Pope Benedict XVI beatified Pope John Paul II today before more than a million Catholics in St. Peter's Square today.
I can't remember the name of the book off the top of my head, but there was a joint biography of John Paul the Great, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher and the important roles they played in finally choking the life out of the Evil Empire that was he Soviet Union. While there were many factors in the fall of the USSR, not least of which were the internal contradictions of Marxist-Leninist economic theory, no serious historian of the Cold War can ignore the renascence of the Catholic Church under John Paul II and its renewed, public resistance to the vile, poisonous lies of Communism. It was John Paul II who helped stiffen the steely resolve of the Solidarity union in Poland, which in turn sent shockwaves through the other captive nations of the Eastern Bloc. It was John Paul II who survived the assassination planned by the KGB's puppets in Bulgaria and their tool the Turk; it was John Paul II who forgave his would-be assassin; it was John Paul II who did not falter in his opposition to evil.
And no matter what the talking heads and the pundits and the revisionist historians say, we will not forget.
The beatification of John Paul II is only the first step.
(h/t
Cubachi)