|
Monday, April 04, 2005
Rome remembers pope with mass, memories
VATICAN CITY -- Hoisting children onto their shoulders and holding cherished photos, tens of thousands stood silently shoulder-to-shoulder Sunday at a Mass for the late Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square. Gradually, though, tears gave way to fond memories.
Some people had camped out in sleeping bags overnight on the cobblestones. Underfoot were melted candles and flower petals left during the vigil.
As an organ sounded the first notes of Mass, many people held up cameras and cell phones to take pictures of the ceremony on the marble steps of St. Peter's Basilica.
Some clutched photos of the pope as a younger, more energetic man, before illness left him grimacing and stooped. In them, he beamed, blessed babies, or led processions with a golden staff. Each time the giant screens lining the colonnades showed a close-up of John Paul's picture, the crowd applauded.
"Even if we fear we've lost a point of reference, I feel like everybody in this square is united with him in a hug," said Luca Ghizzardi, a 38-year-old nurse with a sleeping bag and a handmade peace flag at his feet.
Police said about 80,000 people attended Mass, with about 20,000 more spilling into the surrounding boulevards. Around the Vatican, bike riders in spandex and sleek helmets stopped to peer past the colonnades at the crowd. First aid staff readied stretchers, and sniffer dogs checked trash cans. Guides holding up umbrellas led tourists to the square's edge.
Inside the piazza, the commotion came to a standstill. Michela Scrocca, a 44-year-old teacher, gazed at the windows of John Paul's former apartments, which people had watched for signs during his final hours. She asked herself who would live there next.
"We will surely have affection for the next one as well, but this (pope) will stay in our hearts," she said.
Katja Raithel, a 29-year-old German tourist, reminisced about childhood Easter meals, when her mother made the family keep silent as they listened to the pope's Mass on the radio.
One 78-year-old man came to say goodbye to John Paul partly on behalf of his wife, who is in a wheelchair. Giorgio Arduini said he was not a practicing Roman Catholic but deeply felt the pope's suffering.
"He made the church more human, closer to the real people," he said.
The most emotional moment of the day was when Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, the Vatican undersecretary of state, read the traditional Sunday noontime prayer, which John Paul had delivered throughout his pontificate.
Some in the crowd sucked in their breath, bowed their heads or fought back tears when Sandri announced that John Paul had prepared the prayer before dying. There was extended applause, and then came the pontiff's familiar words of greeting: "Dear brothers and sisters..."
For days, St. Peter's has filled and emptied over and over again with news of John Paul's worsening health. A day earlier, tens of thousands fell silent when a Vatican official announced that he had died at 84. Then they started to clap. Many wept, and a group of youths began to sing, "Hallelujah, he will rise again."
Early Sunday, a text message began circulating on cell phones, asking people to light candles in their windows. "May they light up the road to God for him, the way he did for us during 27 years," the message said.
Some Romans followed through, and city hall hung posters showing a white-clad John Paul. "Rome mourns and salutes its pope," they read.
One Italian college student who stayed at St. Peter's into the night summed up his mixed feelings with a list scrawled in a notebook. Sitting cross-legged among lit candles, he wrote down words that came into his head. "Silence, joy, melancholy, prayer, gaiety, spirit, happiness, abandonment," were some.
"It's useless to cry," said 22-year-old Simone Bellato. "We must concentrate on feeling joy. The pope has returned to his father's house." (AP)
(April 4, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Arroyo sets period of national mourning