In their eighth ballot yesterday Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose the first non-Italian Pope for more than 400 years.
The election astonished not only the 200,000 crowd in St Peter╒s Square, but also Roman Catholics around the world.
By nominating a 58-year-old Pole, Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow, who will be known as Pope John Paul II, the cardinals also threw into dangerously high relief the modest fruits of the Vatican╒s Ostpolitik in the 1970s and the measure of detente between Church and State achieved in Eastern Europe.
Polish radio announced the appointment of the new Pope immediately but government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Officials were proud of the choice of a Pole but must be concerned that a man with a record of outspoken comment on Church-State relations should now be at the helm of the Catholic Church.
But the reaction of ordinary Poles ╤ after initial amazement ╤ was unalloyed joy. Bells will be rung and Te Deums celebrated throughout Poland today. In France and Spain the election was greeted by political and religious bodies while the World Council of Churches issued a statement applauding the choice and declaring that the new Pope would bring ╥the rich tradition and spirituality of the Polish people╙ to his office.
For Roman Catholics, and all Christians, throughout Eastern Europe, the election is a vindication of their faith in the often hostile climate of Marxist regimes.
It will reinforce the drive of all churches in the Communist block for religious freedom and will strengthen the call for individual freedom of thought, political as well as religious in those countries.
For much of the period since the Second World War, the Catholic Church in Poland was regarded by the Communist Party as a hostile force to be neutralised. For some time the Church leadership also opted for a collision course and refused any kind of compromise between God and Mammon.
But State and Church slowly came together determined to assert the Polish nation and patriotism against external pressure. Yet the church never stopped insisting on the need for the restoration of basic freedoms, including the lifting of censorship.
Only last year at a meeting of Bishops in Rome, Bishop Wojtyla warned that the Church was facing the threat of ╥programmed atheisation.╙
Last night the Pope, clearly moved to tears, told the crowds in St Peter╒s Square first how saddened the cardinals had been at the death of his predecessor. He then described himself as ╥this man called from a distant country,╙ a country far away but always so close in communion and Christian faith and tradition.
He said he had been afraid to receive the nomination. But he had acted in obedience to Christ.
Significantly, he used the first person rather than ╥we╙ which was one of the endearing characteristics of Pope John Paul I. He said: ╥I present myself to you all to confess our common faith, our common hope, our confidence, in our Christian Mother Church.╙ He said he regarded his election as the beginning afresh on the road of the continuing history of the Church.
The new Pope is the son of a non-commissioned army officer; he became the first Cardinal Archbishop of the ancient see of Krakow not to come from the aristocracy.
He is a first generation intellectual who as a student at Krakow University joined an avant garde theatre group and wrote poetry. He was also a skier, canoeist and hitch-hiker.
Cardinal Wojtyla developed a reputation as a moderate progressive during the 1962-5 second Vatican Council which brought about liberalisation of the Roman Catholic Church. During the war-time German occupation of Poland, he did forced labour in a quarry and later in a chemical plant.
It was during the war that he opted for a church career, studying clandestinely in Krakow. He has been described as a little doctrinaire and theologically conservative.
╥He approaches problems from the top ╤ starting with principles and trying to work down to reality,╙ a friend once said.
The new Pope, who was ordained a priest in 1946, has spoken out strongly on social and economic issues, encouraging workers to demand higher wages while supporting moves to keep prices down.
The late Pope Paul VI╒s Ostpolitik made its greatest progress in Poland. More than 85 per cent of Poland╒s 35 million people are practising Catholics.
In December 1977, Paul received the Polish Communist Party First Secretary, Mr Edward Gierek, in the first meeting between a pontiff and a Polish leader in more than 1,000 years.
At their eighty-minute audience Paul told Mr Gierek: ╥The Catholic Church does not ask for privileges but only for the right to be itself and carry out its religious mission without obstacles. Only in this way can the Church fully cooperate as it wishes to cooperate.╙
Mr Gierek, a pragmatist who has pursued a policy of coexistence with the Church since he came to power in 1970, told Paul that although ╥elements of controversy existed as they existed in every normal family, all Poles ╤ Communist and Catholic ╤ were united by the same goal, the well-being of our country.╙
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Donald Coggan, said he was ╥delighted╙ with the election of Cardinal Wojtyla. ╥I wish him every good wish. He will be in our prayers and in the prayers of the worldwide Anglican communion.╙
