Vatican confirms - Pope is gone.

[MannyIsGod]

Per CNN and MYSA.com

[Drachen]

God bless!

[Kori Ellis]

Vatican says pope has died
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — John Paul II, who led the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years and helped topple communism in Europe while becoming the most-traveled pope, died Saturday night in his Vatican apartment after a long public struggle against debilitating illness. He was 84.

“We all feel like orphans this evening,” Undersecretary of State Archbishop Leonardo told the crowd of 70,000 that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square below the pope’s still-lighted apartment windows.

The assembled faithful fell into a stunned silence before some people broke out in applause — an Italian tradition in which mourners often clap for important figures. Others wept.

The crowd, which appeared to grow quickly, recited the rosary. A person in the front held a Polish flag in honor of the Polish-born pontiff.

“The angels welcome you,” Vatican TV said after papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls announced the death of the pope, who had for years suffered from Parkinson’s disease and came down with fever and infections in recent weeks.

A Mass was scheduled for St. Peter’s Square for 10:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. EDT) Sunday.

Navarro-Valls announced the death in an e-mail to journalists. “The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) in his private apartment. All the procedures outlined in the apostolic Constitution ‘Universi Dominici Gregis’ that was written by John Paul II on Feb. 22, 1996, have been put in motion,” Navarro-Valls said.

John Paul declined rapidly after suffering heart and kidney failure following two hospitalizations in as many months. Just two hours before announcing his death, the Vatican had said he was in “very serious” condition, although he was responding to aides.

Since his surprise election in 1978, John Paul traveled the world, inspiring a revolt against communism in his native Poland and across the Soviet bloc, but also preaching against consumerism, contraception and abortion.

John Paul was a robust 58 when the cardinals stunned the world and elected the cardinal from Krakow, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

In his later years, however, John Paul was the picture of frailty. Although he kept up his travels, he was no longer able to kiss the ground.

[ChumpDumper]

Good guy.

Hope the next guy elected to be holy is as good.

[Kori Ellis]

Someone was asking yesterday how they pick the next Pope. So, here you go...

How a new pope will be chosen

By Ray Moseley
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 2, 2005


VATICAN CITY -- With the death of Pope John Paul II, a series of elaborate, highly scripted ceremonials will begin to unfold, culminating with the election a few weeks from now of the 265th successor to St. Peter as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

In the Middle Ages, papal elections sometimes took months or even years. But proceedings move more quickly in the modern age, and the new pope is likely to be chosen in three to four weeks' time.

The ceremonies begin with a lying in state of the pope's body in St. Peter's Basilica. They proceed to his funeral and conclude with a conclave in which more than 100 cardinals will elect the man who will become bishop of Rome, primate of Italy, patriarch of the West and pontiff of the Universal Church.

Some procedures have changed in recent years, but one thing has remained unchanged for centuries: The election of a pope is an exclusively male affair, mostly a matter of old men electing one of their number. Under reforms drawn up by Pope Paul VI in the 1970s, and later amended by John Paul II, the conclave will begin at least 15 days and not more than 20 after the pope's death.

Modern conclaves have seldom lasted more than a few days, but the longest in history occurred after the death of Clement IV in 1268. The 17 cardinals, meeting in the Italian town of Viterbo, took three years to elect Gregory X.

The conclave might have gone on longer, but exasperated Viterbo authorities locked the cardinals in their palace, walled up the doors and reduced the electors to a diet of bread and water. Legend has it that they also dismantled the palace roof to make the cardinals more uncomfortable.

With the death of John Paul II, the camerlengo, or chamberlain, of the College of Cardinals will be in charge of church administration and will organize the conclave. The current camerlengo is Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo of Spain, and he will be assisted by three other cardinals.

Thousands of people from around the world will file into St. Peter's Basilica in the next few days to pay their respects to John Paul II, who ruled the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years.

This will mark the beginning of a Novemdiales, or nine days of mourning. During this period, cardinals will arrive from all corners of the globe for a series of general congregations at which initial soundings will be taken in private about the choice of a new pope.

The pope's solemn funeral service will take place in St. Peter's Square before a worldwide television audience of millions.

In recent times, most popes have been buried in the crypt under St. Peter's, the world's largest church. That is likely to be the case with John Paul II, unless he has specified in his will that he wants to be buried in his native Poland.

The conclave to choose his successor will be held in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, the site of such gatherings since 1870. The meeting takes its name from the fact the cardinals will be locked into the chapel cum clave—with a key.

In every sense, electors will be cut off from the world. Phone lines will be taken out, and windows shuttered and sealed to make sure no one can transmit information by hand signal to the outside.

Cardinals and other participants will be searched to make sure they have not brought in mobile phones, modems, fax machines or bugging devices.

A relative handful of privileged outsiders will accompany the cardinals. They include the secretary of the College of Cardinals, the pope's vicar for Vatican City, the papal master of ceremonies and several assistants, a number of priests to hear confessions in the principal languages, two doctors, one or two nurses and the architect of the conclave and two technicians. Cleaning staff also will be admitted.

All those present will be sworn to absolute secrecy. The penalty for violating this pledge is excommunication from the church.

All this contrasts with the atmosphere of earlier conclaves, when there were sometimes clashes between contending factions and votes were sold. Before the election of the Medici Pope Leo X in 1513, the cardinals decided that the one elected pope should give each of them 1,500 gold ducats.

