“And so I say to you, ‘you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.'” — Matthew 16:18

While on this earth, Jesus Christ established his church with Peter as the foundation and first pope. Since the time of Christ, the Catholic Church has seen 263 successors to Saint Peter. Among them, Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1978, will be remembered as one of the greatest. On Saturday, Pope John Paul passed away, but his works and legacy will live on for ages to come.

His death occurred just weeks after what is probably the second most significant death to occur this year in the Catholic Church. At the age of 97, Sister Lucia became the last of Fatima’s visionaries to pass. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Lucia and her two cousins Francisco and Jacinta in Fatima, Portugal, May 13, 1917, asking them to visit her in the same place on the 13th day of each month for the next six months. Sr. Lucia died last February on, perhaps not coincidentally, the 13th day.

The revelations of Fatima carried a great deal of significance for the entire world, the Catholic Church and Pope John Paul’s papacy in particular. In writing Sr. Lucia’s obituary, The Wanderer (a weekly Catholic newspaper) summarized the warnings and requests of Mary at Fatima. She warned of a worse war (World War II) and that Russia would fall to communism and spread its evils. She requested increased devotion and the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

The Virgin promised, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”

Pope John Paul certainly played a key role in defeating communism. Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement in Poland spoke to the Associated Press last Friday, recalling the Pope’s visit to Warsaw in 1979 and how he ended Mass with a prayer that the Holy Spirit may “renew the face of the earth.”

Walesa stated, “We know what the pope has achieved. Fifty percent of the collapse of communism is his doing. … [A]fter he spoke these words, we were able to organize 10 million people for strikes, protests and negotiations.” Undoubtedly, the symbolism of a Polish priest rising up and becoming pope despite the repression of communism had significance by itself.

In the midst of his struggles against communism, Pope John Paul survived an assassination attempt on May 13, 1981 — exactly 64 years after the first appearance at Fatima. He forgave his shooter, even later visiting him in prison.

Overall, Pope John Paul has worked to increase Marian devotion throughout the Church. In October 2002, he announced a Year of the Rosary and introduced the Luminous Mysteries — five mysteries “of light” in Christ’s life that Catholics now meditate on while praying the rosary on Thursdays.

In his book “What went wrong with Vatican II: the Catholic crisis explained,” Ralph M. McInerny wrote of another vision of the Fatima children, “Jacinta … once said, ‘I can’t say how, but I saw the Holy Father in a very large house, kneeling before a table with his face in his hands. He was crying. Many people were in front of the house; some were throwing stones, while others were cursing him and using foul language.’ Has anyone described better the beleaguered state of the Papacy and the Magisterium of the Church since Vatican II?”

Pope John Paul inherited a Church plagued with dissent on top of the attacks from the cultural movements in America and Western Europe. Secularists and dissenters attacked the Church for its teachings on human sexuality. Like Pope Paul VI who reaffirmed the Church’s condemnation to artificial contraception in “Humanae Vitae,” Pope John Paul understood that the Church’s teachings on such matters were God’s law and not his to change.

Yesterday, Father Robert Altier, at his parish in St. Paul, Minnesota, preached, “God always raises saints to be able to defend the areas that Satan is attacking. As I have told you many, many times, the area of attack today is on marriage and the family. In the official teaching of the Church, there are approximately 6,000 pages written about marriage in over 2,000 years. Three thousand of those pages were written by Pope John Paul II, the saint that God raised up to be able to defend the area Satan was attacking.”

Beyond his writing, Pope John Paul journeyed over 100 times to various parts of the world, transcending cultural barriers and communicating in 26 languages and dialects. He had a special connection to the youth. Here in America, nearly 200,000 young Catholics, I among them, traveled to see him in his 1993 Denver World Youth Day event.

One of the most commonly used images in the Church is the shepherd. Throughout his papacy, Pope John Paul led his flock like a good shepherd through his words, and more importantly, his example — even as he endured pain and suffering at the sunset of his life. Catholics around the world should pray in thanksgiving for Pope John Paul II and ask God to inspire us to follow his example.

Mark A. Baumgardner ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.