"Pope Wojtyla's legacy is a rich, versatile and creative synthesis of multiple paths of human thinking. There is no doubt that it still remains, and will for a long time remain, an important and comprehensive cultural renewal project on a global scale," Dziwisz said, according to Zenit.
Gadecki said the pontificate of John Paul II was heavily influenced by his rich personality, which possessed a strong love for poetics, philosophy, theology, and mysticism.
He added that John Paul II was an example of holiness and leadership, similar to other patron saints of Europe, like Saints Cyril and Methodius. He said John Paul II, who was pope from 1978 to 2005, experienced the fall of the Iron Curtain and played an important role in the unification of Europe.
"After the unifying and culture-making proclamation of the Gospel by Saints Cyril and Methodius and Saint Adalbert, more than a thousand years later, the fruits of their activities – not only in social but also in religious terms – found their protector and continuator in the person of the Polish Pope," he said, according to the Catholic Herald.
Dziwisz described the former pope as both modern and classical. Through this balance of tradition and modernity, he said, the saint brought "a huge breath of fresh air to the life of the Church, and through it to the wider universal spaces of broadly understood culture, politics, and science," the Catholic Herald reported.
"In this regard, the Holy Pope became a real teacher and Doctor of the Church and in it an important guardian of European values, which are the indelible foundation of modern civilization."
