LetsTravelRome

Tens of thousands honor John Paul II at Vatican

VATICAN CITY

Tens of thousands of pilgrims flooded St. Peter's square to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II, who died a year ago Sunday after a long and publicly fought battle with a series of illnesses.

Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul's longtime aide, said his predecessor had left an "immense" legacy to the church and to the world.

"John Paul died as he lived, moved by an indomitable courage of faith," said Benedict, who went on to describe the dignity with which John Paul II confronted his suffering in the last years of his life.

"In the final years, God gradually stripped him of everything so as to assimilate him fully. And when he could no longer travel and then not even walk and finally not even talk, his gesture was reduced to the essential: a gift of himself to the last instant."

The Italian authorities had enacted various security measures in anticipation of an expected 150,000 visitors. Early Sunday morning, only patches of pilgrims were present on St. Peter's Square. But by the time Benedict delivered his noon address the square was crowded.

"He is a hero for me as a human being, not only as a pope," said Anita Szremska, 43, who arrived in Rome on Wednesday after a 26-hour bus ride from Poland. "He showed us how to live, how to think and how to look at people. He was a good man."

A line of visitors waiting to pay their respects at John Paul's tomb - in a grotto under St. Peter's Basilica - coiled through the square. The president of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, was one of the first to visit the tomb early Sunday morning. By mid-morning it took approximately two hours to get a brief glimpse of the burial place.

Remembrance in hometown

Thousands of believers flocked to John Paul's hometown of Wadowice in southern Poland on Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

The main square was decorated for the occasion with yellow and white papal banners, along with national and local flags. A large picture of John Paul also hung from St. Mary's Basilica, where the future pope was baptized as Karol Wojtyla in 1920.

An open-air Mass in the town at noon drew an estimated 8,000 people in the town of 37,000.

President Lech Kaczynski laid flowers and prayed at the basilica, telling reporters that John Paul II's pontificate had "an influence on my life, moral values and on the evolution of my views."

VATICAN CITY Tens of thousands of pilgrims flooded St. Peter's square to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II, who died a year ago Sunday after a long and publicly fought battle with a series of illnesses.

Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul's longtime aide, said his predecessor had left an "immense" legacy to the church and to the world.

"John Paul died as he lived, moved by an indomitable courage of faith," said Benedict, who went on to describe the dignity with which John Paul II confronted his suffering in the last years of his life.

"In the final years, God gradually stripped him of everything so as to assimilate him fully. And when he could no longer travel and then not even walk and finally not even talk, his gesture was reduced to the essential: a gift of himself to the last instant."

The Italian authorities had enacted various security measures in anticipation of an expected 150,000 visitors. Early Sunday morning, only patches of pilgrims were present on St. Peter's Square. But by the time Benedict delivered his noon address the square was crowded.

"He is a hero for me as a human being, not only as a pope," said Anita Szremska, 43, who arrived in Rome on Wednesday after a 26-hour bus ride from Poland. "He showed us how to live, how to think and how to look at people. He was a good man."

A line of visitors waiting to pay their respects at John Paul's tomb - in a grotto under St. Peter's Basilica - coiled through the square. The president of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, was one of the first to visit the tomb early Sunday morning. By mid-morning it took approximately two hours to get a brief glimpse of the burial place.

Remembrance in hometown

Thousands of believers flocked to John Paul's hometown of Wadowice in southern Poland on Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

The main square was decorated for the occasion with yellow and white papal banners, along with national and local flags. A large picture of John Paul also hung from St. Mary's Basilica, where the future pope was baptized as Karol Wojtyla in 1920.

An open-air Mass in the town at noon drew an estimated 8,000 people in the town of 37,000.

President Lech Kaczynski laid flowers and prayed at the basilica, telling reporters that John Paul II's pontificate had "an influence on my life, moral values and on the evolution of my views."

For more infor mation on The Vatican in Rome, go to

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posted by Les Sheppard @ 8:01 AM