Saturday, April 2, and there was an outpour of grief in his native Poland. Pilgrims packed churches after the Vatican announced he had died but would meet Christ, following a long and often painful journey marked by health problems. Others gathered on the streets to show their emotions, Polish radio reported.
Poles saw the pontiff as both a spiritual father and a symbol of their fight against Communism. The country’s first non Communist president and leader of the non Communist trade union Solidarity, Lech Walesa, said the pope’s death "would be a major loss for Poland and the rest of the world."
A recent opinion poll suggested that most Poles regarded John Paul’s election into the Papacy as more important than even the collapse of Communism. Polish media said the Pope was highly revered in Poland, even by those who do not share what critics regard as his conservative views on family issues.
Pope John Paul II died shortly after the Vatican had announced that the "cardio-respiratory conditions of the Holy Father have further worsened" and that "a gradual worsening of arterial hypotension has been noted, and breathing has become shallow." It added that "the clinical picture indicates cardio-circulatory and renal insufficiency. The biological parameters are notably compromised."
CHRIST WELCOMES
News of John Paul’s passing was delivered to tens-of-thousands of people who gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to light candles and pray for the pope by the Vatican’s deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri. "Dear brothers and sisters," he said, "at 9:37, our beloved Holy Father, John Paul II, has returned to the house of the Lord. Let us pray for him."
As they heard the news, some in the crowd were seen raising their hands to their faces in disbelief, while others began sobbing uncontrollably. "Christ opens the door to the Pope," Angelo Comastri, the Pope’s vicar general for Vatican City, told a huge crowd earlier at Saint Peter’s Square, in a chilly night.
Known as "The Great Communicator" for his media skills, Vatican analysts said the pontiff regarded his suffering as part of his final "act" in a world where the rapidly spreading Internet and the progress of television made it possible for the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics to see the once fit and athletic Pope grow old before their very eyes.
SUFFERING ‘MISSION’
Catholics said he saw his suffering at the end of his 26-year papacy as a mission and often compared it to the suffering of Christ. Shortly before he went to eternity, he read several Bible verses dealing with the suffering of Christ, Vatican Radio reported.
An official of Pope John Paul II noted that he was prepared to die and was already signaling the time has come by refusing to be hospitalized at the final hours of his life. His former private secretary, Irish Bishop John Magee, said the pontiff’s willingness to suffer and certainty of resurrection meant he had no fear of death.
"He’s always been ready to die," said Magee who served as the Pope’s private secretary from 1978 to 1982, in a radio interview with Irish state broadcasters RTE, monitored by The Associated Press (AP). "The only time he told me that he wasn’t going to die was immediately after his being shot in 1981, when he turned to me as he was being put into the ambulance," Magee said.
NEW JOURNEY
He said several people were with him the final hours of his life. "With John Paul II, I am sure there is somebody there holding his hand, assuring him that we are with him, we are journeying with him to that moment when he will see the risen Lord before him, in his death moment."
And Pope John Paul II, for whom the media became a global culprit, wanted the world to journey with him as long as possible. "Housetops are almost always marked by a forest of transmitters and antennae," he reportedly remarked on World Communications Day 2001. "To proclaim the faith from the housetops today means to speak Jesus’ word in and through the dynamic world of communications."
Polish-born Karol Jozef Wojtyla held the throne for more than 26 years, the third-longest pontificate in history, and the length of his papacy is only surpassed by that of Pius IX in the 19th century and Saint Peter. He was the first non-Italian elected pope since Adrian VI over 450 years ago.
DEMISE SOVIET UNION
He will be most remembered as speeding the demise of the former Soviet Union, ushering in the spread of democracy in his native Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. His first return visit to then communist Poland as Pope in 1979 drew millions of people onto the streets. The pope’s passionate sermons inspired them to challenge the authorities, which analysts say led to the rise of the non-Communist trade union Solidarity.
The pope aggressively supported human rights and freedom around the world, as well as the church doctrine, opposing a bigger role for women in the church and purging priests such as those in Latin America espousing "liberation theology.’" He shore up opposition to abortion, contraception and homosexuality, sparking a debate among Catholics in some western countries. He also encouraged young people to spread the Gospel of the risen Jesus Christ.
For many, John Paul was the only pope they ever knew. His death marks the end of a reign that revolutionized the papacy as unlike previous pope he traveled to more than 120 countries to minister to his widespread flock. He also built bridges to other faiths and confessions, while spaking out forcefully in favor of the world’s poor and oppressed.
FINAL MESSAGE
Just before he died, Pope John Paul II reportedly left a final message to his close friends, begging them not to cry about his departure to heaven. "I am happy and you should be as well," the note read. "Let us pray together with joy."
Following the death of the pope, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church were expected to meet in a session known as a conclave in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to elect his successor. Analysts say a new leader will be appointed within 20 days after his death.
The cardinals are locked up on several floors of the Vatican Palace and meet in the chapel to vote. They deliberate, hold four votes a day and can not leave the palace until they have elected a successor.
CARDINAL PROCEEDINGS
The proceedings are limited to cardinals aged 80 and under of which there are 117 at present. Every time a ballot fails to produce a winner, the cardinals burn the ballots with wet straw to produce black smoke through a chimney above the chapel.
Once the conclave has elected a new pope, the cardinals signal their choice to the world by burning only the ballots to produce white smoke. The new pontiff then steps up to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to bless thousands of faithful assembled in the square below.
The next pope will confront a range of challenges, including scientific advances that conflict with Catholic teaching; the decline of religious observance in Europe and North America; an explosion in church membership in the Third World; and a dwindling number of priests in the West. (With reports from Vatican City, Poland, BosNewsLife Research).
