Thousands honour John Paul II

2006-04-02 22:23

Vatican City - Tens of thousands of people from around the world flocked to a candlelight service at the Vatican on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul and pray that he be made a saint soon.

They came from the late Pope's native Poland, from the United States, Asia and Italy to pray the rosary and listen to Pope Benedict deliver an address after a moment of silence at 21:37 (19:37 GMT), the moment that he died a year ago.

A sea of Polish flags filled the square as dusk settled and the some of the late Pope's countrymen held up a huge banner from his home town of Wadowice in southern Poland.

Dozens of banners bore the name of Solidarnosc (Solidarity), the free trade union that John Paul supported in the 1980s and whose rise led to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

Young people read excerpts from the late Pope's writings, including some of his poetry, and listened to spiritual songs as they exchanged personal memories of the late pontiff.

Nuns in black habits and Franciscan monks in brown robes joined young people in jeans.

During the day many of them had waited together for hours to visit John Paul's tomb in St Peter's Basilica.

"I think he was a holy pope and I think the process for sainthood should be speeded up," said Giuseppe Decore, an Italian lawyer.

'Make him a saint now'

Many said they would be praying that the late pope could be made a saint soon.

Several in the evening crowd held up a banner reading "Santo Subito" ("Make him a saint now"), a repeat of banners held aloft at his funeral a year ago.

Last May, Pope Benedict put his predecessor on the fast track to sainthood by dispensing with church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate's death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can even start.

Church officials are investigating the healing of a French nun whose symptoms of Parkinson's disease disappeared after she prayed to the pope.

This may be the miracle the church would need to beatify the pope, the last step before sainthood.

Speaking hours earlier at his noon address, Benedict recalled how his predecessor had "left a deep mark on the history of the church and of humanity".

"John Paul died as he lived, moved by an indomitable courage of faith," Benedict told pilgrims.

Benedict, who will say a memorial mass on Monday afternoon, recalled how much the Pope suffered without complaint and that John Paul died in the same apartment from where he was speaking.

- Reuters