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Pope John Paul ll
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Posted by: jojomataketa
Pope John Paul is one of the great men of our time
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pope John Paul signaled he is ready to die by choosing not to return to hospital, his former private secretary said on Friday. The 84-year-old Pope appeared close to death on Friday after heart failure and breathing problems although the Vatican said he was still conscious and in a stable but serious condition.
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Posted by: jojomataketa
http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer2/...047/NY120_a.jpg World leaders mourned Pope John Paul on Saturday, many hailing him as a force for peace across the globe while others credited him with a major role in the fall of the Iron Curtain.
"Our beloved Holy Father John Paul has returned to the house of the Father," said Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, announcing the death to a huge crowd that had gathered under the Pontiff's windows to pray for a miraculous recovery that never came.
A wave of applause rippled through St Peter's Square, in an Italian sign of respect for the dead, and then hush descended, with many of the faithful weeping uncontrollably.
The Pope died in his bed at 9:37 p.m (1437 EST), surrounded by the only family he had -- his closest Polish aides.
"We're grateful to God for sending such a man, a son of Poland, who became the bishop of Rome and a hero for the ages," President Bush said in a televised address from the White House.
Around 130,000 people packed into St Peter's Square within two hours of his death, necks craned up toward the lighted windows of the Pope's apartments where his once vigorous body lay.
"I can't believe that's it. I know God will provide a new Pope but we'll miss him so much," said Irishman Adrian McCracken, who apologized for crying.
LAST WORD
Some Italian newspapers reported that the Pope's last word before dying had been "Amen."
Death came as the pope was staring at his window which looked out over the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square, a Polish priest told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
According to the newspaper, Rev. Jarek Cielecki said the pope raised his right hand as if to offer a blessing to those reciting the rosary in the square.
"Once the faithfuls' prayer ended the pope made a huge effort and pronounced the word 'Amen'," he said. "An instant later he died."
From Brazil to the Philippines, South Africa to Germany, Roman Catholics prayed, wept and hugged each other in grief when news flashed across the globe of the death of the Pope, who led the Church for 26 years -- the third-longest pontificate.
Many countries decreed periods of national mourning, with his native Poland announcing six days of mourning and Communist Cuba three days. Italy also called for three days of mourning.
"The world has lost a religious leader who was revered across people of all faiths and none. He was an inspiration, a man of extraordinary faith, dignity and courage," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Pope was an untiring advocate of Christian unity and inter-religious dialogue. He was the first Pontiff to preach in a Protestant church and a synagogue and to set foot in a mosque. A decade after witnessing the fall of Communism, the Pope fulfilled another dream. He visited the Holy Land in March 2000, and, praying at Jerusalem's Western Wall, asked forgiveness for Catholic sins against Jews over the centuries.
"The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home," President Bush said at the White House with his wife Laura beside him.
"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 other views with him. He ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-mast as a mark of respect.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the Pope was a man of peace. "He ... (was) extremely concerned about the world we lived in, and like me, he also felt that in war, all are losers." said Annan.
Lech Walesa, who led Poland's Solidarity movement which won power after a decade of struggle and hastened the collapse of the whole Soviet bloc, said Polish-born John Paul inspired the drive to end communism in Eastern Europe.
"(Without him) there would be no end of communism or at least much later and the end would have been ******," Walesa said.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said the Pope was "humanitarian number one on the planet." Russian President Vladimir Putin said John Paul's "spiritual and political legacy have been deservedly valued by humanity."
"CHANGED OUR WORLD"
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose country was once divided by the Iron Curtain, said: "By his efforts and through his impressive personality, (the Pope) changed our world."
In the Pope's homeland, Poles wept and prayed in silence after his death, church bells tolled across the country and sirens wailed in the capital Warsaw.
"This is a terrible shock, I don't know what to say. He meant everything to us," said Maria Drapa, one of thousands who held a vigil in the Pope's home town of Wadowice.
In Madrid, several thousand people, mostly young, gathered in a square, holding candles, singing hymns and playing tambourines in front of pictures of the Pope. In Cologne, a heavily Catholic German city, hundreds packed its cathedral.
