John Paul II, who presided over the Vatican from 1978 until his death, in 2005, was the most secretly trained Pope the Catholic Church ever had. He was also the one who knew best the weaknesses of Communism, and how to operate within the system while avoiding all-out war.
Born in Poland in 1920, Karol Józef Wojtyła attended clandestine seminaries and frequented groups of intellectuals who met in secret to discuss ways of undermining Communism from within. Later, the Communist countries of Eastern Europe became the Pope’s exclusive domain.
