Pope John Paul II is Time magazine's 1994 Man of the Year.

"In a year when so many people lamented the decline in moral values or made excuses for bad behavior, Pope John Paul II forcefully set forth his vision of the good life and urged the world to follow it," Time writes in its Dec. 26 issue.Time noted that the pope's pronouncements are not universally acclaimed - for example, critics see the Catholic Church's refusal to endorse condom use as dangerous and irresponsible in this era of AIDS.

Time's first Man of the Year was Charles Lindbergh in 1927. Last year's choice was F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, honored as The Peacemakers.

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