World pays tribute to a pope who reached out to world

Pope John Paul II's death brought to the fore one of his most heartfelt goals Sunday, connecting members of faiths around the globe as they mourned his passing and commemorated his unprecedented attempts at reconciliation with historically rival religions.

"We ... certainly feel sorrow for the passing away of the pope because he has dedicated himself all his life to humanitarian and peace efforts," said Hasyim Muzadi, a Muslim leader in the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesia.

"The pope ... bravely put an end to historic injustice by officially rejecting prejudices and accusations against Jews," said Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

"This man had no boundaries," says Robert Bailey, an American from Tampa, Fla., who had made the pilgrimage to St. Peter's Square in Rome to be there when the pope died Saturday night. "He included all people."

The pope's global appeal was evident Sunday in churches from Manila to Mexico City, as mourners crowded into Mass, many weeping as they prayed.

"We have been holding a vigil for the past two days," says one young woman outside a packed church in Manila. "People are ... chanting prayers constantly."

Korea's Myongdong Cathedral, atop a hill in central Seoul, reverberated Sunday to the prayers of more than 20,000.

"The pope showed special concern and affection for the Korean people," says Archbishop Andrew Choi, expressing "great grief" for the man who, on his first visit here in 1984, elevated to sainthood 103 Korean Catholics who were beheaded in the 19th century for refusing to give up their faith. "He had great concern about the unification of the Korean peninsula," says the Rev. Andrew Park.

"Viva el Papa," cried out a young girl before a towering bronze statue of the pontiff, near Mexico's most popular sanctuary, the Basilica of Guadalupe. "Viva," responded the crowd around her.

In Poland, birthplace of Karol Jozef Wojtyla, as he was known before being elected pope in 1978, lines of faithful stretched for blocks outside many churches, and priests gave communion on their steps, accommodating the overflow.

In Rome, some 200,000 people gathered for a Mass in St. Peter's Square. Video images of the pope smiling sent waves of applause rippling across the colonnaded piazza. Even the prisoners in Regina Coeli jail, a stone's throw from the Vatican, sang prayers to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence."

Amid all the adulation, however, there were some doubts about the stamp that John Paul II had left on his church, after 26 years of stern rule and orthodoxy.

"The biggest problem" facing the church today, says Stephen Pope, professor of theology at Boston College, "is polarization" between liberals, who have been disappointed in the pope, and conservatives who welcomed his stands against contraception, abortion, and married priests.

One such conservative, Mexican priest Angel Aboyotes, praying at the Basilica of Guadalupe, praised John Paul for having "battled against the new and sophisticated ideas that aim to weaken our faith."

Other Catholics were more dubious. Berlin taxi driver Thomas Dieckmann, says he doesn't "see the humanity in the church any more." In the end, he adds, the pope "was an archconservative stalwart who no longer fit the changing times."

John Paul died as he lived, in touch with the crowds, with more than 130,000 gathered beneath his window on Saturday evening, anxiously awaiting news.

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