Pope Paul VI prolonged impediment", he would renounce his office "both as bishop of Rome as well as head of the same holy Catholic Church". Paul VI did away with much of the regal splendor of the papacy. He was the last pope to date to be crowned; his successor Pope John Paul I substituted an inauguration for the papal coronation (which Paul had substantially modified, but which he left mandatory in his 1975 apostolic constitution "Romano Pontifici Eligendo"). At his coronation Paul wore a tiara that was a gift from the Archdiocese of Milan. At the end of the second session of
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