Tens of Thousands Join Pope : Faithful Fill St. Peter’s for Easter Observance

Bathed in the flickering light of thousands of small candles, Roman Catholics filled cavernous St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday as Pope John Paul II began the joyous celebration of Easter.

Tens of thousands of people sat and stood in the pews and aisles to join the pontiff, who led the two-hour Easter vigil ceremony followed by a midnight Mass celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

John Paul wore glittering gold and white vestments as he walked behind the traditional Lumen Christi (Light of Christ) procession of cardinals and bishops down the central aisle of the darkened basilica.

Pauses Three Times

The procession halted three times as it moved toward the canopied main altar of the world’s largest church to signify what Christians believe were the three days between Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection.

At the first stop, aides lit a large white candle that John Paul carried down the aisle. At the second stop, priests and nuns lit the smaller candles that they carried, and at the third, the basilica blazed with the light from hundreds of electric lights and thousands of candles carried by ordinary pilgrims.

The Pope, speaking in Latin, said the ceremony symbolized “the light of Christ, which disperses the shadow of the heart and the spirit.”

At the altar, John Paul baptized and confirmed 36 people from nations around the world, including the Soviet Union, Japan, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Hungary, Ecuador, Cape Verde, France, Yugoslavia, Britain, Singapore, Portugal, Italy, West Germany, Switzerland, Syria and the United States.

The Easter vigil ceremony leads the world’s 800 million Roman Catholics out of the 40-day penitential season of Lent into Easter.

Early Celebration

In most Christian churches, the Easter vigil starts near midnight. But in St. Peter’s, it begins earlier to enable the pontiff to get a good night’s sleep before his strenuous Easter Sunday celebrations, which include a morning Mass and his traditional Urbi et Orbi (City and World) message from the central balcony of the basilica.

The Mass today ends a week of Vatican activities surrounding Easter. Italian newspapers and television said hotel owners and tour operators were reporting full capacity in Rome during the events.

In Poland, the Easter celebration reflected political tension in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

Huge crowds at the church of St. Stanislaw Kostka viewed an image of Christ draped in the Polish national colors and a black mourning cloth--to symbolize the killing of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who supported the outlawed Solidarity union, by secret police agents in 1984.