A Hushed Rome Waits

Murmured prayers and wisps of incense for a dying pope have hushed this ancient, clattering city.

Workers, robed friars, nuns in crisp habits, pensioners and seminarians with new haircuts gathered in churches and squares in recent days, lighting candles, dropping coins into votive boxes and hoping that John Paul II would once again summon his dogged strength.

“John Paul brought us together through his suffering, and he has shown us that humility is his most solid virtue,” said Italo Cioffarelli, attending a special Mass offered for the pope Friday night in St. John Lateran Basilica. “It’s not so hard to see him age. We have aged with him. He suffers like all of us suffer.”

Many were drawn to the pope’s ordeal, from the scruffy to the polished, from the young weaving on Vespas to white-haired pensioners like Cioffarelli who too often feel the sting of their own mortality.

Tens of thousands of people filled St. Peter’s Square after the Mass. They looked toward the lighted window in the pope’s apartment, where for more than two decades he has appeared for his Sunday blessings. They held candles, knelt on cobblestones and huddled in each other’s arms during a rosary service led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini and flecked by the red-and-white tunics of altar boys.

Not all was somber. Some young people in the crowd chanted “John Paul II, we love you,” a refrain heard over the years at many of the pope’s gatherings with teenagers.

“It’s not just affection,” said Father Geronimo Gutierrez, a pastor at the Sacred Heart Church in San Jose, Calif., who stood in the square. “It’s great love.... He touched a lot of people everywhere.”

From the early Christians through the Renaissance, Rome was a city made to glorify God. But in many ways, it is no more devout than any other. Through the centuries, Italians have approached the Vatican, especially its secret inner workings, with more than a sliver of skepticism. But John Paul’s tracheostomy Feb. 24 and his worsening state Friday forced introspection on one man’s religious tenacity.

“His faith is greater than his suffering,” said Maria Letizia Farallo, stepping into a brisk night after Mass. “He represented people for the world. He spoke many languages, and this helped him unify. He communicated from the heart. I remember when he was elected pope all those years ago. He gave his first speech in Italian from his balcony. He made some pronunciation mistakes, but he said he was ready to be corrected. That is very human.”

Such stories were recounted on street corners and radio shows. The pope was remembered as a skier; a man who battled communism; a telegenic global statesman; a vicar who, nearing the end of his life, tried to speak but could barely wheeze. Many disagreed with the pope’s religious conservatism and his stands on women’s rights and abortion. But church teachings seemed not to diminish personal qualities of a man who had survived an assassin’s bullet.

“This pope, more than any of his predecessors, made a fundamental contribution to the improvement of relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism,” Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, head of Rome’s Jewish community, said while paying his respects in the square.

The spectacle of history in the making drew others to the vigil. “I can’t cry -- I cry for family members,” said George Tiller, 18, a high school student on a class trip from Shreveport, La. “I’d kick myself if I wasn’t here.”

One of the group’s chaperons, Betsy Yates, said the vigil in the square reminded her of her senior year in high school, when President Kennedy was shot and people sought refuge in one another as the world seemed to suddenly change.

“He’s the pope who opened the Vatican to the world,” she said.

Cardinal Ruini portrayed the pope’s illnesses as a testament to the power of the spirit over adversity. In his sermon at St. John Lateran, Ruini said the pope’s faith “is so great and complete, an experience of God so intensely lived, that in these hours of suffering, as throughout his tireless mission, he can already touch and see the Lord.”

The cardinal added that John Paul “is facing the most difficult test of his long and extraordinary life, and he is living it with the same serenity and complete faith in God with which he has always lived, worked, suffered and rejoiced.”

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other members of the Italian government sat near the altar during the Mass. A silver-plated Bible was carried through the incense, and cardinals and bishops, in vestments of eggshell and gold, led a congregation of hundreds in prayer amid towering statues of saints. Children were pushed in strollers; the old leaned on canes.

The Gospel of John was read. It recounted Jesus’ appearance to apostles on a lake after his resurrection. The apostles had cast their nets for hours and caught nothing. Jesus told them to go out on the water again. It was a story about faith. Some in the basilica listened; others lighted candles on side altars and prayed in silence.

“This is the best pope we’ve had in Rome,” said Francesca Coppola. “We won’t have a better one.” She spoke of the pope’s travels, his trip to Jerusalem. Then she excused herself and slipped into the line for Communion.

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Times staff writer Janet Stobart and special correspondent Candice Hughes contributed to this report.