VATICAN CITY, 4 April 2005 — Finally at rest after years of debilitating disease, Pope John Paul II’s body lay in state yesterday in the frescoed Apostolic Palace as the world mourned his passing and the Vatican prepared for the ritual-filled funeral and conclave that will elect his successor.
An estimated 100,000 people turned out for a morning Mass and thousands more — tourists, Romans, young and old — kept coming throughout the day, a sea of humanity filling the broad boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Basilica.
The world mourned Pope John Paul, hailing him as a torchbearer of peace and moral certainty and a force in the fall of the Iron Curtain — albeit one who imposed an unbending rule on his own vast flock.
From Brazil to the Philippines, South Africa to Germany, and above all in his Polish homeland, Roman Catholics prayed, wept and hugged each other in grief when news flashed across the globe of the death of the pope.
“The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom,” US President George W. Bush said at the White House. “We’re grateful to God for sending such a man ... a hero for the ages,” said Bush, who went to war in Iraq despite the Pope’s opposition but who, as a Christian, shared many views with him. He ordered US flags to fly at half-mast as a mark of respect. President Bush is expected to attend the pope’s funeral.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Pope was “extremely concerned about the world we lived in, and like me, he also felt that in war, all are losers”.
Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement that won power in Poland after a decade of struggle and hastened the collapse of the whole Soviet bloc, said: “(Without him) there would be no end of communism, or at least much later, and the end would have been bloody.”
Mikhail Gorbachev, who as Soviet leader loosened the grip of communism and invited the Pope to Moscow, said he was “humanitarian number one on the planet”. “There was not a single conflict in the world that escaped his attention,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said John Paul’s “spiritual and political legacy have been deservedly valued by humanity”.
“The world has lost a religious leader who was revered across people of all faiths,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In Indonesia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would send three government ministers to the pope’s funeral.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the pontiff a “people’s Pope” who especially endeared himself to Indians when he initiated the process of granting sainthood to Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, who founded the Calcutta-based Missionaries of Charity that cared for the sick and poor in the eastern Indian city.
President Jacques Chirac said all of France was in mourning while German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that John Paul II had “changed our world” and played a crucial role in the development of a peaceful Europe. Pakistani and Bangladeshi leaders also paid rich tributes to the pope.
In the pope’s homeland, bereft Poles wept and prayed in silence as for a parent in the hours after his death.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called John Paul “a friend of the Jewish people” and said the world had lost “one of the most important leaders of our generation”.
Catholics across Africa praised a man whose teachings had growing appeal for them, and who sought them out in their own countries.
In France, a left-wing Catholic group called We Are Also the Church said the pontiff “was completely out of touch with changes in values and in philosophical and scientific conceptions of life.” It also accused him of “supporting, even giving his blessing to, Latin American dictatorships.”
A frosty message also came from China, which demands that the Vatican break off relations with its archrival Taiwan.
“We hope that the Vatican under the new pope will create conditions conducive to the improvement of relations with China,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Across Rome, flags were at half-mast on public buildings as Italy began the first of three days of mourning for the dead pope. Berlusconi convened a meeting of his Cabinet yesterday to finalize arrangements as Rome prepared to greet an expected two million pilgrims and world leaders for the pope’s funeral.
“Today, while we weep for the departure of the pope who left us, we open our hearts to the vision of our eternal destiny,” Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s No. 2 official, said in his homily.
John Paul was dressed in crimson vestments and white bishop’s miter on his head. His crossed hands clutched a rosary, and his pastoral staff was tucked under his left arm. A Swiss guard stood on either side of him as mourners paid their respects at his feet.
John Paul’s body is to be transferred from the Apostolic Palace to St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing this afternoon.
Also today, the first preparatory meeting of the College of Cardinals — the red-capped “princes of the church” who now officially govern the 1 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church is scheduled to take place.
This is not the conclave to elect the pope, but rather a series of preparatory meetings that will decide dates for when the conclave will begin and the rites surrounding John Paul’s funeral and burial. The Vatican said the funeral was expected between Wednesday and Friday. The conclave must begin between 15 and 20 days from the pope’s death.
The cardinals will also read John Paul’s final instructions, including his choice of burial place.
Most popes in recent centuries have asked to be buried in the crypts below St. Peter’s Basilica, but some have suggested the first Polish-born pope might have chosen to be laid to rest in his native country.
In addition, the cardinals will arrange during these meetings for the destruction of John Paul’s Fisherman’s Ring and the dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters — formal gestures meant to symbolize the end of his reign and to prevent forgeries.
