Poles Mourn Loss Of Native Son

With a huge portrait of Pope John Paul II as a backdrop, at least 150,000 people turned out for a farewell Mass for the Polish-born pontiff, gathering Tuesday at the square where he once rallied the nation to fight communist rule.

Poles from President Aleksander Kwasniewski to soldiers and school girls in uniform filled Pilsudski Square in downtown Warsaw to say goodbye to a man considered a national hero.

Others will bid farewell in person — an estimated 2 million Poles are expected to travel to Rome for John Paul's funeral on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said.

The altar in the Warsaw square was decorated with flowers in the Polish national colors — red and white — and the papal banner's yellow and white. Across the capital, national and papal flags with black ribbons fluttered everywhere, signs of an official period of mourning to last until the pontiff's funeral at the Vatican.

It was at this square that John Paul delivered a famous Mass in 1979 that is credited with giving courage to the anti-communist opposition, which formed the Solidarity movement the next year and brought about the peaceful end of communism in 1989.

At an altar flanked by a large photo of an elderly John Paul in prayer, Poland's top Roman Catholic leader, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, began by referring to that historic Mass.

"One more time the Holy Father is gathering us for prayers in this square, so very important to the life of the capital city," he said to the crowd, some with heads bowed. "It started June 2, 1979. Here, in this square a great prayer took place, full of zest and power of the spirit."

Ahead of the Mass, some in the crowd waved the national and papal flags, while one person held up a sign reading "Totus tuus," the papal motto which is an expression of devotion to the Virgin Mary and means "completely yours."

A military band played the Polish national anthem and the Vatican anthem at the start of the Mass.

"We wanted to be with other people in this sorrow," said Anna Plewa, 35, who with her two young children lit candles and placed flowers at the site before the Mass began.

"He showed us how to live," she said. "Sometimes he scolded us from the Vatican. He made us stop and look into our hearts. Now there will be no one to do this."

In Krakow, the southern Polish city where Karol Wojtyla rose from priest to cardinal before he became pope in 1978, about 150,000 young people holding candles marched silently through town Monday night in a show of reverence organized spontaneously by cell phone text messages. Similar processions also took place in several other Polish cities.

The rough estimate of 2 million Poles heading to Rome is based on an informal government survey of travel operators, ministry spokesman Aleksander Checko said.

Parishes across Poland have been chartering buses to bring worshippers to Rome for the funeral. Extra trains and flights from Poland to Italy are also being organized.

LOT, Poland's national airline, will have five flights to Rome on Wednesday instead of the usual single trip, and even that won't cover demand, spokesman Leszek Chorzewski said.

The Slovak budget airline SkyEurope said it was adding four extra flights between Krakow and Warsaw to Rome on Tuesday and Thursday to meet demand.

At Warsaw's central station Tuesday, long lines had formed for spots on trains setting off for the 22-hour trip to Rome. Many in the lines said they had been waiting since Monday.

"This was the most important person in the world during the 20th century and this pilgrimage will be the most important in my life," said Joanna Zawadska, a 42-year-old bookkeeper waiting in the line.

Poland's national railway discounted the round-trip journey between Warsaw and Rome from about $220 to $137.

The mayor of John Paul's hometown of Wadowice, Ewa Filipiak, was to depart Tuesday with a sack of soil collected from near his birthplace, the church where he was baptized and other sites linked to his life. Filipiak will present it to Vatican authorities to be buried with him.