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Another giant of our age, Pope John Paul II, has passed into history, dying as he lived: peacefully, prayerfully, courageously.

Born Karol Wojtyla in 1920, he rose through the church hierarchy to become its leader in 1978. When he died on April 2, his papacy had lasted longer than all but two other pontiffs in the history of the Catholic Church (one of them being the Apostle Peter, whom Catholics claim as the first pope).

The first public words uttered by John Paul II upon becoming pope turned out to be prophetic: "Be not afraid." The phrase described how he lived his life, standing against Nazism as a priest in his native Poland in the 1940s and against communism as a cardinal and as pope in the 1970s and 1980s.

As pope, he shared that vision of optimism and courage with two other giants of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. It was a vision of peace through the strength of freedom, and these three leaders wielded it like a sword, with history recording that they were instrumental in bringing the Soviet Union to its knees.

In 1981, John Paul and President Reagan both survived gunshots that nearly ended their lives. It was not the only parallel between these two remarkable leaders. Both had once been actors, which, combined with their natural charisma, no doubt enhanced their ability to communicate with the masses.

Throughout the 1980s, both men were steadfast in their opposition to the tyranny of Soviet Communism. Much has been made of the pope's opposition to the current war in Iraq, but John Paul was not a pacifist. He had seen communist brutality up close in his homeland, and he knew that Leonid Brezhnev would only respond to strength from the United States. So, when Ronald Reagan wanted to challenge Soviet dominance by putting strategic missiles in Europe, John Paul approved of the move.

In addition to his commitment to freedom in Eastern Europe, Pope John Paul guided his church through the moral relativism of his age -- with one major exception. His timid response to the pedophile priest scandal that came late in his papacy seemed to indicate that he had lost control. Suffering as he was from Parkinson's disease, perhaps he was already too frail to deal with the scandal effectively. Whatever the reason, it was the one blot on his otherwise sterling reign.

But in his defense of innocent human life -- born and unborn -- and in his courageous stand against the secular assault on the traditional family, he was a rock. He spoke out clearly against the holocaust of abortion. He took strong positions in opposition to euthanasia and stem cell research. And he never wavered in his consistent position that homosexual behavior was a sin.

Ironically, the very sin he had preached against had crept into the priesthood, tolerated and even encouraged by liberal forces in the American and European church, thus leading to the child abuse charges with the ranks of the priesthood.

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