Pope John Paul I He refused to have the millennium-old traditional Papal Coronation and wear the Papal Tiara. He instead chose to have a simplified Papal Inauguration Mass. John Paul I used as his motto "Humilitas". In his notable "Angelus" of 27 August 1978 (delivered on the first full day of his papacy), he impressed the world with his natural friendliness. Sister Margherita Marin, who worked in the Vatican during Luciani's papacy, said in comments made in late 2017 that the pope had admitted the sisters into his apartment chapel for morning Mass, unlike his predecessor Paul VI who had only admitted his secretaries.
Pope John Paul II change in Soviet policy towards eastern Europe under Gorbachev; without that change, no velvet revolutions in 1989. In December 1989, John Paul II met with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Vatican and each expressed his respect and admiration for the other. Gorbachev once said "The collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II." On John Paul II's death, Mikhail Gorbachev said: "Pope John Paul II's devotion to his followers is a remarkable example to all of us." On 4 June 2004 US President George W. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the