The pope, 84, died during the third day of a worldwide vigil marked most poignantly by huge crowds that gathered outside his apartment above St. Peter’s Square, from where he had led them in prayer for so many years.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims had journeyed to be near him at the end, offering silent prayers, gentle hymns and – from the young people he made a special effort to reach – rhythmic clapping keeping beat to energetic songs dedicated to “Papa.”
“The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. [2:37 p.m. Eastern time] in his private apartment. All the procedures outlined in the apostolic Constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis” that was written by John Paul II on Feb. 22, 1996, have been put in motion,” the Vatican said in a statement sent to journalists by e-mail.
The pope’s body was expected to be taken to St. Peter’s Basilica no earlier than tomorrow afternoon, the Vatican said, and the College of Cardinals would meet tomorrow at 10 a.m. local time to set a funeral date.
News of the pontiff’s death quickly reached around the globe, to churches where prayer services were being held at the moment of his death, to the more than 130 countries this most-traveled of all popes had visited and well beyond.
At St. Peter’s Square, Vatican officials broke the news to the estimated 70,000 people who had gathered there on that chilly spring night precisely because they knew the pope was dying but who nevertheless seemed stunned.
“Our much beloved Holy Father, John Paul II, has returned to the home of his father – and we pray for him,” said Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, the Vatican’s undersecretary of state, standing on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, a short distance from where the lights still burned in the windows of the pope’s apartment.
“We all feel like orphans this evening,” the archbishop said.
After a brief silence, those gathered on the cobbled stones – the nuns, the priests, the children, the couples young and old – began clapping softly, then more loudly – though dozens of people dropped to their knees, overcome. “Papa!” several people sobbed.
When the clapping stopped, an almost eerie quiet set in for perhaps a minute, only the splashing water from the great fountains on the square being audible, along with the many sobs and the soft, murmuring voices trying to comfort those in most need.
Then there was more clapping and then silence again until a lone man began singing “Allelujah, he will rise again,” in Italian under the pope’s window. He had no microphone and sang softly but he could be heard from the farthest points of St. Peter’s Square and soon others joined the singing with him.
One man waved a giant Polish flag adorned with a black stripe of mourning. John Paul II was the first non-Italian to be elected pope in 455 years, but he was taken in by Romans as one of their own.
“We joke in Italy that we can make another pope but we cannot make another John Paul,” said Gianluca Maggio, a 26-year-old Roman on hand for the prayers, now rubbing the shoulders of a crying, elderly woman he did not know but who stood in front of him and seemed to need the comfort. “We can pray to God, but there will never be another pope like him. “
The pope’s death was formally verified according to centuries-old custom, by the Vatican chamberlain.
Officials confirmed that the chamerberlain had destroyed the pope’s Fisherman’s ring and dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters, both symbols of his authority.
As news of the pontiff’s death spread through Rome, thousands more people flocked to the square, jamming some of the city’s widest boulevards.
Police put the crowd that gathered for a memorial Mass to John Paul II at 100,000, their prayers recited against a mournful backdrop of large bells pealing across Vatican City.
Giant television screens on the square, one nearly under the pope’s window, said: “The Angels Welcome You.”
There will be more tears. Funeral rites for the pope span nine days, though the Vatican could say yesterday only that the burial would probably be between Wednesday and Friday.
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It is not known if he will be interred alongside the other successors to St. Peter’s seat in the sacred grottoes of St. Peter’s Basilica or if, as the first Slavic pope, he had left instructions to be carried back to his beloved Poland.
A Mass is scheduled for him this morning at 10:30 on St. Peter’s Square, and a conclave of cardinals has from 15 to 20 days from yesterday to begin selecting his successor.
The pope, the son of an army sergeant, seemed to symbolize vigor and physical health when elected in October 1978 at age 58, the youngest pontiff in a century. He was an avid hiker and skier, an energetic man who used the ease of travel and the power of technology to become akin to a pop star, using his moral standing to argue against war and for the preservation of life, from conception to death.
