Former Polish president reflects on democracy, Pope John Paul II

Published: 2006-04-03

OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- Lech Walesa came to Omaha to talk about politics and globalization, but ended up spending more time talking about his friend and fellow countryman, Pope John Paul II. Walesa is known around the world as the mustachioed electrician who led the Solidarity movement that freed Poland from communism and who later became president of Poland. But the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner revealed a more personal side of himself March 28, as he spoke to nearly 2,300 at a lecture sponsored by Creighton University. "As you know, I am a man who practices his Catholic faith, a simple one, but I take my faith very seriously. That's why I looked up to the Holy Father as the Peter of our time," he told the crowd through an interpreter. Throughout his lecture, titled "Democracy: The Never-Ending Battle," Walesa gave Pope John Paul much of the credit for the fall of communism.

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