Death of a Pope

by David Whiting

We booked a holiday through Worldwide Christian Travel to visit mainly the basilicas and churches of Rome and Assisi in early April 2005. The itinerary included an audience with Pope John Paul II. We immediately thought “yes, if he’s still alive”, owing to his ailing health. We could never have imagined the chain of events that would happen during our week in Italy.

We arrived at Rome airport on Saturday 2 April, five hours before the Pope died. We knew immediately that several changes to our itinerary would be necessary.

Our group, principally members of the Methodist Church in Britain, attended a service at the Methodist Church in Rome on Sunday evening. Fortunately for me (a non-churchgoer), this church was located ten minutes’ walk from St Peter’s Basilica, where a Mass was due to be held that morning. From the Methodist Church I crossed the bridge to the Castel Sant’Angelo (originally Emperor Hadrian's Mausoleum). Close by were massed the satellite vans of the dozens of news agencies from around the world. Behind them were numerous cameras and several news reporters, smartly dressed from the waist upwards (the part shown on television), with shabby jeans and standing on boxes and crates so that St Peter's could be visible behind them. I continued past them and had a leisurely walk along the Via della Conciliazione direct to St Peter’s Square and Basilica. This street, and many others in the vicinity, was closed to traffic for the benefit of an estimated 130,000 people expected to attend the open air Mass, which was also relayed over giant television screens around the Square and street. Yet this was Sunday, a Mass was being held for the Death of a Pope, and all the souvenir shops were open and trading. It seemed a triumph of capitalism and commercialism over religion!

After the Mass was over there was a huge increase in traffic, with the legendary horn-blowing chaos of the Eternal City.

The Italian TV stations were broadcasting their normal programmes, with only a few programmes devoted to the Pope. Our hotel received BBC World and CNN, with virtually nonstop Pope television and only brief mentions of the forthcoming wedding of Charles and Camilla and even less of the General Election.

The Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel were reopened to the public on Tuesday, so our visit took place that day. Of course all the other tour groups in Rome had had to reschedule their visits, so there were several days’ visitors on the one day, making it difficult to hear and follow one's guide.

The Pope’s funeral was arranged for Friday and Catholics were arriving in Rome from all over the world, especially from Poland, the late Pope’s homeland. Extra Police and Militia were drafted into Rome from all over Italy, approaching 100 000 in number. John Paul II’s body was lying in state in the Basilica and people were queuing for hours to file past. Some of our group were among the first in line and viewed the body within three hours. Two days later, others joined the queue at 3.30 am and made no progress. The queue soon grew to 24 and then 28 hours, as people flooded into Rome by air, rail and road. Eventually the authorities had to close the queues in order that the funeral could take place as planned. Estimates were that between two and five million pilgrims and other visitors had arrived in Rome on top of the city's three million or so population. The city was virtually bursting at the seams!

On Friday 8 April, the day of John Paul II’s funeral, the authorities took the unprecedented step of closing Rome! Workers were told to stay at home, private cars were prohibited on the streets (buses, taxis and motorcycles were permitted) and police stopped all traffic from entering the city. That was the day we left Rome to travel to Assisi where we would spend the final two days of our holiday. As we drove out of the city, the streets were eerily deserted, like a ghost town, particularly after the mayhem of the previous days. We could actually enjoy the views. The funeral was the climax of the religious activities and once over, according to television reports, it was a tremendous relief, people drifted away from St Peter’s Square and gradually life returned to normal.

Whether it was necessary for all those pilgrims to travel to Rome is uncertain. No doubt many felt they had a duty to do so, rather like Moslems have a duty to travel to Mecca once in their lifetime. Others no doubt came to Rome just for the experience, for the atmosphere of a potentially unique occasion. I feel that television coverage should have been adequate and that many visitors travelled to Rome needlessly. Now that an elderly Cardinal has been elected as the new Pope it is likely that the occasion will arise again quite soon. At least the authorities know what to expect another time.

The death of a Pope certainly was for me an event I am glad to have been so close to, but I would not choose to be present at a similar event.

First published in VISA issue 61 (June 2005)