Israelis and Palestinians alike paid respects to the Pope, whose millennium pilgrimage of peace to the Holy Land stood in stark contrast to violence that has raged in the years since.
Bells tolled at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, after news of his death.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described John Paul as "a great religious figure who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom, justice and equality for all races and religions, as well as our people's right to independence."
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said: "No Pope did more for the Jews." On his Holy Land visit in March 2000, the Pope prayed at Jerusalem's Western Wall and asked forgiveness for Catholic sins against Jews after 2,000 years of Christian-Jewish hostility.
"There is a shattering difference between the Catholic church of 20 to 50 years ago to today," said Bobby Brown, the World Jewish Congress's Israel-based international director.
CUBAN BELLS RING OUT
Church bells rang out for the Pope in communist Cuba as authorities allowed Catholics to mourn a man they praised for standing up to neo-liberal capitalism. Cubans filled churches for services for the only pontiff to set foot on the island.
China, which does not allow its Catholics to recognize Vatican authority, had taken the unusual step of expressing concern over the Pope's health and hope for his recovery.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said the Islamic Republic had learned with "extreme sadness" of John Paul's death, saying he commanded "the three paths of religious learning, philosophical thought and poetical and artistic creativity."
Some people raised political controversies or struck discordant notes over the Pope's passing.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised the Pope's opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"We should ... remember he preached world peace. When the United States invaded Iraq, for example, John Paul II said it was an illegal and immoral act," said Chavez.
Jerzy Urban, a spokesman of Poland's past communist rulers, said: "I cannot say I will regret his passing. As a godless atheist I never cared much for the church or the papacy."
The Pope's staunch defense of Church orthodoxy upset others. "Historians will judge the Pope harshly. His opposition to the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV has condemned millions of people to die an agonizing, needless death," said Peter Tatchell, a British gay and human rights activist.
Posted by: candy
John Paul II left the Earth a better place for his passing through it.
Posted by: jojomataketa
A poignant reaction came from Istanbul, where Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot the Pope but failed to kill him in 1981, is serving a prison sentence. The Pope had forgiven Agca in jail and received his mother and brother Adnan at the Vatican. "(Agca) is extremely saddened and is in grief. He loved the Pope," said Adnan.
Posted by: jojomataketa
Calls for Sainthood As Pope Laid to Rest
By NIKO PRICE, Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY - With presidents and kings looking on, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square sang, applauded and chanted for the church to declare John Paul II a saint as the pope was laid to rest Friday in an unprecedented gathering of the mighty and the meek.
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John Paul, who spread his message of peace to all corners of the planet, was buried among his predecessors back to the apostle Peter while tens of millions followed the funeral rites in their homes, in overflowing churches and on giant television screens set up in fields, sports stadiums and town squares.
In St. Peter's Square, at the center of it all, the book of the Gospels lay on a simple cypress coffin, adorned with a cross and an "M" for the Virgin Mary. A brisk wind lifted the book's pages and rippled the red vestments of cardinals, along with the turbans, fezzes and yarmulkes worn by leaders of other faiths touched by the global pope.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a confidant of the pope and a possible successor, delivered a homily that traced John Paul's path from a factory worker in Nazi-occupied Poland to the leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics.
"Our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude," Ratzinger said. Usually unflappable, the German-born cardinal choked with emotion. "Santo! Santo!" the crowd responded, waving banners reading "Santo Subito" — "Immediate Sainthood."
"I'm here not only to pray for him, but also to pray to him, because I believe he's a saint," said Therese Ivers, 24, of Ventura, Calif., holding high an American flag in the middle of the crowd on the broad Via della Conciliazione, which stretches from St. Peter's Square to the Tiber River.
The dignitaries from 138 countries reflected the extraordinary mix of faiths and cultures that John Paul courted during his 26-year papacy: Orthodox bishops in long black robes, Jews in yarmulkes, Arabs in checkered head scarves, Central Asians in lambskin caps and Western political leaders in dark suits.
In a gesture the pope would certainly have applauded, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said he shook hands and chatted briefly with the leaders of his country's archenemies, Syria and Iran.
