POD: 1947: while studying law at the university of Havana, Fidel's passion for anti-imperialism is directed toward activism in the Catholic Church instead of student activism, believing the Church to be a stronger vessel for change in favor of the working class. He joins the priesthood in the 1950s, and is a leading critic of Batista's regime in Cuba during the early 1960s, making him internationally known to the point of sometimes being called "Cuba's Fiery Gandhi." In 1963, he was passed over for Pope in favor of Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (Pope Paul VI). However, Paul VI died suddenly from pneumonia after meeting with fellow man-of-the-cloth Karol Jozef Wojtyla on a trip to Poland in November 1969. As he had become a popular figure among millions of Catholics over the years, Fidel was chosen to replace him, entering the Papacy at the age of 43. He served as Pope for nearly 48 years, until his death in 2017, age 91.
"Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the strength to fight for the right to do what we ought. As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live. A religious revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. But the future starts today, not tomorrow. We must press onward, and never abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people - not thieves or traitors or interventionists - and hallelujah is our song. The revolution of religious reform in the Catholic church is for real, and it begins right now!" - Pope Fidel I, November 1969