April 5, in what is seen as a government effort to show solidarity with the country’s churches following weeks of Hindu violence against the Christian minority.
"The world has lost a church leader and a statesman who tirelessly worked for peace," said Indian President Abdul Kalam, on behalf of the government. The Catholic Bishops Conference of India announced the closure of all Catholic schools in the Delhi area as a mark of respect for the late pontiff, BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau monitored.
There was also a government-led outpouring of grief in Muslim nations Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Indonesia, and Malaysia, where Muslim militants have attacked Christians and churches.
Several Christians have been killed across the region in recent weeks amid accusations
authorities do not enough for religious tolerance.
The pope’s death however is seen as an opportunity to boost religious reconciliation, officials suggest. "I share the sorrow of Christian brothers of Pakistan and the world," reportedly said Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf. "The Pope had rendered incredible services for peace, had brought people close belonging to different faiths," the Associated Press of Pakistan quoted the president as saying in his condolence message.
Christians and non-Muslim minorities are estimated to comprise roughly three percent of Pakistan’s 150 million population.
BANGLADESH HOPES
In Bangladesh, home to nearly 140 million Muslims, Moulana Obaidul Haque of the Baitul Mokarram national mosque, said the world had lost a great religious leader. "We hope his successor will also work for world peace," Reuters news agency quoted the cleric as saying.
Indonesia, where Roman Catholics make up only five percent of the country’s 214 million, mainly Muslim, population, saw special masses held at different churches.
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said "the tireless campaigns of the pope for world peace, justice and human dignity will remain an enduring legacy in the minds of people regardless of their faith" media reported.
RECONCILIATION PROMOTED
"His message of religious tolerance, dialogue and reconciliation has contributed significantly in
promoting better understanding between Christians and believers of other religions including Islam," he was quoted as saying in his condolence message to the Vatican Cardinal Camerlengo, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo.
Even Communist Asian countries China and Vietnam, where human rights watchdogs complained about religious persecution, expressed concern about the pope’s passing. Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has sent a message of condolences to the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the staterun Voice Of Vietnam (VOV) reported.
"We’d like to extend our deep sympathies to the Vatican, the Catholic community in the world and the Catholics in Vietnam as well," VOV quoted Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Dung as saying.
BEIJING BELIEVERS
With tears streaming down their faces, expatriate and Chinese worshippers also attended mass these days including in the Southern Cathedral, a centuries-old church in the heart of Beijing, reporters said. "The pope’s biggest contribution was to promote world peace with his travels. It is very sad he couldn’t visit China," an elderly worshipper, surnamed Yang, reportedly said.
China severed diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1951 and has since allowed Catholics to only worship in the state-sanctioned Church, while insisting on having a say in appointing bishops. The move was unacceptable to the Vatican and has driven underground a strong
section of Chinese Catholics as well as evangelical Christians Grief among China’s Catholics was also shared by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"Right from the start of our friendship he revealed to me privately that he had a clear understanding of the Tibetan problem because of his own experience of communism in Poland. This gave me great personal encouragement," he reportedly said.
"ROLE MODEL"
In Hong Kong, now a semi-autonomous part of China but which allows more religious freedom, caretaker leader Donald Tsang, a devout Catholic, hailed the pontiff as "a role model for all of us." Buddhist nations Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Singapore also joined in expressing their condolences.
The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, in her condolence message, described Pope John Paul II as "a most revered and popular global personality," according to news reports. Referring to the pope’s 1995 trip to Sri Lanka, she said the pontiff "eloquently expressed loving kindness, compassion, sympathy and equanimity, which are abiding values upheld by Christianity as well as the other great religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, practiced in Sri Lanka."
According to a 2001 census, over 1.1 million Roman Catholics live in Sri Lanka, comprising just
over six per cent of the total population, the third largest religious minority. In predominantly
Buddhist Thailand flags were lowered till Tuesday at government buildings after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reportedly described the pope’s death as a "great loss."
PHILIPPINES "IMPRESSED"
Asia’s largest Catholic country, the Philippines, also began official mourning, while President
Gloria Arroyo announced she would be attending the pontiff’s funeral in Rome this week. The country, which has some 68 million Catholics, would remain in a national period of mourning and flags will fly at half-mast until the Pope was buried, her chief aide, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, told reporters.
"In my visits to the pope even before I became president, what always impressed me was he knew what was happening in the Philippines," Arroyo told reporters. "He was most especially concerned with having peace, progress, and brotherhood in Mindanao," she said, referring to the southern Philippine region that has been a hotbed of Muslim separatism for decades.
One leader of an influential group of Islamic clerics said John Paul served as a "bridge of understanding" between Christians and Muslims, according to news reports.
EAST TIMOR
In East Timor, the independent former Indonesian territory which is 90 percent Catholic, Prime
Minister Mari Alkatiri said a statue honoring the pope would be constructed in the Tasi Tolo
district of the capital Dili, the scene of the pope’s main appearance in the city during his
1989 visit.
Catholics also held special prayers and observed a minute’s silence in Singapore. India’s Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheela Dixit, who attended a Mass on Sunday said that although "it was sad news for Catholics all over the country" and the world, the good news was that the pontiff "has gone back to his Lord."
Indian Church officials said the nine-day mourning period announced by the Vatican would be marked with daily masses in the churches. The Archbishop of Kolkata, Lucas Sircar, is expected to call for a public mass on the day of Pope John Paul II’s funeral Friday, April 8.
(With additional reporting by Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Chief International Correspondent).
