12:10 PST: It was just confirmed by the Vatican that the Pope has died. May he rest in peace. Scroll down for reactions from around the blogosphere

There are many things for which Pope John Paul II will be remembered. First of all, what will stand out in his impressively long tenure as head of the Catholic Church is the role he played alongside Ronald Reagan in bringing down communism during the 1980s, a fact that may have gone a bit unrecognized in recent years. Although the details of the conspiracy leading up to the attempt on his life have always been fuzzy, it was clear that the last thing the Kremlin needed was a Polish pope. Karol Wojtyla, who had risen to the highest religious office in the free West as John Paul II, visited his homeland shortly after his inauguration as pontiff in 1979. He was able to inspire and encourage his fellow countrymen with a rallying cry to “renew the face of the Earth”. Lech Walesa was clear about it yesterday:

"We know what the pope has achieved. Fifty percent of the collapse of communism is his doing. More than one year after he spoke these words, we were able to organize 10 million people for strikes, protests and negotiations. Earlier we tried, I tried, and we couldn't do it. These are facts. Of course, communism would have fallen, but much later and in a bloody way. He was a gift from the heavens to us."

It was above all that clear moral leadership that characterized this pope, whether it was dealing with communism or with the deteriorating moral values in the West. Not a catholic myself and hardly socially conservative, I have sympathized with his attempts to hold up a mirror to the rest of the world to make it clear that in the quest for success and money we are paying a very heavy price on the social front. It’s the one time the pope featured on these pages after he spelled out the dangers of present day feminism. My conclusion at the time was:

" … but the answer should not be found with radical feminists or governments that seek to artificially engineer our society, and nor should we accept the Pope’s lectures on how the world should implement social mores on men, women and children alike. The latest missive from the Vatican however contains a few worthwhile talking points when we look at the increasing tension between seeking wealth and raising a new generation"

Positions like that even ten years ago were unimaginable, liberal excesses and political correctness had often stifled the most reasonable forms of debate. The pope reignited these discussions and fanned the flames when he thought it was prudent to do so. He proved to be an important counterweight to forces in society that were prepared to abandon some of our most cherished institutions, one of which being, as we discovered over the past few weeks, life itself.

And because of his activist approach to the outside world, he was in for a lot of criticism. When he visited The Netherlands in the mid-80s it was during a formal reception that then Dutch Prime-Minister Lubbers, himself a Catholic, outlined to the pope that many in the church did not share his rigid positions and that the church’s leaders should open up to dissenters among its ranks. It was an amazing display of frankness and John Paul II smiled and nodded, knowing that the lecture from the Dutch leader was evidence of what he had effected long before his visit: a debate about values. Conservatives, catholic or not, religious or not, recognized that someone was willing to use his position to help steer a debate where previously there was none, or where it was usually conducted poorly.

Yet despite his conservatism, he was in many areas unconventional and willing to break with past traditions. That has nowhere been clearer in the Vatican’s steps to reconciliation with Israel and Jews around the world, a move facilitated in no small part by his Jewish childhood friend Jerzy Kluger:

"The people in the Vatican do not know Jews, and previous popes did not know Jews," Mr. Kluger said in a telephone interview from Rome. "But this Pope is a friend of the Jewish people because he knows Jewish people. He grew up in Wadowice."

The friendship between the two men, interrupted by the war in which Kluger lost many family members was renewed when in the mid-60s Kluger heard that a Polish Archbishop was in Rome (where he had moved after the war) to give a speech. The men reconnected and the new pope in 1978 gave his first papal audience to Kluger and his wife. Kluger became instrumental in, at the pope’s instigation, brokering relations with Israel and the Jewish faith resulting in among other things a historic papal visit to Auschwitz.

Like Reagan, Karol Wojtyla turned conservative values into a progressive revolutionary force. In society, in world politics and in addressing past wrongs he was able to change the course of history and leave a legacy that will be recognized well beyond the Catholic Church and which will inspire Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

REACTIONS:

Professor Bainbridge: admired the Pope for his recognition that freedom did not ineluctably lead to moral relativism.

Baldilocks: Like me not a Catholic, but equally impressed with the man and a lot of background on the Pope's first visit to Poland in 1979.

Joe Gandelman: Notes that as a Jew he was "greatly touched and moved by this Pope". Joe by the way is today blogging about the Pope at this location.

Wretchard: "Together with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, John Paul took on the unbeatable and won"

Publius Pundit: John Paul II was "the spiritual revolutionary that gutted the Soviet Union in its Godless, empty soul"

Anchoress: Was liveblogging yesterday with lots of links, thought and comments. This struck me: "I must say how grateful I am to read such wonderful and moving tributes to the Holy Father from Christian and non-Christian friends"

Donald Sensing: Puts a bit more perspective to the Pope's role in the fall of communism.

Michelle Malkin: has a great round-up of links.

Leopold Stotch at OTB: Criticizes the Pope for one-sided pacifism as he urged George Bush not to invade Iraq. Well, as head of a church, what else could the world have expected him to do? The precarious junction in which Islamic-Christian relations found themselves after 9/11 warranted care and diplomacy from the Vatican more than anything else.