Farewelling Pope John Paul II – a personal reflection from Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President, Archbishop Francis Carroll, in Rome

It was truly a privilege and a deeply moving experience to be present for the Funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II.

My mind went back to the death and burial of Pope John XXIII when I was also in Rome. John XXIII led the Church for only a few years but was much loved and admired for his visionary courage in calling the Second Vatican Council. John Paul II was one of the longest serving Popes in history. He too was much loved and admired for his universal vision and the courage he showed throughout his extraordinary life and especially in his long and debilitating illness and preparation for death.

During the days the Holy Father’s body lay in state in St Peter’s Basilica, enormous crowds filed steadily past to pay their final respects. Many waited up to seven hours in lines about ten persons wide that wound back for several kilometres. The Pope’s face was rather drawn and one could see the pain-lines of his latter day suffering.

On the morning of the funeral, Rome was overflowing with millions of pilgrims and yet the streets away from the Vatican area were those of a deserted city, with everything closed down for the day. I took my place amongst about a thousand Bishops quite close to the altar – only the Cardinals actually concelebrated the Mass.

Cardinal Ratzinger was the chief celebrant and preached the homily. He spoke simply and beautifully of the late Holy Father. The crowd that filled St Peter’s Square and surrounding streets broke into a reverent applause a number of times especially when he referred to the Pope’s wonderful relationship with young people. Flags of many countries were held high but of course the Polish flag flew most numerously and proudly. Signs of Subito Santo reinforced a call for the Holy Father’s immediate canonization.

The Mass was mainly in Latin but many languages interspersed the prayers. At the final obsequies the Greek chant joined the Latin in expressing the prayers of East and West.

The Pope’s coffin was made of simple cypress. At the end of the Mass, the coffin bearers carried the Holy Father’s mortal remains into the crypt where he was laid to rest. At this point, the cypress coffin was placed in a second casket of zinc and within a third, of wood.

The deep and widespread grief that was apparent in the final days of the Holy Father and the days preparing for his burial was somehow softened now by a sense of relief that his sufferings had now ended. The magnificent celebration of faith in the final Mass sounded loud and clear the victory of Jesus Christ over death for the one who had served him so long and so faithfully. As Cardinal Ratzinger said so well in his homily in reference to the Gospel of St John, Christ now spoke to John Paul II as he spoke to Peter – "Follow Me".

+ Francis P. Carroll