Pope John Paul II, for all his championing of universal human rights, defined some of us as less human than others -- specifically, those of us who are gay.

“Although the particular inclination of a homosexual person is not a sin,” he wrote in 1986, “it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.”

The border of freedom in our day, it seems, stops abruptly at sexuality -- and John Paul policed it vigorously.

Pope John Paul II helped unseat totalitarian regimes not only in his native Eastern Europe, but around the world. He decried the moral ills of unchecked capitalism and warmongering, articulately denouncing both the Bush administration’s adventures in Iraq and the International Monetary Fund's narrow view of development in poor countries. His commitment to a united humanity bound by love pushed the Catholic Church into previously unthinkable acts -- like reaching out to Judaism and repairing long frayed spiritual ties between the two faiths.

So it is not uncommon that people as far apart ideologically as President Bush and liberal former New York Governor Mario Cuomo profess to have been touched by the pontiff’s message. Like Catholics worldwide, Bush and Cuomo simply embraced the lessons they liked and did their best to ignore the rest.

The pope, however, was always clear that he wanted his message swallowed whole. When the cardinals chose John Paul to be the pontiff in 1979, the church was barreling into modernity on a number of social issues -- from homosexuality to female clergy. John Paul brought all of that to a halt.

He decreed homosexuality an “objective disorder,” railed against laws banning bias based on sexual orientation and argued that the gay rights movement is part of a worldwide “ideology of evil.”

As the AIDS epidemic spiraled out of control, he led the church in actively undermining global public health efforts to encourage safer sex.

He adamantly opposed the use of condoms in the midst of a global AIDS plague that is claiming the lives of tens of millions of people. Even though condoms are the best way to prevent AIDS, the pope categorically denounced all contraceptive devices, and a senior Vatican official ridiculed the utility of condoms, calling them a form of Russian roulette.

The world now awaits his successor.

Let us hope he takes a more enlightened view of sexuality.

This op-ed was syndicated to newspapers around the country through The Progressive Media Project.