system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What difference did St. John Paul make to history and to the Catholic Church?

I just read today that Pope John Paul II was just made a saint, and I realize that I've been hearing all my life that he was an important pope and world figure without understanding why.
gpt
He was the first (and so far only) Pope from a Communist country (i.e. Poland), and he devoted a lot of time and energy to using his position and influence to attack that political ideology. When the Polish anti-Communist movement *Solidarnosc* emerged in the early 1980s the Pope officially blessed the movement with his support, both before and after its suppression by the Polish authorities.

Although *Solidarnosc* didn't directly lead to the events that brough about the end of European Communism in 1989, it certainly helped show people that the system wasn't invulnerable, and knowing that the Catholic church would support them would certainly have been encouraging to other people.

Besides his anti-Communist activities, John Paul II also tried to create links between the leaders of the Catholic Church and those of the other major Abrahamic religions. In particular he tried to create good relations with the Orthodox churches, and with the major branches of both Islam and of Judaism.