An orange sun floated just above the western horizon, lighting
the face of St. Benedict Catholic Church, as the faithful gathered
within to memorialize their fallen father.
Hollister – An orange sun floated just above the western horizon, lighting the face of St. Benedict Catholic Church, as the faithful gathered within to memorialize their fallen father.
More than 800 people filled the house of worship in Hollister Monday evening, filling every pew and standing up against the back wall, to remember Pope John Paul II.
Father Rudy Ruiz, priest of Sacred Heart/St. Benedict, presided over the Mass, which was said in both English and Spanish.
“It is extraordinary that there would be a human being to accomplish so much in 26 years,” he said.
Ruiz, who became a priest around the same time that John Paul became pope, said that the pope was like family to him.
“He might have been the pope, but he was a priest. He could have been my grandfather, father or uncle,” he said. “What he experienced, I experienced to a lesser degree. So he was a role model.”
Outside of the church, the flags were at half-mast, fluttering in the cool April breeze. Inside, a large picture of the pontiff stood in front of the pulpit surrounded by red and white flowers with black cloth draped around its gold colored frame.
“It’s sad that he passed,” said parishioner John Brouns as he entered the sanctuary. “I liked him. He did a lot of good things, coming to other peoples’ doors instead of making them come to his.”
Ed DeGroot, who coordinated the music for Monday’s mass, said that he wanted the service to be upbeat and to, “Praise God for the life and ministry of the pope and celebrate his life.”
The music for the service included organ, piano and guitars, with songs in both English and Spanish. One of the songs was “Amigo,” a guitar song, which, according to DeGroot, is a melody that John Paul enjoyed when he heard it during a visit to Mexico City.
“He was a great man,” said Father Gavin, a priest from the St. Francis Retreat in San Juan Bautista. “For 25 years he taught us how to live, and then he taught us how to die.”
In Vatican City Monday Pope John Paul II’s body was carried solemnly on a crimson platform to St. Peter’s Basilica, past a sea of more than 100,000 pilgrims who waited for hours under a blistering sun for a glimpse of the late pontiff before his funeral and entombment.
Twelve white-gloved pallbearers flanked by Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets gingerly marched the body from the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, where it had lain in state for prelates and dignitaries, to the basilica for display to the public. Priests chanted the Litany of the Saints.
Incense wafted through the church where John Paul’s body will be laid to rest Friday in an ancient grotto holding the remains of popes through the ages, after a funeral to be attended under heavy security by President Bush and dozens of other world leaders. Up to 2 million pilgrims are expected in Rome to pay their final respects.
As cardinals in their red robes and caps filed past the body, bowing and crossing themselves, a long line of faithful, tourists and Romans who had packed St. Peter’s Square slowly snaked into the basilica.
Pilgrims gasped, dabbed away tears and snapped photographs as they circled John Paul’s body, clad in a scarlet velvet robe, his head crowned with a white bishop’s miter and a staff topped with a crucifix tucked under his left arm.
Hours before the body was moved to the basilica, the College of Cardinals – meeting in tradition-bound secrecy – set Friday as the date for the funeral in the first of a series of gatherings preceding their secret vote this month to elect a new pope.
It was not clear if they discussed other issues. Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said there were 65 cardinals attending, while the remaining cardinals were heading to Rome.
John Paul will be buried immediately after the funeral, which will include pageantry reserved for the highest prince of the church. The basilica was designed by Bramante and Michelangelo and dedicated in 1626. It was built on the site where St. Peter is believed to have been buried.
Navarro-Valls said John Paul would “almost surely” be buried in the tomb where Pope John XXIII lay before he was brought up onto the main floor of the basilica. John XXIII was moved after his 2000 beatification because so many pilgrims wanted to visit his tomb, and the grotto is in a cramped underground space.
Archbishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Vatican office for lay people and a former aide to top Vatican Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said not all the cardinal electors had arrived in time for Monday’s first session. Asked about the atmosphere among the cardinals, he said: “Sad, but hopeful.”
There had been speculation that the pope might have left orders to be buried in his native Poland, but Navarro-Valls said John Paul “did not show any such wish.”
Poles have hoped the heart of the pope – the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years – might be placed in Wavel Cathedral in Krakow, where Polish saints and royalty are buried. Asked if this was ruled out by burial in St. Peter’s, Navarro-Valls did not directly reply, saying he was merely transmitting information on decisions the cardinals made Monday.
Navarro-Valls made no mention of a date for the papal election, or conclave, implying that no such decision had been made. By church law, the conclave must take place within two weeks of the burial.
As they begin preparatory meetings, the cardinals are quietly sizing up one another for the task of electing the 265th successor to the first pope, St. Peter.
John Paul was 58 when the cardinals elected him in 1978. He appointed all but three of the 117 cardinals entitled to attend the secret conclave electing the new pope, but there is no guarantee that his legacy of conservatism will continue into the new reign.
John Paul opposed divorce, birth control and abortion, the ordination of women and the lifting of the celibacy requirement for priests, issues that sharply divided the church.
Luke Roney is a covers education and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected]
