Wojtyla is, by all accounts, a genial andcharming companion, a good listener and not above what Time calls''good-natured kidding.''

"He's a very brilliant man, and veryintelligent and very holy," says Margaret Steinfels, editor of Commonwealmagazine in New York. "I haven't met him, yet I'm told that he isextremely amiable and affable, and wonderful to talk and dine with."

He also was shrewd enough not to let hisdistaste for communism show. The government welcomed his appointment ascardinal in 1967 by Pope Paul VI. Wojtyla was considered "tough butflexible" and a moderate reformer, but an improvement on old-schoolhard-liners who were unalterably opposed to communism and communists.
 Wojtyla bided his time, engaging in astrategy that honored Catholic beliefs and traditions while accommodating thecommunist government.

The Catholic Church in Poland served asanimportantoutlet for the expression of national feeling. In his book"JohnPaulII," George Blazynski writes that Wojtyla encouraged thisexpressionina form that did not "provoke a brutal reaction by forceswithinandperhaps without the country."
 
But he also proved to be what CurrentBiography called "a resilient enemy of Communism and champion of humanrights, a powerful preacher and sophisticated intellectual able to defeatMarxists in their own line of dialogue."

According to George Weigel, who haswritten extensively about the pope, Wojtyla demanded permits to build churches,defended youth groups and ordained priests to work underground inCzechoslovakia.

Wojtyla was once asked if he fearedretribution from government officials.