But for years he battled the effects of Parkinson’s disease and was hospitalized twice in the past two months for breathing difficulties. His health deteriorated over the past several days drastically and, as was made clear by statements issued by the Vatican, irreversibly.
A urinary tract infection sparked a sharp fever, and complications affected his breathing, his blood pressure and his heart, though until yesterday morning Vatican officials maintained that his mind was lucid and sound.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German prelate who is the chief guardian of church doctrine, said Pope John Paul had been aware that he was “passing to the Lord.”
The pope began drifting in and out of consciousness yesterday morning and could get sentences out only by parceling them by words with long gaps between them. Before his death yesterday, a Vatican statement said that the fever spiked again and that the condition of Pope John Paul II was “very grave.”
Mass was celebrated in his room at 7:30 a.m. local time, the Vatican said, but for the first time acknowledged that the pope was not able to take part.
Thousands of people began gathering Thursday, when the end for the pope looked near. On Friday, a somber, nearly silent crowd of 30,000 gathered on the cobbled square outside his window, most of them streaming in at dusk from around Rome to join in prayers.
Yesterday was different.
Crowds began forming in the afternoon and never stopped growing. Unlike the somber mood the previous day, hundreds of people broke into their own groups on the square, praying and signing hymns to guitar music.
The largest group was a few thousand people in their late teens and 20s, who gathered directly below the pope’s window, at several points leading virtually the entire crowd in rhythmic clapping, as if they were trying to will the pontiff to health.
“Do not give up, do not give up, do not give up,” they chanted, an admonition the pope often directed toward the youth he had worked so hard to lure back into the church.
“Don’t ever, ever, ever give up,” they chanted.
The pope, apparently, was aware that young people were among those holding vigil.
His last reported words conveyed to the outside world, uttered Friday or yesterday and “reconstructed,” were aimed specifically at the young, said the pope’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
“Last evening the pope probably had in mind the young people whom he has met throughout the world during his pontificate,” Navarro-Valls said.
“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. And I thank you.'”
“If God gives him life until tomorrow, I will be here again for him as he was always there for us without fail,” said Euginio Ramirez, 23, a student from Mexico City studying at Pontificia Univesita Gregoriana. “I will cheer for him, I will sing for him. I will do all I can to let him know that there are people here for him.”
When the lights to the pope’s apartment blinked on about 7:30, the crowd on the square cheered. But the pope would not be appearing.
His last public appearance was Wednesday, when he was wheeled up to his apartment window to bless thousands who had gathered in the plaza on a day when they were free to believe that his early health problems had been placed under some degree of control.
His words, though, were unintelligible and the tone of the voice made it clear he was suffering greatly. He struggled to make the sign of the cross.
Before that, he appeared on Easter Sunday and waved palms to bless the crowd, but when he tried to speak his face twisted as if in great pain and he could not make a sound.
<!– ART CREDITASSOCIATED PRESS
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTPope John Paul II is shown at a Mass in Cuba in 1998. He was the most-traveled pope, visiting more than 130 countries.
CUTLINE TEXT–> <!– ART CREDITPIER PAOLO CITO : ASSOCIATED PRESS
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTSome of the faithful hold a candlelight vigil in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after the announcement of the pope's death at age 84. Thousands gathered to pray and sing hymns outside his apartment.
CUTLINE TEXT–> <!– ART CREDITALESSANDRA TARANTINO : ASSOCIATED PRESS
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTPeople fill St. Peter's Square after the pope's death. His body was expected to be taken to St. Peter's Basilica no earlier than tomorrow afternoon, the Vatican said.
CUTLINE TEXT–> <!– ART CREDITPETER MACDIARMID : GETTY IMAGES
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTA cross is visible in the window of the pope's apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square, where an estimated 70,000 people gathered and more poured in after word of his death.
CUTLINE TEXT–>