(297) St. Pope John Paul II and President Reagan Worked Together in the Overthrow of Communism in Europe

 AMDG

President Ronald Reagan speaking with St. Pope John Paul II at one of their four meetings in the 1980s, in which they laid the groundwork for the overthrow of Communism in Europe.  Both were actors in their youth and had a remarkable stage presence.  Reagan stared in many black and white Hollywood movies.  This acting experience served both of them well on the world stage and contributed to their charisma.  President Reagan would always be civil and presidential, even joking with those who opposed him in his presidential campaigns.  He would even play golf with the Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neil, a leader of the Democratic Party.  That relationship helped them to act in a bipartisan way for the common good of the Country as opposed to a hostile polarization and tearing each other apart with insults.  He showed how a democracy should work.  Sincerely following President Reagan's example would have helped Donald Trump to achieve even landslide victories in the elections of 2016, 2020, and 2024. 

    When Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan met in private for the first time in 1982, the encounter went far beyond formalities and official business. According to the Knights of Columbus publication, Knightline for its members, the two men shared their spiritual views.  They discussed the assassination   attempts that nearly ended both of their lives the year before. They prayed.  Was it providential that both survived? 

During that meeting, “they forged a lasting spiritual bond and a close friendship,” recalled Past Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, a member of the White House staff at the time. “Years later, Mrs. Nancy Reagan would say that the Pope was her husband’s ‘closest friend.’”

The relationship between President Reagan and John Paul II, world leaders united in the struggle to defeat Soviet communism and bring a peaceful end to the Cold War, was the subject of an exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.   The exhibit “The Pope and the President: Bringing Hope to the World” opened August 31 and ran through October 27 with major sponsorship from the Knights of Columbus.

Past Supreme Knight Anderson, who served as a special assistant to President Reagan from 1985 to 1987 and worked with St. Pope John Paul II as founding vice president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, spoke at the exhibit’s opening ceremony on August 29.  “Our exhibit gets the relationship between these two extraordinary world leaders just right: They were men of peace, of hope and, perhaps most of all, they were men of courage with a united vision,” Anderson said. “I would suggest that even more than friendship, what really united these two men was … their moral vision regarding the demands of freedom.”

Included in the exhibit are documents and items related to the four face-to-face meetings between the two men: at the Vatican in 1982 and again in 1987, in Alaska in 1984, and in Miami in 1987.  Also on display were never-before-seen gifts between the President and the Pope, as well as a ciborium used by John Paul II during his 1987 visit to Los Angeles and a new bronze bust of St. Pope John Paul II by the American sculptor Gordon Kray. The bust, a gift of the Friends of John Paul II Foundation, remains on permanent display at the Reagan Library.

In 1982, President Reagan addressed the 100th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Hartford, Connecticut, and described the Order as “unrivaled in its dedication to family, community, country and Church.”  “What [President Reagan] said during those remarks still rings true today,” said Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is deeply grateful to the Knights of Columbus for its generous support of this exhibition.”

For more information visit  www.ReaganLibrary.com.  Very interesting is their Christmas Around the World exhibition at www.reaganfoundation.org/library-museum/special-exhibits/christmas-around-the-world.  It includes a Christmas Tree from the Vatican decorated entirely with white ornaments featuring a life-size white peacock.  The Gold Star Family Memorial Tree honors families who lost a loved one in the military. 

     The Vatican was especially valuable in providing information to Alan Dulles, Director of the CIA regarding the Solidarity movement and conditions in Poland which was placed under martial law.  Thus the Vatican was able to channel funds to the Solidarity Movement for informing the people and undermining the communist regime.

    In 1989 the Berlin Wall separating communist Europe from free Europe was torn down by the people themselves.  Communism suddenly and miraculously collapsed in Europe; no one expected that.  It was reminiscent of the walls of Jericho collapsing after God’s command.  Today most of the former Soviet satellite countries are now free democracies, namely Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, East Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. 

However, the same cannot be said of the Russian Federation, an aggressive dictatorship, more Fascist than Communist, that has subjugated former members of the Soviet Union that aspired to be independent democracies and is trying to do the same with its invasion of Ukraine, another former member of the Soviet Union, on February 24, 2022.  

Although not communist as such, the dictator Vladimir Putin, a former member of the dreaded KGB, uses the same methods including murder to smother opposition to his rule.  His goal is to restore the old Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, thus endangering the Baltic States in particular and even its former satellites.  Unless there is spiritual conversion, one tyranny will be replaced by another.

Please continue to pray the Rosary for peace in Ukraine as well as the world and for the conversion of Russia as Mary requested at Fatima.  St. John Paul II had a tremendous devotion to Mary and the Rosary which he prayed daily and more during trips by auto and air.  The loss of his earthly mother at an early age brought him ever closer to our heavenly mother whom Christ gave us from the cross.  His theme for his papacy and coat of arms is “Totus tuus” which means all is yours, Mary.  John Paul II was indeed the Marian Pope.  May we also have a strong devotion to Mary, our common mother.