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| May 2005 |
Pope John Paul II dies after long
struggle with illness
Karol Wojtyla
May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 |
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John Thavis
Catholic News Service
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John Paul II
died April 2 after a long struggle with illness, ending a historic
papacy of more than 26 years.
The pope died two days after suffering septic shock and heart
failure brought on by a urinary tract infection.
Conscious and alert the day before his death, the pope was able
to concelebrate Mass in his papal apartment, the Vatican said.
He began slipping in and out of consciousness the morning of
April 2, and died that night, it said.
The announcement of the pope’s death came to the public,
shortly after the conclusion of a candlelight prayer vigil for
the pope in St. Peter’s Square.
“Dear brothers and sisters, at 9:37 this evening our most
beloved Holy Father John Paul II returned to the house of the
Father. Let us pray for him,” Archbishop Leonardo Sandri,
a top official of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State,
told the crowd of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square,
praying for the pope.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls later said, “The
Holy Father’s final hours were marked by the uninterrupted
prayer of all those who were assisting him in his pious death
and by the choral participation in prayer of the thousands of
faithful who, for many hours, had been gathered in St. Peter’s
Square.”
About 90 minutes before the pope died, Navarro-Valls said, the
cardinals and priests at the pope’s bedside began celebrating
the Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday. During the course of the Mass,
he said, the pope received Communion and the anointing of the
sick.
Vatican Radio interrupted regular programming, and the radio’s
program director, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, celebrated
Mass in Latin.
The Italian Parliament lowered its flag to half-staff after
the pope’s death was announced.
Pope John Paul’s body was brought first to the Apostolic
Palace for viewing by Church officials, Italian officials and
the diplomatic corps and then to St. Peter’s Basilica
for public viewing and prayer.
The late pontiff drew millions to Rome to pay their respects
and to say goodbye during the days of public viewing, prayer
and then the funeral Mass for the pope.
The 84-year-old Polish pontiff had been hospitalized twice in
recent weeks for spasms of the larynx, and in late February
he underwent a tracheotomy to make breathing less difficult.
On the evening of March 31, the pope received the “holy
viaticum,” a reference to the Eucharist given when a person
is approaching death, the Vatican said. It was the pope himself
who decided to be treated at the Vatican instead of being taken
to the hospital, said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
For more than a decade, the pope suffered from a neurological
disorder believed to be Parkinson’s disease. As the pope’s
health failed in recent months, many of his close aides said
his physical decline, never hidden from public view, offered
a remarkable Christian witness of suffering.
The pope’s death ends a history-making pontificate of
more than 26 years, one that dramatically changed the church
and left its mark on the world. Many observers consider Pope
John Paul an unparalleled protagonist in the political and spiritual
events that shaped the modern age, from the end of the Cold
War to the start of the third millennium.
Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese
of Sioux Falls reacted to the death of Pope John Paul II the
way many other did. “My heart is filled with both sadness
and gratitude in hearing the news of the death of our beloved
Pope John Paul II,” he said. “I, together with the
priests, the religious, and the faithful of the Diocese of Sioux
Falls, are sad in the loss of so great a witness to the world
and the Church of the message of Jesus Christ.”
The bishop praised John Paul for his “faithful example
of what it means to be a good shepherd and loving father of
his flock.”
Bishop Aquila also commented on how the late pope handled his
ailments as he got older. “Even in infirmity he continued
to boldly lead the Church and her faithful across the threshold
of a new millennium, giving hope to the world and Church by
his faithful witness to Jesus Christ,” Bishop Aquila said.
A youthful 58 when elected in 1978, the pope experienced health
problems early. He was shot and almost killed in 1981 and spent
several months in the hospital being treated for abdominal wounds
and a blood infection. In later years, he suffered a dislocated
shoulder, a broken thigh bone, arthritis of the knee and an
appendectomy. He stopped walking in public in 2003 and stopped
celebrating public liturgies in 2004.
In recent years, the pope spoke with increasing frequency about
his age, his failing health and death. He was determined to
stay at the helm of the church, but also said he was prepared
to be called to the next life.
“It is wonderful to be able to give oneself to the very
end for the sake of the kingdom of God. At the same time, I
find great peace in thinking of the time when the Lord will
call me: from life to life,” he said in a 1999 letter
written to the world’s elderly.
The pope continued: “And so I often find myself saying,
with no trace of melancholy, a prayer recited by priests after
the celebration of the Eucharist: ‘In hora mortis meae
voca me, et iube me venire ad te’ (at the hour of my death,
call me and bid me come to you). This is the prayer of Christian
hope,” he said.
Contributing to this story were Cindy Wooden and Eleni Dimmler
in Rome, and Jonathan Luxmoore in Poland. |
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