Of ends and begginings
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The poor and powerful joined in a final farewell to Pope John Paul Friday at a momentous Vatican funeral watched by hundreds of millions of people across the world he had traveled.
Flags and banners, many from the Pope's native Poland, bobbed in the ocean of humanity that stretched from St. Peter's Square for as far as the eye could see.
"Santo subito" (Make him a saint immediately), pilgrims chanted in Italian, holding up the open-air funeral Mass several times in an outpouring of emotion for a giant of the 20th century.
"We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told hundreds of thousands of people packed into the windswept square.
The funeral even brought a hint of the reconciliation between nations that John Paul championed.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav said he shook hands with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a country formally at war with Israel, and spoke to President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, which is also deeply hostile to the Jewish state.
Earlier, Khatami told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview: "Maybe today will make us hope of a future of peace, not of conflict and hatred."
With the funeral over, the Roman Catholic Church embarks on a new era. On April 18 cardinals will enter a conclave entrusted with the daunting task of electing John Paul's successor.
The new man will have to lead the world's 1.1 billion Catholics in an era marked by tension between religions, between science and ethics, between doctrine and social pressure to change and open up to contraception, women, married priests.
"This Pope has had a problem, and it will be the problem of the future, to have unity in diversity," said Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, seen by some as a possible pope candidate.
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Ora pro nobis, et dona nobis pacem
Flags and banners, many from the Pope's native Poland, bobbed in the ocean of humanity that stretched from St. Peter's Square for as far as the eye could see.
"Santo subito" (Make him a saint immediately), pilgrims chanted in Italian, holding up the open-air funeral Mass several times in an outpouring of emotion for a giant of the 20th century.
"We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told hundreds of thousands of people packed into the windswept square.
The funeral even brought a hint of the reconciliation between nations that John Paul championed.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav said he shook hands with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a country formally at war with Israel, and spoke to President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, which is also deeply hostile to the Jewish state.
Earlier, Khatami told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview: "Maybe today will make us hope of a future of peace, not of conflict and hatred."
With the funeral over, the Roman Catholic Church embarks on a new era. On April 18 cardinals will enter a conclave entrusted with the daunting task of electing John Paul's successor.
The new man will have to lead the world's 1.1 billion Catholics in an era marked by tension between religions, between science and ethics, between doctrine and social pressure to change and open up to contraception, women, married priests.
"This Pope has had a problem, and it will be the problem of the future, to have unity in diversity," said Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, seen by some as a possible pope candidate.
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Ora pro nobis, et dona nobis pacem
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