'We miss him already'
2005-04-01 20:59
Vatican City - In sombre mood, many mouthing silent prayers, thousands of people gazed up on Friday at Pope John Paul II's closed windows in the Vatican as senior clergy prepared Roman Catholics for his death.
Across Rome, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joined a packed special mass to pray for the gravely ill 84-year-old pontiff even as Vatican officials announced that his condition was deteriorating further.
Many appeared resigned to the inevitable.
"Whether he's dead or alive it doesn't matter, it is only a physical death, he remains among us spiritually," said Sophie Mbarila, a 32-year-old nun.
"We miss him already."
As well as Berlusconi, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and a clutch of top ministers also attended the ceremony, which was being shown on special screens erected both inside and outside the building to cater for the crowds.
"I wish and pray for the pope to suffer as little as possible. This is the end of the road and that's it," said another worshipper, 65-year-old Antonio Mandozi.
In Milan, more than 5 000 people attended a special mass celebrated by Dionigi Tettamanzi, one of the cardinals thought most likely to be the next pope.
"Our hearts full of silence open up to prayer" for John Paul II, Tettamanzi said, adding that the congregation in Milan felt spiritually close to pilgrims on St Peter's Square.
The square in the heart of the Vatican, which is overlooked by the pope's third-floor windows, has become a place of prayer and vigil.
Senior Vatican cardinals urged the world's 1.1 billion Catholics to pray for the pope, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease and has struggled to recover from a throat operation on February 24 following a bout of the flu.
In an update on his condition late Friday, a Vatican spokesman said that his general conditions "have further worsened," his breathing had become shallow and his blood pressure had deteriorated.
But in an indication of how the pope's appeal crosses boundaries, Iman, a Muslim woman aged 28, kept her eyes on the pope's apartment, saying he "gave the world a message of peace, love and reconciliation.
"We need more people like him."
Another pilgrim, Luisa, said she had come to the square because she had also been there when John Paul II's election was announced in October 1978.
"They cheered because he was the bishop of Krakow, because he was 58 and had shoulders like that," she recalled.
She felt Friday was also a "historic moment," adding: "This is part of my life too."
Meanwhile Italian political life has come virtually to a standstill as its leaders prepare for the worst, with Berlusconi cancelling all engagements.
All political parties also cancelled their final rallies for key regional elections scheduled for Sunday and Monday as a mark of respect.
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Italy was "deeply disturbed" by the pope's condition but that Sunday's election would go ahead peacefully.