In early 1979, Eastern Europe seemed as firmly clenched in the Soviet grip as ever. Agriculture was collectivized. Private shopkeepers had been almost completely replaced by giant government-controlled conglomerates. All official educational programs were gutted to conform to Marxist-Leninist views. All works of literature and art presented to the public were in line with the voice of the Communists. Many churches were torn down by armies of secret police, and religion was actively suppressed.

Warsaw was among the most stifled of the Eastern bloc cities. “It was this everyday grayness of life without hope, just survival,” said Jan Prokop, a professor of Polish literature who lived there at the time.

But that June, the grayness of the Polish capital began to give way to something else.

Windows in the sterile, Stalin-era shops and apartment buildings began springing to life with festive shrines: crucifixes, flowers, rosaries and depictions of Jesus and Mary. These shrines were intended to welcome one of Poland’s own, whom the communist government had reluctantly allowed permission to visit: John Paul ii.

A Hero’s Welcome

Despite government efforts to minimize the crowds, an estimated 10 million Poles—almost one third of the nation—turned out to see the 59-year-old pope. Almost all of those who were unable to attend one of his numerous outdoor masses followed his nine-day, six-city pilgrimage on television or radio.

The message the pope delivered was a highly emotional one.

“I cry from all the depths of this millennium: Let your Spirit descend. Let your Spirit descend, and renew the face of the Earth, the face of this land,“ he publicly prayed.

He spoke candidly to his countrymen: “You must be strong with the strength of faith. When we are strong with the Spirit of God, we are also strong with faith in man. … There is therefore no need to fear.”

The message resonated deeply in the hearts of the Polish people. “We want God! We want God!” would often erupt from the massive crowds for minutes on end. The emboldened people pushed their fear of the government aside. By chanting for the antithesis of Communism, they were calling for an end to the ruling regime.

The Seeds Take Root

In August 1980, fourteen months after John Paul ii’s visit to Poland, a worker’s strike broke out. The strike gave birth to Poland’s Solidarity movement, the first free trade union in the Soviet bloc. The Solidarity movement was a nonviolent workers’ rights crusade, but was fueled by the spirit of Catholicism.

It terrified the Communists, showing them that Poland’s Catholic heritage could resurface after years of suppression. “The power of the papacy was never more visible, and the Soviets learned this to their dismay: That [the pope] could turn their empire inside out,” theologian Michael Novak said.

The Communists fought hard against Solidarity. They implemented martial law, arrested thousands and interned hundreds. In December 1981, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the leader of the Polish Communist Party, ordered troops and tanks to move on his own people. The Communist clampdown all but extinguished Solidarity.

Back in Rome, John Paul ii remained firmly committed to the cause. He wrote severe letters to Soviet leaders, joined his voice with that of the anti-Soviet president of the United States, and prayed publicly and frequently for the success of the Solidarity movement.

In late 1982, he issued this declaration to Europe: “Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins, revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficent in the other continents. Rebuild your spiritual unity. … You can still be the guiding light of civilization.”

The next year, in this charged and dangerous climate, John Paul traveled to Poland again. Since the Communists had inflicted such damage on Solidarity, they expected the pontiff to be prepared to compromise.

But he was in no such mood.

With most of Poland watching on television, John Paul raised his voice and lectured the visibly shaken Jaruzelski. History will be your judge, the pontiff said, and he demanded that union rights be restored to Solidarity. In an interview years later, Jeruzelski spoke about the fear he felt and his visibly shaking knees, which were clearly captured on the nationally-televised footage of the meeting. “Those were the classic, clichéd trembling knees in front of something I knew was extremely powerful,” he said.

In the face of John Paul’s demand, Jaruzelski capitulated. The Vatican-funded Catholic Solidarity movement triumphed, and Poland broke the Communist yoke!

The efforts sent shock waves rippling throughout the Soviet Union, from Budapest to eastern Russia. These convulsions eventually toppled the Berlin Wall in 1989, led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and routed Communist influence from Eastern Europe.

Other factors and people contributed to the demise of communism, but historians and analysts almost unanimously agree that it was Pope John Paul ii who played the greatest role. “Not only had John Paul ii ignited a nonviolent revolution when he first returned as pope in 1979,” abc correspondent Bill Blakemore reported, “but by 1989 he had guided it with patient force till it won—the Polish Solidarity movement spread until the Berlin Wall came down and the Communists went away.”

Pope John Paul’s approach “made a new kind of thinking possible for us all,” Soviet Premier Gorbachev wrote in 1999.

“The nine days of John Paul ii in June 1979, were nine days on which the history of the 20th century turned in a dramatic way,” historian George Weigel said.

This dramatic turn paved the way for Poland and many other former Eastern bloc nations—Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Croatia—to join the European Union.

Europe’s East and West have been reunited.

Foretold in Advance

Of everything you read today about “Saint” John Paul ii, what follows is by far the most important.

The pope’s history-altering success in bringing Europe together was foretold long before it happened. Some 2,500 years ago, the Prophet Daniel said that Europe—in our modern era today—would have a clear western half and an eastern half working together.

A theologian named Herbert W. Armstrong, who relied on the prophecies of Daniel and the rest of the Holy Bible as his guide, predicted with startling accuracy that Pope John Paul ii would play a key role in uniting Western and Eastern Europe. He proclaimed this unification would work toward the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecies for modern Europe.

In 1972, when Eastern Europe seemed as tightly clasped in the Soviet hold as ever and long before John Paul ii was even pope, Mr. Armstrong’s Plain Truth magazine wrote: “One of the biggest roles desired by the Vatican is that of mediator between East and West. The Vatican … will continue to do its part in courting the Eastern European countries” (February 1972).

In January 1980, a short time after John Paul’s first visit to Poland, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The character, personality and actions of the Polish pope, John Paul ii, indicate more than possibly that he may be the pope to offer his good services to unite the nations of Europe once again. European nations want, seriously, to be united. Of themselves they are unable. John Paul ii could make it possible.”

Throughout his decades-long ministry, Mr. Armstrong made many other statements foretelling a Vatican-led reunification of Europe. He died before seeing his forecast come to pass, but time has proved that he was right!

To learn more about the detailed Bible prophecies Mr. Armstrong relied on to make this startling accurate forecast and many more, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.