Bells tolled as the delegations took their places on red-cushioned wooden seats. President Bush accompanied by his predecessors Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, was the first American president to attend a papal funeral.
The 2 1/2-hour Mass began with the Vatican's Sistine Choir singing the Gregorian chant, "Grant Him Eternal Rest, O Lord."
Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, said John Paul was a "priest to the last" who offered his life for God and his flock, "especially amid the sufferings of his final months." He was interrupted by applause at least 10 times.
The Mass ended with cardinals, dignitaries and pilgrims standing and singing: "May the angels accompany you into heaven, may the martyrs welcome you when you arrive, and lead you to Holy Jerusalem."
Twelve white-gloved pallbearers carried the coffin back into St. Peter's Basilica, where it was nested inside a second casket of zinc and a third of walnut.
In a spontaneous gesture of respect, cardinals standing along the aisles removed their "zucchettos," or skull caps as the coffin went by, according to Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. "It was the last tribute to the Holy Father," he said.
In a grotto beneath the basilica, the casket was lowered into the ground in a plot inside a small chapel, between the tombs of two women: Queen Christina of Sweden and Queen Carlotta of Cyprus, said a senior Vatican official who attended the ceremony.
"Lord, grant him eternal rest, and may perpetual light shine upon him," said Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, who performed the private service.
The Vatican grottoes — cramped, narrow passageways below the existing basilica — hold the remains of popes of centuries past, including the tomb traditionally believed to hold those of the apostle Peter, the first pope. Royals and the Roman Emperor Otto II are also buried there.
Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican would announce in a few days when the grottoes would be reopened to the public. Keeping them closed was a way of clearing the city of the throngs of pilgrims.
A drizzle began to fall Friday afternoon as exhausted travelers with overstuffed backpacks trudged toward bus and train stations. Poles whose 24-hour trips to Rome had ended only hours earlier got back in their cars for the long drive home.
During the ceremony, at least 300,000 people who camped out overnight on chilly streets filled St. Peter's Square and spilled out onto the Via della Conciliazione. Millions more watched on giant video screens set up across Rome, from university campuses to the Circus Maximus, where ancient Romans held chariot races centuries before Christianity was born.
Funerals in the last century for Mohandas Gandhi of India, Mao Zedong of China and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran drew millions, too, but they lacked the presence of leaders from so many nations.
The Israeli president said his handshake with Syrian President Bashar Assad came at the point in the service when members of the congregation "exchange the peace." Britain's Prince Charles drew criticism from two European Union legislators for shaking hands at that same moment with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, whose government is reviled internationally.
Despite the crowd's size Friday, there were few disturbances, and strangers shared food, water and umbrellas for shade in an outpouring of kindness that honored John Paul's message. When pilgrims broke out into song, others joined the hymns in different languages.
"We are the generation of John Paul II," said Mara Poole, a 27-year-old housewife from St. Paul, Minn., tears streaming down her face.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles who came for the funeral waved their red-and-white national flag. Some carried banners with the logo of "Solidarity," the Polish labor movement the pope supported in his confrontations with communism.
"He was all people's father, especially for us, the Poles," said Dominika Bolechowska, 29, a teacher from the pope's favorite mountain town of Zakopane, who traveled 28 hours by bus and spent a night on the streets with her 2-year-old son.
Across Africa, Asia and the Americas, church bells tolled and millions of people gathered in open fields, sports stadiums, town squares and cathedrals to watch the funeral on large screens. Millions more mourned privately at home.
Live footage was beamed across the Middle East by the television station al-Jazeera, and Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs joined Roman Catholics in church services and prayers throughout Asia to honor the pope.
Rome itself, where an estimated 4 million pilgrims doubled the population, was at a standstill as extraordinary security measures went in place. Authorities banned vehicle traffic throughout the city and combat jets, anti-aircraft batteries and an AWACS surveillance plane enforced an order to close airspace.
Two hours after the funeral, two Italian F-16 fighter jets intercepted an executive plane heading to Rome that intelligence sources worried might be carrying a bomb, an Air Force spokesman said. No bomb was found. Authorities searched and cleared a second plane on the ground.
