The Palestinian cause has received support from many courageous and inspiring world leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and, many years before them, Mahatma Gandhi.

One of the most inspiring leaders to support Palestinians was Pope John Paul II, who died on April 2. The pope spoke from a powerful moral platform that helped add backbone to Europe’s longstanding support of Palestinian rights and criticism of the excesses of Israel’s occupation.

Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian to hold the title in 455 years, elected on Oct. 16, 1978. His defense of Palestinian rights held strong resonance especially because his priesthood was driven during the height of the Nazi occupation of Poland, where he lost all his family members.

In March of 2000, Pope John Paul II visited Palestine and conducted services at the Church of the Nativity. He met many times with President Yasser Arafat, and urged a peaceful compromise that recognized the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. During a visit with Arafat, the pope kissed a bowl of Palestinian oil brought to him by Palestinian children, a powerful symbolic gesture in the eyes of many Arabs who revere the cause of Palestine.

The pope also visited the Deheishe refugee camp south of Bethlehem and reminded the world of the Palestinians’ suffering: “No one can ignore how much the Palestinian people have had to suffer in recent decades. Your torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has gone on too long,” the pope declared. “The Holy See has always recognized that the Palestinian people have the natural right to a homeland, and the right to be able to live in peace and tranquility with the other people of this area.” He reiterated, “I have repeatedly proclaimed that there would be no end to the sad conflict in the Holy Land without stable guarantees for the rights of all the peoples involved, on the basis of international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions and declarations... Only with a just and lasting peace — not imposed but secured through negotiation — will legitimate Palestinian aspirations be fulfilled.”

The following year, he became the first pope ever to enter a mosque during his visit of peace to Syria. He also was the first pope to visit a synagogue and the first to visit a Holocaust concentration camp memorial at Auschwitz.

Clearly, Pope John Paul II’s support of Palestinian rights reflected his personal struggle for the soul of humanity, always on the side of justice and fairness. Much attention in the Western press focused on the negative comments of extremist Muslim leaders of Al-Qaeda and mainstream fundamentalists, such as activist and editor Gamal Sultan of the Al-Manar Journal, a publication which shares the name of the satellite broadcasts of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

But despite these few expected voices of extremism, Pope John Paul II’s death has captured the hearts of mainstream Arabs. His funeral received unprecedented coverage in mainstream Arab media, including satellite stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya.

Troubling to me is the absence of a champion who will succeed the pope and who has the pope’s stature. Will the next pope take up the Palestinian cause, which more and more is identified as a Muslim cause as the number of Palestinian Christians continues to dwindle? If the new pope is from a Third World country, the answer may be yes. If a pope from the Western world is chosen — although pundits have ruled out a successor who is American — the political weight of the Vatican may shift significantly.

— Ray Hanania, the former national president of the Palestinian American Congress, is an author and syndicated columnist based in Chicago.