Max Pearson

And we're not only talking about Poland, we're talking about Nicaragua, where John Paul arrives in 1983 and brings this message of liberation from the regime, but a gospel message.

Again, in Chile at the end of the 80s.

So wherever he travels, he brings a message to the gospel,

which subsequently brings democracy to those places.

Promoting the gospel, but he was also inclusive in a different way, in that he would reach out to touch sick people, to be inclusive towards those groups, but also reaching out to promote more harmony between faiths.

Yes, absolutely.

I think that he was a messenger of peace and not only peace in terms of no war, but of peace in terms of dialogue.

We remember very well the Pope visiting the synagogue in Rome.

We remember his meeting in Assisi.

We remember his meetings with Muslim leaders.

And I think those were, you know, at a time, it also brought scandal.

Like, how can the Pope do that?

And I think that this scandal really turned out to more dialogue and pushing the boundaries for the peaceful message of, I want to dialogue with you.

You are my brother's.

That's Paulina Guzik, international editor at the Catholic Wire Service, OSV.

Next, one of the defining events of the late 20th century, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.

Jacqueline Payne takes us back to 1989, when the symbolic collapse of communism took the world completely by surprise and paved the way for East and West Germany to become one country again in less than a year.

It's the evening of the 9th of November 1989 and at checkpoints along the Berlin Wall, East German border guards are overwhelmed by crowds of people after a government official mistakenly announces the lifting of all travel restrictions.

That's Joachim Bitterlich, at the time European advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

He's watching events unfold from Kohl's office in Bonn, as reported by the BBC.