Naval ships patrolled both the Mediterranean coast and the Tiber near Vatican City, the tiny sovereign city-state encompassed by the Italian capital. Carabinieri armed with automatic rifles stood at virtually every major intersection, and snipers were posted on rooftops.
School was canceled in Rome, and government workers got the day off. Many stores were shuttered, with signs reading: "Closed for mourning in honor of His Sanctity John Paul II."
"The entire world is here," said Sister Claudira Ribeira Santos, a Brazilian nun. "John Paul managed to speak for all humanity in an era of wars and natural disasters, for peace and reconciliation. He tore down the walls of countries, of classes, of religions."
Posted by: jojomataketa
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY - An American Jew cured of a brain tumor after attending Mass with Pope John Paul II. A Mexican boy stricken with leukemia who recovered after a papal kiss. Even a cardinal who regained his ability to speak after John Paul touched his throat.
Italian newspapers have been rife with reports of alleged miracles attributed to Pope John Paul II, fueling speculation he may soon be put on the path to sainthood.
Vatican rules, though, are clear: For a miracle to be considered in the saint-making process, it has to have occurred after John Paul's death. So far, all the reports stem from inexplicable cures that occurred while John Paul was very much alive.
But that hasn't stopped the frenzy surrounding popular calls for John Paul to be put on the fast-track to sainthood, spurred by the spontaneous chants of "Santo, Santo" that erupted during his funeral Friday.
Archbishop Edward Nowak, secretary in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, added to the speculation Monday after he was quoted as saying a decision on starting the saint-making process could come as early as October, when bishops from around the world meet in Rome.
Nowak, like John Paul a Pole, stressed that historians and theologians would still have to gather all the necessary documentation to start a case for beatifying John Paul, the first step in the process.
But he said such work, which usually takes years if not centuries, could be completed in a mere six months.
As for miracles, Nowak concurred all the letters the Vatican had received so far of supposed miraculous cures wouldn't count toward John Paul's saintliness.
"But since you only need one for beatification and one for canonization, if there are so many of these 'signs' that you hear about, it shouldn't be difficult to have new ones," he told the newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Some of the old "miracles" have been given prominent play in Italian newspapers, including the case of an unidentified American Jewish millionaire afflicted with a brain tumor who attended Mass with John Paul in 1998 at the pontiff's summer retreat in Castelgandolfo, outside Rome.
Marco Tosatti, correspondent for the Turin daily La Stampa, said the case had been described to him in 2002 by John Paul's longtime private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.
La Stampa said some weeks after the audience, Dziwisz was told "that the tumor had completely disappeared in the span of a few hours."
Another case is that of Jose Heron Badillo, who was 4 when John Paul visited his hometown of Zacatecas, Mexico in 1990. The boy, who suffered from leukemia, was selected to hold a dove as part of the airport ceremonies to welcome John Paul.
"The pope told him, let the dove fly! Then (the pope) hugged him and kissed him on his forehead," recalled Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan in an interview published by Corriere della Sera over the weekend.
The cardinal, who headed the Vatican office on health care issues under John Paul, said there was no medical explanation for the boy's subsequent recovery. "They only gave him days to live," he told the newspaper.
The diocese of Zacatecas has gathered documentation on the case and will send it to the Vatican if a beatification process is started, the newspaper said.
Another inexplicable cure was announced over the weekend by Cardinal Francesco Marchisano during his homily at a Mass of mourning for John Paul. Marchisano told the faithful he had lost the ability to speak after undergoing throat surgery.
"The pope touched the part of the throat where I was operated on, saying that he would pray to the Lord for me," he told the faithful. "After some time, I was able to speak regularly."
He didn't claim to have been miraculously cured, but Italian newspapers are including it as evidence of the many cases of inexplicable cures attributed to the pope.
Vatican procedures in place for some 500 years require one miracle for someone to be beatified and a second to be canonized. There has been speculation that a new pope might do away with those procedures and simply declare John Paul a saint based on popular acclaim.
Posted by: 2pac
pope now is in the better place