my short 18 years old of life who made 1 billion people all over the world cry. Now, he sleeps in the eternal dream, rests in eternal peace, with his job concluded. Master of a Generation, he more than deserves it. Rest in peace, Wanderer of Peace. Rest in peace.