The Faithful Mourn
The faithful pour in to St. Peters Square -- to pray, to sing, to say goodbye.
"This is amazing," says The Early Show's Harry Smith, who's co-anchoring from Rome.
On a street leading to the square, Smith observed, "As you look behind me, it's a sea of people who are coming here to share this experience with one another. It's just remarkable."
They differ in language and color and station in life, Smith reports, but what they share is a love of God and Pope John Paul.
Arlene Mendoza is from Santa Cruz, Calif. She teaches English in Rome. She's not Catholic. Still, she says she felt a need to be in the square. "His death," she says, "has united so many different kinds of people and religions and backgrounds and countries. And I see polish flags, and I see Argentinean and Mexican and America. …There's peace among everyone here, and I like that."
Pat and Phil Hampton are from Jacksonville, Fla. Their vacation in Italy took an unexpected turn.
"As a Catholic," Pat says, "I had mixed emotions. We wanted to be here, but we were sorry that it was this time."
Father Brian Dudzinski brought church members from Indiana, expecting to see the sacred sights of Italy. But, notes Smith, they're getting so much more.
"It's a very emotional time," one of the church members brought by Dudzinski told Smith. "It's a time everyone is pulling together, no matter what language (they speak) or where they're from. …He went out to the people, and now the people are coming to him, and I think that's just a very telling thing.
"We brought 13 teens, and it's going to be a wonderful experience for them, one they'll never forget," said one of Dudzinski's group leaders.
John Paul's extraordinary connection to Catholic young people hasn't diminished with his passing, Smith points out.
"He's definitely going to be missed," one of the teens with Dudzinski says, "by Catholics and non-Catholics. He reached out to everyone, and made it his job to touch people's lives.
"There is redemption in suffering (as John Paul did in his latter years)," Dudzinski says. "Jesus showed us the way, when he suffered on the cross, and his passion. And so, for what the pope did, even in his weakest moments, he was the strongest."