That Pope John Paul II was a pivotal figure in the fall of European Communism is accepted as a truism, but many details of that drama have remained hidden in archives.
A US biographer of the late pope has now provided particulars of what he describes as the full-scale war by Communism against the Catholic Church, and Pope John Paul's astute and successful counter-strategy.
The Polish pope displayed political savvy and "a shrewdness that combined steadiness of strategic vision with tactical flexibility", George Weigel told an audience of seminarians, diplomats and Vatican officials at the Pontifical North American College on Sunday.
