Posted on: Saturday, April 9, 2005

Faithful head home with eyes on future

By Maria Sanminiatelli
Associated Press

ROME — The world's Catholics looked to the College of Cardinals to begin the difficult task of choosing a worthy successor to John Paul II, while hundreds of thousands of weary pilgrims who flooded Rome for the pontiff's funeral began their journeys home today.

Police late yesterday cleared out St. Peter's Square and blocked it with metal barricades, breaking up groups of Poles who stood in a circle in the drizzle, praying under their umbrellas.

"We hope that the new pope will continue the work that John Paul set up," said Monica Barthicka, 23, a student from Warsaw.

Mateusz Rozycki, 25, an accountant also from John Paul's homeland, drove to Rome in 20 hours for the elaborate funeral, one of the largest the world has ever witnessed.

"People in Poland, and maybe elsewhere, changed a little bit because of him. If some of those thoughts remain in our hearts for a little while, I will be satisfied," Rozycki said.

Pilgrims began a massive exodus, carrying backpacks, folded flags and rolled-up sleeping bags and headed for train stations or parking lots on the outskirts of the city. Rome officials estimated that most would be gone by the end of today.

Police say some 4 million pilgrims traveled to Rome during the week to pay tribute to the pope. The turnout was comparable to the vast crowds that gathered to mourn Mohandas Gandhi of India, Mao Zedong of China and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran.

John Paul's funeral was also one of the most prestigious, drawing presidents, kings and religious leaders from all corners of the globe, including President Bush and his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

Italy's Minister of the Interior, Giuseppe Pisanu, said 1.4 million people managed to file past the pope's body during the four days he lay in state, after waiting in line for an average 13 hours. The numbers reported by Pisanu on a television talk show yesterday were the most authoritative yet.

Pisanu said 21,000 people an hour passed through the bronze doors of St. Peter's Basilica to see the pope's remains, or 350 per minute. They were politely hustled through by black-suited ushers. At one point, the line outside the church was three miles long, with people waiting as long as 24 hours before they reached the pope's bier.

Yesterday, 250,000 people filled St. Peter's Square for the funeral, Pisanu said. Others watched on 24 giant video screens set up around Rome, from university campuses to the Circus Maximus where ancient Romans held chariot races centuries before Christianity's emergence.

John Paul was laid to rest in the Vatican grottoes, the cramped, narrow passageways below the existing basilica and above the one built by the emperor Constantine. The grottoes hold the remains of popes of centuries past, including the tomb traditionally believed to be that of the apostle Peter, the first pope.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican would announce in a few days when the grottoes would reopen to the public. Keeping them closed was clearly a way of clearing the city of the huge throngs of pilgrims.

Exchanges of peace

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 giant screens. Millions more mourned privately at home.

Live footage was beamed across the Middle East by the pan-Arab television station al-Jazeera, and Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs joined Roman Catholics in church services and prayers throughout Asia to honor a pope who reached out to other faiths.

In a gesture the pope would have applauded, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said he shook hands and chatted briefly with the leaders of his country's archenemies, Syria and Iran. 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."

The fervor among those in the funeral crowd was evident. Many were veterans of the arduous line to view John Paul's body inside the basilica, where it had been on display since Monday afternoon. Banners praised John Paul as "Our angel." Church groups waved colorful handkerchiefs, and many were clustered under their national flags.

When the outdoor rites were over, Elena Sardu blew kisses toward the basilica's big bronze doors as the coffin was hauled inside. "I feel an emptiness, an uncertainty," she said.

Sardu and her family had waited in line from about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday to pass by the pope's body. Her husband came close to taking their three children home. But "they all said they wanted to stay and see him," Sardu said.

Sardu, 33, said she, her husband and their children, Mattia, 12, and twins Martina and Vanessa, 7, had been blessed — touched on the head — by the pope seven years ago when he visited their neighborhood church in Rome.

"It was so emotional, indescribable," she said. "He touched my heart. I don't see how anyone can take his place."

Mixed views of legacy

The enormous number of mourners emphasized a challenge for the next pope: how to match John Paul's appeal and visibility. He reigned over the world's Roman Catholics, now numbering 1.1 billion, for 26 years. He traveled to 129 countries outside Italy and spent about one of every 10 days of his papacy on the road. He helped to inspire peaceful revolts against Soviet domination in Eastern Europe; gratitude was evidenced by the numerous red-and-white flags from his homeland, Poland, that flapped in the square. He also chastised the West with pronouncements against abortion and contraception, materialism and consumerism, homosexuality and war.

He made unprecedented strides in opening contacts with other Christian denominations, Jews and Muslims. He made the first papal visit to a mosque — during a visit to Syria in 2001 — and sought forgiveness for Jewish suffering at the hands of Catholics.

His efforts were evident at his funeral, attended by dignitaries from 138 countries. Their diversity 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 headscarves, Central Asians in lambskin caps and Western political leaders in dark suits.

This week, commentators here and abroad praised John Paul's efforts. Yet the church and its leaders face many serious problems that deepened during his years in office.

In recent months, Vatican officials have lamented that Europe had grown ever more secular, that finding recruits for the priesthood had become increasingly difficult, that the faithful in Latin America were drifting toward Protestant churches and that the voice of the church had not been heeded on matters of war and peace.

The College of Cardinals begins its conclave on April 18 to elect a successor, a papal election with new rules and new technologies. The number of cardinal electors under age 80 and therefore eligible to vote is 117, but one is too ill to attend.

Their challenge will be to find a successor who can measure up to John Paul, whose popularity was undimmed by his conservatism.

Eternal rest

Many in the throng were young — the kind of crowd John Paul liked to attract. They had mixed views of his legacy.

At the Circus Maximus, Bret Federigan, 28, a high school teacher from McLean, Va., offered a somewhat critical view.

"I went to a Catholic school. I love the pope as a figure and a world leader," he said. "The

pope is important for what he's done for the 20th century. But he is too conservative for the good of people — for example, contraception and AIDS. His position runs against popular sentiment."

Tanja Sladic, 25, arrived from Zagreb on one of 10 buses chartered by a Croatian newspaper. She said she was "only moderately religious" but had been enamored of John Paul ever since she learned that he had forgiven the man who shot him in 1981.

After the Mass, the pope's coffin was lowered into the ground in a plot inside a small chapel, between the tombs of Queen Christina of Sweden, and Queen Carlotta of Cyprus.

Vatican officials said Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the church's camerlengo, or temporary caretaker, performed the closed service and concluded it with the same words that opened the funeral: "Lord, grant him eternal rest, and may perpetual light shine upon him."

The Washington Post contributed to this story.