vital organs stopped functioning, but pilgrims in his native Poland and around the would continued to pray for a miracleIn a statement released late Saturday, April 2, the Vatican said that the pope "remains in very serious condition with high fever", but that he was still conscious. The pontiff was "responding correctly when addressed by to members of his household," the statement added, suggesting he was not in a coma.
However "the clinical conditions of the Holy Father remain very serious," the statement said. "As of dawn this morning, the start of a compromised state of consciousness was observed.
Mass was celebrated at 7:30 this morning in the presence of the Pope," explained Vatican Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls earlier in the day. He also suggested the pontiff thanked those praying for him, including many in Vatican City.
"Last evening the Pope probably had in mind the young people whom he has met throughout the world during his pontificate. In fact, he seemed to be referring to them when, in his words, and repeated several times, he seemed to have said the following sentence: "I have looked for you. Now you have come to me," said the spokesman, who added there would be updates later in the day.
A source within Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital where the pontiff has been treated in the past, said it was "very likely" that he would die within hours, after the Vatican said his breathing became shallow and his heart and kidneys began failing, BosNewsLife learned.
"This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the pope," Angelo Comastri, the pope’s vicar general for Vatican City, told a crowd earlier at St. Peter’s Square, where tens of thousands of people prayed and stood vigil in the chilly night.
TEARFUL
Wrapping themselves in blankets, many tearfully gazed at John Paul’s third-floor windows, where the lights remained on early Saturday, aware that they may never see him again on this earth.
Millions of people in Pope John Paul II’s native Poland also prayed for the pontiff, who they considered to be both a spiritual father and a source of inspiration during their struggle against Communism, BosNewsLife News Center monitored.
As news emerged of his expected death, Poland’s state run television began airing somber music with pictures of Pope John Paul II, who was born in 1920 as Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, a southern Polish town.
PRAYING
People watching their television sets and across the country were praying for the pontiff, who is best remembered here for his role in hastening the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.
Polish media said the 84-year old Pope is highly revered in Poland, even by those who do
not share what critics regard as his conservative views on family issues.
His first return visit to then communist Poland as Pope in 1979 drew millions of people onto the streets. His passionate sermons inspired them to challenge the authorities, which analysts say led to the rise of the non-Communist trade union Solidarity.
WALESA
In a statement Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, who was Poland’s first non-communist president
in 1990, said "the Pope’s death would be a blow to Poland and the world."
Many pilgrims gathered in churches in the capital Warsaw and the southern city of Krakow, where Karol Wojtyla was bishop before becoming Pope in 1978.
Polish radio, who spoke with several pilgrims, said hundreds also participated in an all-night
vigil in the Tatra mountains, where the young Pope used to preach.
HISTORY
"I think, I hope not, but I think these are the last days of the pope. It is awful. I don’t know
how to say it in words," one unidentified woman said. "It is a very sad situation for me, and I hope the Pope will feel better in the next few days," said another pilgrim.
A young man agreed. "We are concerned about his health, and his life, No one knows what can happen in coming days. This man means a lot for every Pole. This man changed a lot in our history and society. And he is the greatest person perhaps in the history," he told Polish radio.
That reflects a recent poll which said Poles consider the Pope "the most important personality of the last century" and his election to the papacy in 1978 "as more important than the fall of communism."
CHARITY
Polish believers gathered for well into the night Friday and early Saturday, after the Papal Nuncio in Warsaw, Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, urged them to pray for the leader of the
world’s over one billion Catholics.
"We should now be filled above all with charity and be in solidarity with the Holy Father. At the time when we can also see his great suffering as a testimony of faith," he said. Analysts say the Pope was a moral authority for Polish Catholics, especially during the 15 years often harsh reforms and painful transformation from communism into a Western democracy.
During his nine trips to his native country, he often urged Poles never to forget their spiritual
roots. He feared that after decades of Communism people, would become to busy with capitalism to care for the weak and those in need. Those people, like himself. (With BosNewsLife News Center, reports from Vatican City, Rome and Warsaw and BosNewsLife Research).
