An overflow crowd of parishioners gathered to celebrate the pontiff’s life Sunday at the Church of the Immaculate Conception as a steady rain fell outside.
“I feel very, very touched,” said Bruno Peagno, 69, an Italian immigrant who has lived in South Africa for 40 years. He said he and his wife were up all night watching news from Rome, weeping for a man he called “one of our best popes.”
“This pope had a feeling for people and was close to them. He never looked at color,” said Peagno, who regularly attends the multiracial church. “So many people were very touched by this pope.”
Pelmar Mamburu, 30, said she found the pope’s strict adherence to tradition refreshing and said it helped stabilize a church that had been struggling to find a place between tradition and modernity.
“The Catholic Church before this pope was empty,” said Mamburu, a lifelong Catholic.
Julius Marsh, 33, another parishioner, said he hoped the next pope would be African. Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze is considered a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.
“It would be very good for Africa,” he said. “Slowly, Africa is being recognized, and South Africa in particular is following in the pope’s footsteps of peacemaking.”
But most of the parishioners at the Church of the Immaculate Conception said they didn’t care about the national origin and race of the next pope, so long as he follows in John Paul II’s active footsteps.
“The color and race don’t matter, just the personality. That’s paramount,” said Nigerian-born Kingsley Mwokeyi, 35, now a surgeon in Johannesburg. “We pray whoever takes his place will be as strong.”