100,000 Gather to Recall John Paul II's Death

"He Continues to Be Present," Says Benedict XVI


VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- About 100,000 people gathered at St. Peter's Square to commemorate the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death.

They gathered this evening to relive the praying of the rosary that ended last April 2 with the announcement: "Our Holy Father has returned to the Father's House."

After tonight's rosary, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his study at 9:37 p.m., the precise time of John Paul II's death, to address the crowds.

"He continues to be present in our minds and in our hearts," Benedict XVI said of his predecessor. "He continues to communicate to us his love for God and his love for men."

In his intervention, Benedict XVI summarized John Paul II's life with two words: fidelity and commitment. "Total fidelity to God and unreserved commitment to his mission as pastor of the universal Church," he said.

Benedict XVI continued: "Fidelity and commitment which became even more convincing and moving in his last months, when he incarnated in himself what he wrote in 1984 in the apostolic letter 'Salvifici Doloris': '[S]uffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love toward neighbor, in order to transform the whole human civilization into a 'civilization of love.'"

Suffering's dignity and value

The Pope said of John Paul II: "His illness, faced with courage, made everyone pay more attention to human pain, to all physical and spiritual pain; he gave suffering dignity and value, demonstrating that man's worth is not in his efficiency or his appearance, but in himself, because he has been created and loved by God."

Benedict XVI said that the Polish Pontiff, with his words and gestures, "did not tire of pointing out to the world that if man allows himself to be embraced by Christ, it does not undermine the wealth of his humanity; if he loves him with all his heart, he will lack nothing. On the contrary, the encounter with Christ makes our life more exciting.

"Precisely because he drew ever closer to God in prayer, in contemplation, in love of Truth and Beauty, our beloved Pope was able to make himself a fellow traveler of each one of us and to speak with authority even to those who are distant from the Christian faith."

At 5:30 p.m. Monday, Benedict XVI will preside at a Mass in St. Peter's Square for John Paul II.