SOURCE: “Empire of the Spirit,” in Time, December 26, 1994, pp. 48-57.

In the following essay, Gray discusses John Paul's significance as an international moral leader.

People who see him—and countless millions have—do not forget him. His appearances generate an electricity unmatched by anyone else on earth. That explains, for instance, why in rural Kenyan villages thousands of children, plus many cats and roosters and even hotels, are named John Paul. Charisma is the only conceivable reason why a CD featuring him saying the rosary—in Latin—against a background of Bach and Handel is currently ascending the charts in Europe. It also accounts for the dazed reaction of a young woman who found herself, along with the thousands around her in a sports stadium in Denver, cheering and applauding him: “I don't react that way to rock groups. What is it that he has?”

Pope John Paul...