I had been out of college not quite a year, the wife and I well involved, but not yet married. We were both young, and full of our own possibilities. The world seemed old and stale, awaiting a breath of fresh air.

Then the Pope died.

From an outsider's view, this was an interesting, political event. Most of my experience with the succession of Peter's church was garnered from the cinema. Would the smoke be grey? Or are we looking for black? White? The Catholic Church had undergone a great liberalization under John XXIII, and then seemed to withdraw and enter a holding pattern under Paul VI. In a world still torn by the Cold War, the expectation was for a similar replacement. A man to continue the balancing act, to hold against the Red Tide, but not make any great changes as John had done.

What we got was a small, smiling man. Who used the commonplace "I" instead of the regal "We". A man who smiled and waved, instead of standing stern and firm.

We got Pope John Paul. The Western equivalent of the Dalai Lama. A breath of fresh air.

Thirty-three days later, he died.

Conspiracy theories flew. Once again we waited for the smoke. Waited to see if the breath of fresh air was going to be cut off, like slamming a window, or if the cardinals could find us another Lama.

They did.

And as an assurance to all who had been so invigorated by his smiling predecessor, he took the same, compromising name.

John Paul II.

Who, the wife and I learned today, was known as Giovanni Paolo II in his new, last home.

Another smiling man. But no Dalai Lama, here. A strong, sturdy Pole who loved the outdoors, hiked and skied. But with the same, loving smile. Fluent in many languages. Adherent to basic tenets of the Church, but open invitation to change. No retiring grandfather, but an active, dynamic uncle, eager to set out to change the Church, and thereby the world.

The breath of fresh air had become a gale.

The conspiracy theories did not die down when a man from a Communist country became leader of the world's catholics. I think it was Time magazine that had a cover on the "Communist Pope?". Much of Central America was fighting Marxist revolutionaries, often with priests embroiled in the conflicts. To which side of the Iron Curtain would the Church sway?

Well, obviously the Cardinals knew the man. The Church did not sway.

It challenged.

With mere words and symbols, yes, but a challenge just the same. Speaking only of the dignity of the individual, rather than on the feebler level of politics.

The Iron Curtain fell from within. We did not do it. Certainly the American Administration that claims to have ended the Cold War did not do it.

A priest from Krakow did it.

One of Karol's best friends as a boy happened to be Jewish. And came dashing into the Catholic Church one day, seeking his friend to deliver some exciting news. A Catholic woman looked askance at this outsider, this non-believer, entering God's House.

"What's the matter with her," responded the future Giovanni Paolo II. "Doesn't she know we are all children of the same God?"

And this when he was ten.

I am still an outsider looking in. But I do know this. Largely because of John Paul II, my sons are growing up in a better world.

Thank you, Karol.