Pope's plight dominates world press
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LONDON, England -- Newspapers in Italy, and around the world, devoted most of their Saturday editions to the suffering of Pope John Paul II.
Italy
"The Long Adieu to the Dying Pope," headlined the Rome's daily La Repubblica, as the Corriere della Sera spoke of "The Embrace of the Dying Pope."
"The Love of Rome Accompanies the Pope," assured the Cronaca di Roma.
The tone contrasted with gloomy headlines on Friday reflecting the growing dread of the 84-year-old pontiff's imminent passing.
"Thank You, Wojtyla," said right-wing Secolo d'Italia, using the 84-year-old pontiff's Polish family name at birth, while Il Tempo wrote "Ciao, Karol," using his original given name.
"Goodbye Old Pope", said the Libero daily. "The Pope's Sunset" was the headline on the front of Il Secolo XIX.
Il Giornale ran a photograph of John Paul II waving against a blue sky as a dove fluttered its wings behind him, with the headline "The Final Voyage," perhaps in a reference to the 129 trips abroad carried out by the pope in the more than 26 years of his papacy.
The paper carried a poem of the pope -- who wrote volumes throughout his life -- on man's voyage toward death. The pontiff wrote in 1975 of the fear of dying, but also of love for God "with whom life always finds a tomorrow."
Il Tempo showed a photo of the white-clad pontiff with his back turned to the camera, with the headline, "Ciao, Karol."
The Il Secolo XIX newspaper of Genoa reported that the pope, with the help of his private secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, wrote a note to his aides urging them not to weep for him.
"I am happy, and you should be as well," the note reportedly said. "Let us pray together with joy."
Even the wide-circulation sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, devoted its front page to the pontiff. "He is leaving us slowly," it headlined, underlining that "sports will stop to honor dying Pope Wojtyla."
Poland
Poland's press on Saturday prepared Poles for the imminent death of their countryman Pope John Paul II with such headlines as "Christ opens the door to the pope."
"There is no more hope, according to the news from the Vatican. It is not only Catholics all around the world who have been praying for the pope," the daily Rzeczpospolita said, carrying photos of the faithful in New York, Calcutta and across Poland on its front page.
"The pope is in his death throes", the Gazeta Wybrocza said, which reported that candles had been lit since Friday evening in windows throughout Poland, where the movement "light a candle for the pope" had spread spontaneously by text-messaging.
"The pope is dying. He is serene, ready to go," the post-communist daily Trybuna said.
The independent television channel TVN24 has been screening continuous footage on the pope, while the state television TVP has aired several special programs on him, as have most radio stations.
Radio RMF FM, an independent radio station in Krakow, the city in southern Poland where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop before becoming pope in 1978, has given over almost its entire air-time to him since Friday.
Spain
Newspapers in traditionally Catholic Spain overcame political divisions on Saturday to pay moving tributes to the life and work of Pope John Paul II, as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church lay close to death.
"The pope, in his final hours," headlined the conservative, Catholic newspaper ABC, describing the pope's battle against illness over the past two months -- while La Gaceta business daily wrote of "the agony of one of the great figures of our time."
"The pope's agony", headlined the center-left El Periodico, which carried front-page photographs of crowds of faithful holding vigil in St Peter's Square.
Even the secular, left-leaning El Pais, which has clashed with Spain's powerful Catholic Church over such issues as gay marriage and contraception, devoted an 11-page spread to the pope following the sharp deterioration of his health on Thursday.
Television channels gave round-the-clock coverage to the pope's declining health, beaming images of crowds of faithful gazing up at the pontiff's apartments in Rome, and of pilgrims laying flowers in churches around the world.
El Periodico saw John Paul II's decision to remain at home as death drew near, and the Vatican's handling of his illness, as perhaps a last sign to the world's Catholics.
"The Vatican, and Karol Wojtyla -- the pope's given name -- certainly tried to make the end of the Catholic Church leader's life an example, to the city and the world, of how we should be with the elderly and the sick in the twilight of their life," wrote the paper.
It welcomed the decision to allow John Paul II to spend these final hours "in his apartments, among his loved ones, according to his wishes, and without another hospital stay aimed at delaying the inevitable beyond what is humanly possible."
Moscow
Russian newspapers early Saturday noted the important part John Paul II, who was on the verge of death, played in the downfall of communism in eastern Europe.
"The pope played more than a small part in the collapse of the socialist system," wrote the opposition newspaper Kommersant.
"The 1981 attempt on his life, behind which, according to western experts, stands the KGB, is linked to precisely this aspect of his activities," Kommersant added.
For the popular Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, "Several U.S. politicians actively pushed (Karol) Wojtyla (John Paul II) forward to the Holy See, not least the famous anti-communist and Russophobe, (former U.S. national security adviser) Zbignew Brzezinski. He thought "his man" in the Vatican would be well worth hundreds of divisions in the West's confrontation with the Soviet Bloc. And he was not wrong."
But the official government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta also noted the close, personal relationship that existed between former Russian president Boris Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin, and John Paul II.
"When they come to the Vatican, even accomplished atheists convinced that in this life, you can only count on yourself, change at a glance ... Such was the case with Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin, as well as with his successor Vladimir Putin and with members of the
Russian delegations of both presidents who were fortunate enough to be granted an audience with Pope John Paul II," Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote.
Kommersant described the pope as a quintessentially conservative figure: "John Paul II was a consistent conservative. He resolutely resisted proposals to reform the Church, such as allowing priests to marry or women to be ordained as priests. John Paul II resolutely condemned abortion and homosexuality."
And Komsomolskaya Pravda pointed out several of the pope's failures: "His biggest disappointment was the way Eastern Europe's former communist countries embraced materialism, at the expense of spirituality. The pope nurtured the hope that his native Poland would bring the spirit of piety to affluent Western Europe. But the opposite happened.
"The pontiff also did not visit Russia, although he did everything to support the reinforcement of Catholicism in our country."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
