John Paul II.... I'm not talking about his influence as the religious leader, but again as a person who was standing so strongly for democratic rights, basic human rights, human dignity. Wherever he went on his foreign visits he advocated for human rights, democracy. He was instrumental in bringing down not only communism in eastern and central Europe, and eventually the collapse of the Soviet Union, but also in bringing a dictatorship to its end in many other countries.
As an example, I give Chile, Paraguay, and Haiti. Even his visit to Cuba did not bring the change of a system, but it brought a lot of change because they reopened churches in Cuba around his visit. Therefore, finally, after many years since the Cuban revolution, people were able to go again to church and worship.