Pope John Paul II
VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II, who led the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century and became history's most-traveled pope, died on Saturday evening, the Vatican said in a statement.
“We all feel like orphans tonight but our faith teaches us that those who believe in the Lord live in him,” Archbishop Renato Boccardo told a crowd estimated at St. Peter’s.
The news was immediately announced to around 60,000 gathered in St Peter's Square.
"Our Holy Father John Paul, 84, has returned to the house of the Father," Archbishop Leonardo Sandri told the crowds.
Bells and tears
The statement was met with a long applause, an Italian sign of respect. Bells tolled and many people wept openly. Others sang the “Ave Maria” and other hymns.
“My father died last year. For me, it feels the same,” said Elisabetta Pomacalca, a 25-year-old Peruvian who lives in Rome.
“It was a great privilege to pray the Pope through his last minutes. We didn’t know we were doing it but I will always remember tonight as one of the most special moments of my life,” said Sandra Leone, 46, from Rome.
When word of his death reached his hometown in Wadowice, Poland, at the end of a special Mass in the church where he worshipped as a boy, people fell to their knees and wept.
Church bells rang out after the announcement from the Vatican, but it took several minutes for people inside the packed church to find out as they continued their vigil into a second night. Then parish priest, the Rev. Jakub Gil, came to the front as the last hymn faded away, and said, “His life has come to an end."
World leaders reacted quickly to the loss.
"The world has lost a champion of peace and freedom" with the death of the pope, President Bush said in Washington.
A Mass was scheduled for St. Peter’s Square for 10:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. ET) Sunday. The Vatican said the pope's body would will lie in state for public viewing in St Peter’s Basilica beginning Monday afternoon at the earliest.
In announcing the death, Sandri said, "The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. 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."
No. 2 official leads prayers
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican No. 2 official, then led a tearful crowd of 70,000 people in St. Peter's Square in prayers for the dead pope.
The cause of death was not given but the pope’s health had deteriorated steadily over the past decade with the onset of Parkinson’s disease and arthritis, and earlier this year took a sharp turn for the worse.
He had an operation in February to ease serious breathing problems, but never regained his strength and last After word of the death spread, thousands of people from all over Rome, many with tears streaming down their faces, walked silently up the broad boulevard leading from the River Tiber to the Vatican.
