VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope John Paul II was a “rock of faith”, communicating the Gospel even when he could no longer speak and suffering racked his body, Pope Benedict XVI said, celebrating a memorial Mass for the late pontiff.
Just as he did a year earlier when he lay dying, Pope John Paul drew tens of thousands of people – mainly young people – to St Peter’s Square to mark the first anniversary of his death with an April 2 night vigil and an April 3 evening Mass.
Addressing about 30,000 people – including Italian actress Sofia Loren – gathered in St Peter’s Square for the Mass, Pope Benedict said his predecessor had a “convinced, strong and authentic faith, free of fear and compromise, which touched the hearts of many people”, particularly at the moment of “his agony and his death”.
On the actual anniversary of his death, on April 2, about 80,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square to recite the Rosary, sing hymns and remember the vigil kept by thousands of people as the pope lay dying a year earlier.
