Feb 26, 2004 / 22:00 pm
George Bush, senior, ex-Soviet leader Mikail Gorbachov and ex-president of Italy Francesco Cossiga are but a few of the figures that share their impressions of Pope John Paul II in a new book entitled, “The Force of the Moment.”
The book, which was presented by ex-Polish Chancellor Wladyslaw Bartoszewsk in Vienna, includes commentary by 35 different world figures on the contributions of the Pope in bringing about change in the world.
In one of the chapters, ex-German chancellor Helmut Kohl, defines of the Pope as “the man who decisively contributed to making possible the dream of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the division between Germany and Europe.”
Gorbachov confesses that he has been reading the works of the Pope since 1978, and “some things I find attractive, others I find marvelous.” “The Force of the Moment” also features comments by Shimon Peres, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and two ex-Secretaries General of the UN, Boutros Boutros Ghali and Javier Pérez de Cuellar.