million people packed Rome and Saint Peter’s Square Friday, April 8, to say farewell to Pope John Paul II during an emotional funeral service, which the American President said helped to "strengthen" his faith in Christ. President George W. Bush, the first sitting American head of state to attend a papal funeral, reportedly said he realized at the service that faith "is a walk, not a moment."
Calling it "one of the highlights of his presidency", the leader of the world’s last remaining superpower said what struck him most intensely "was the final scene of a plain-looking casket with the sun pouring down on its seal," the Voice Of America (VOA) network reported.
Bush headed a delegation that included his father — former president George Herbert Walker Bush, ex-president Bill Clinton, First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
DIFFERENCES REMAIN
President Bush met the pope on three occasions. Last June in Rome, Pope John Paul repeated his opposition to the war in Iraq and rebuked Bush for US military abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. But the men were allies on many social issues including opposition to abortion and gay marriage, VOA said.
Besides Bush several other presidents, prime ministers, patriarchs, prelates and many
pilgrims could be seen during the solemn occasion to honor a man Catholics see as the
successor of Apostle Peter.
Many Pilgrims, including at least hundreds of thousands of Poles, traveled thousands of
miles to pray and see the Polish born pontiff, who they regarded as a spiritual father and symbol of freedom during their painful struggle against Communism.
EMOTIONAL CARDINAL
The dean of the Roman Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals, Joseph Ratzinger, presided over the funeral mass. Reporters noted that the normally stern prelate choked with emotion as he recalled John Paul’s appearance at the window of his apartment only 12 days ago, on Easter Sunday, when he blessed the faithful in the square below.
The cardinal blessed the coffin containing the body of Pope John Paul II and said
"we can be sure that our beloved pope is now at the window of the house of his Father, and he sees us, and he blesses us."
He cardinal stressed that "today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude." Ratzinger said John Paul was a "priest to the last" and added he had offered his life for God and his flock "especially amid the sufferings of his final months."
SEVERAL CHEERS
Ratzinger was interrupted several times, and especially toward the end of the Mass by minutes of cheers, rhythmic applause and shouts of "Giovanni Paolo Santo" or "Saint John Paul," from the crowd. The eruption of cheers came right before the Litany of Saints chant, in which the names of the saints are read, according to Catholic tradition.
While Protestant Christians argue that everyone accepting Christ as "Personal Savior and Lord" is a Saint in God’s eyes, some American Baptists traveled put these theological differences briefly aside to participate in what they described as a "historic event."
The Mass ended with everyone standing and singing together: "May the angels accompany you into heaven, may the martyrs welcome you when you arrive, and lead you to Holy Jerusalem."
"BARE EARTH"
John Paul requested in his last will and testament to be interred "in the bare earth," and he was laid to rest among the pontiffs from centuries past near the tomb traditionally believed to be of the apostle Peter, the first pope. His will also revealed that the frail pontiff contemplated stepping down in 2000, a prospect he never publicly acknowledged.
"I hope that He will help me to recognize the time until when I must continue this service, to which he called me on the day of Oct. 16, 1978. I ask [Him] to call me when He wants," the pontiff wrote, then quoting Romans 14:8: "In life and in death we belong to the Lord – we are of the Lord," he wrote.
Five years after his contemplation, he can finally rest and meet "the Risen Lord," in heaven, his aids have said. His coffin was definitively closed with red bands and both papal and Vatican seals, and nested inside a second casket of zinc and then within a third of walnut. The outside casket bears the name of the pope, his cross and his papal coat of arms.
BETWEEN QUEENS
The Associated Press (AP) news agency said the casket was then lowered into the ground in a plot inside a small chapel, between the tombs of two women: Queen Christina of Sweden and Queen Carlotta of Cyprus, said a senior Vatican official who attended the ceremony.
Closed to the public, the service was witnessed by top Vatican prelates and performed by the camerlengo, or chamberlain, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo. He concluded with the words: "Lord, grant him eternal rest, and may perpetual light shine upon him," AP
reported.
Around the world Roman Catholics and other believers followed the ceremony on television and radio, including in Hungary, which has a long relationship with the Vatican. The country was recognized as a Christian nation in 1001 by Pope Silvester II, who a magnificent jeweled gold crown to Hungarian King Stephen along with an apostolic cross and a letter of blessing.
PACKED CHURCHES
Hungarian pilgrims packed churches these days to say farewell to the pope who visited the former Communist nation twice in the 1990’s. Even Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who was leader of the atheistic oriented Communist youth movement, ordered flags to fly half staff.
There was a silver lining in all the mourning: Hungarian travel agencies specialized in pilgrimages reported their otherwise sluggish business was booming this week, as many people wanted to travel to Rome. In other former Communist nations, including the
pope’s Poland, entrepreneurs reported similar profits.
Polish pilgrims hope the next pope will be called Pope John Paul III. But they will have to wait. The next time bells ring will be when the cardinals of the church choose a successor to John Paul II. They are scheduled to begin their conclave, as the closed-door meeting is called, on April 18.
(With BosNewsLife News Center, reports from Rome, Vatican City, Budapest, Warsaw, Washington and BosNewsLIfe Research).