In the first millennium, the people of Rome played a part in the election. But in 1059 Pope Nicholas II reduced the electoral college to cardinals. Pope Paul VI at one time considered bringing bishops into the process.

For the first time in modern history, cardinals attending a conclave will be lodged in comfort. They will stay in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a 130-room, hotel-like building within the Vatican walls near St. Peter's. The new building, constructed to house long-term visitors to Rome, has air-conditioning, en suite bathrooms, minibars and other conveniences.

In previous conclaves cardinals were lodged in cramped Vatican offices, or in huge Renaissance reception rooms near the Sistine Chapel. In 1978, at the August conclave which elected John Paul I, one cardinal described the accommodations as an "airless tomb," and another complained that his room was "a sort of sauna."

The lack of comfort may have had the effect of preventing long conclaves. Each cardinal got a bed, a wash basin, soap, a bucket for slops, a package of tissues, a writing table with notepaper and ashtray and a prie-dieu. Often as many as 10 cardinals had to share a single bathroom.

The next conclave will begin with cardinals attending a morning mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

In the afternoon they will go in procession to the Sistine Chapel, singing the invocation to the Holy Spirit, "Veni Creator Spiritus." They will then take a ritual oath to observe the procedures laid down for the papal election.

The oath includes a promise to defend the rights of the Holy See, refuse all secular vetoes on the election and keep proceedings secret. It concludes: "I promise, I obligate myself and I swear. Thus may God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand, help me."

During the conclave, cardinals will sit on wooden stalls along the side walls of the Sistine Chapel, with Michelangelo's immense fresco of the Last Judgment facing them behind the altar.

Officials will pass out ballot papers bearing this printed formula: Eligo in Summum Pontificem (I elect as Supreme Pontiff). Cardinals will write in the name of their choice, and are advised to disguise their handwriting so it cannot be recognized.

In theory, they can elect any male Catholic adult. In practice, all Popes for centuries have been cardinals.

After voting, each cardinal will fold his ballot paper in two, advance toward the altar, kneel in silent prayer and pronounce this oath: "I call as witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge that my vote is given to the one whom before God I consider should be elected."

Then the cardinal will place his ballot on a gold paten, the shallow dish that holds the bread for the Eucharist celebration, and tip it into a chalice on the altar.

The ballot papers will be burned afterward. If no one has the required two-thirds majority, the papers will be burned with wet straw to produce a gray smoke that will billow out from the Sistine Chapel chimney and be observed by thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square.

But if a pope is elected, dry straw will be used to produce white smoke.

At the conclave which elected Pope John XXIII in 1958, there was some confusion after the first, inconclusive ballot over whether the smoke was gray or white. Many onlookers thought mistakenly a Pope had been elected.

After that, a fail-safe system was introduced. The Vatican does not like to acknowledge it, but there is now an electronic button connected to Vatican Radio that allows the radio staff to know whether an election has taken place. It was first used at the conclave in 1963 that chose Paul VI.

There will be only one ballot on the opening day. If no pope is chosen, cardinals will proceed to hold two votes each morning and two each afternoon. If there is no election after three cycles of voting, the cardinals can decide by simple majority to reconsider voting procedures.

They may continue to require a two-thirds majority or opt for a simple majority plus one. They may also decide to limit future ballots to the two men with the greatest number of votes in the last ballot.

When a pope is chosen, the senior cardinal deacon, Italy's Pio Laghi, will approach him and ask: "Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?" After the new pope has given his assent, the cardinal will ask: "How do you wish to be called?" The pope will then reveal his new name.

He will don white vestments and go into a private chapel to pray. Then he will be escorted to the balcony of St. Peter's, where Laghi will announce to the crowd below: "Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum, habemus papam" (I announce to you with great joy, we have a Pope). He will then reveal the name the new pope has chosen, and the pope will give his first apostolic blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world).

Formerly the election was followed by a coronation in St. Peter's Square. But John Paul I did away with this ceremony in 1978, and the election is now followed simply by a mass.

After that, it's down to business, and the world will sit back to begin learning something about the style, personality and thinking of the man who has been chosen to lead 1 billion Roman Catholics in the early years of the 21st century.

[Faccia di Angelo]

:( Its sad to see him go but he's now with his Father in Heaven. I saw the other thread going on and comments being made. I used to be Catholic until I converted when I was younger but I've always respected the Pope as a great leader and a dedicated man of God. I pray he rests in peace. God Bless him.

[timvp]

R.I.P.

[JoeChalupa]

God Bless.

[alamo50]

Will there be a minute of silence before the start of the NBA games tonight?
I don't even care about the rest, I hope San Antonio will do it.

:angel

[Samurai Jane]

God Bless him.

[samikeyp]

given the large Catholic population here, Alamo, it is a distinct possibility.

[iminlakerland]

Rip

[ALVAREZ6]

RIP Pope John Paul II

[Manu20]

RIP

[timvp]

Will there be a minute of silence before the start of the NBA games tonight?
I don't even care about the rest, I hope San Antonio will do it.

:angel

There was a moment of silence for the Pope at the Spurs game.

[Zombie]

I sure hope I get a moment of Silence when I die. Hell I am a man just as the "POPE" was.

[alamo50]

There was a moment of silence for the Pope at the Spurs game.

Thanks for the info LJ.

[Jimcs50]

A great man is gone.

RIP