MANILA: Half a world away from the Vatican, millions of Asians joined in Pope John Paul’s funeral yesterday at churches, open-air masses and on live television.
Apart from the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholics are in the minority in the region. But the spectacle of the Pope being laid to rest, and his charismatic message of peace, attracted Asians of all faiths.
At Manila’s Luneta Park, where John Paul celebrated mass with 5mn Filipinos in 1995, a crowd of 20,000 watched the sombre rites in St Peter’s Square on four giant screens. Many wept as they held candles, rosaries and photos of the Pope.
At Quiapo Church in the capital, devotees gave handkerchiefs to be wiped on a large photo of John Paul surrounded by flowers - a blessing ritual usually reserved for images of saints.
“I want a feel of the atmosphere in Rome, even if I am thousands of miles away,” said state worker Elizabeth Bautista, who watched on TV. “I want to see the Pope for the last time.”
Thousands of people gathered yesterday at Manila’s Luneta Park and at major Roman Catholic churches across the Philippines for prayer rallies for the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome.
The crowd carpeted one section of the sprawling park and cheered as a flower-bedecked “Popemobile”, a bullet-proof vehicle used by the Pontiff during his last visit to the Philippines a decade ago, arrived at the head of a procession.
The Philippines, with a population of 84mn, is Asia’s biggest Roman Catholic nation.
Simultaneous prayer rallies were held in major churches across the country, including at Quiapo Church about 1km from Luneta where about a thousand people were gathered.
Luneta Park was the scene of a giant, open-air mass celebrated by the late Pontiff during the second of his two visits to Manila as Pope in January 1995, when several million people turned out during a World Youth Day rally.
He also visited the Philippines in 1981, and once when he was still a cardinal.
Giant streamers of the Polish pontiff kissing an unidentified Filipino child dominated a grandstand at one end of the park where Filipino Catholics gave testimonials of their previous meetings with the pope.
Balloons strung together in the shape of a rosary at one time floated above the crowd, estimated by police at some 10,000.
The Vatican burial ceremonies were broadcast live on giant television screens in the park.
A mass was celebrated there at dusk by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales.
“Pope John Paul II We Love You,” read one giant streamer.
“Farewell Pope John Paul II. Thank You For Your Legacy - The Culture of Life,” read another.
President Gloria Arroyo, who flew to Rome to attend the funeral, hailed the Pope for keeping close to his heart the welfare of the Filipino people, including the country’s estimated 65mn Catholics.
“He was the first Pope who took the time to celebrate a holy mass for our overseas workers here in Rome,” she said in a statement issued by her office in Manila.
“This is important, because we have more than 8mn Filipinos living and working in foreign lands, who turned to the Pope for guidance and strength when living and working outside the Philippines.”
The Philippines overwhelmingly supports the church stand on issues such as abortion, divorce, and birth control, and in a survey shortly before his death found Pope John Paul II was the most trusted person for most Filipinos.
Arroyo has joined the call by Filipino church leaders for the church to select another conservative Pope. The college of cardinals to elect the new pope are to start meetings on April 18.
“I have my great faith in the wisdom, the collective wisdom of the princes of the church that they will choose a Pope who will carry on the important work of promoting morality in public life and in the private lives of people all over the world,” Arroyo told CNN television.
Arroyo said the Pope had given moral impetus to the bloodless “people power” revolt that toppled her corruption-tainted predecessor Joseph Estrada in 2001.
The Pope “had a very, very keen sense of understanding on what was happening in the Philippines,” Arroyo said when asked about the role of the Vatican in the church and military-backed uprising that toppled Estrada.
Then vice president Arroyo came to power after Estrada was impeached by Congress and then deposed in a popular revolt amidst a corruption scandal in which Estrada was accused of embezzling state funds and taking illegal kickbacks.
A similar popular revolt had unseated Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
In communist Vietnam, with 8mn Catholics, Church leaders in Hanoi had used loudspeakers to tell worshippers the funeral was being shown on a screen at St Joseph’s Cathedral.
Churches in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s commercial hub, held masses coinciding with the burial.
Crown Prince Naruhito, heir to the throne of mainly Buddhist Japan, laid flowers during a packed memorial service at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tokyo.
“So many people turned up today,” said Peter Takeo Okada, the archbishop of Tokyo. “It’s sort of embarrassing to feel surprised to see how loved the Pope was.”
Arriving in Japan for a 12-day visit, Buddhist Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, called on people to show their respect for the Pope by trying harder to follow his teachings.
“Number one, peace. Number two, I think, equality, and third, the promotion of spiritual values,” the Dalai Lama told reporters. “Then fourth, unity among different religions.”
In China, where as many as 13mn Catholics worship privately or in state-sanctioned churches, politics intruded on the funeral as Church leaders called on the Vatican to cut its ties with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rebel province.
Liu Bainian of the China Patriotic Catholic Association said his state-backed group had wanted to send a delegate to the funeral but that the plans changed after Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian was granted a visa to attend.
In the Philippines, home to 65mn Catholics, the Pope’s edicts against artificial birth control, abortion, divorce and homosexual marriage tended to be taken to heart.
Most newspapers were filled with effusive praise for John Paul, who inspired the Philippine clergy to lead a “people power” uprising that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
But a few commentators noted that the Pope’s conservative stance had reinforced rifts of opinion among the faithful.
“Already there are millions of Catholics around the world disregarding basic Church teachings on contraception and sexuality,” Ana Marie Pamintuan wrote in the Philippine Star.
“Can the Catholic Church survive in this environment of doubt? The next Pope must show the way.” – Agencies |
