Saturday, April 02, 2005
The Vatican?s doors close, marking the end of the pope?s reign
A crowd near a statue of the pope at the Basilica of Guadalupe as news of his death spread
A child was assisted in lighting a candle in St. Patrick?s Cathedral Saturday, as people gathered to mourn the death of Pope John Paul II.
Michael Schumacher, Bahrain GP, Saturday April 2nd, 2005.
Bahrain Grand Prix
Schumacher gambles on new car to survive heat
From Kevin Eason in Bahrain
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER has had time to get used to the pressures of winning in Formula One. Losing is proving to be an experience he is having to drag from the memory banks. Six times in a row, a Ferrari has won on its debut but the car rushed into action for the 2005 season made a less than auspicious start yesterday in practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Schumacher posted the fourth fastest time of the day, but there was an increasing feeling that the real stress test will come tomorrow afternoon.
Schumacher had done only 80 laps in testing back in Italy, topped up by a measly 21 around the dustbowl of a Sakhir circuit yesterday. Rubens Barrichello managed to run only five laps on a circuit where Ferrari need crucial data ? not least about Bridgestone tyres, which have proved their worst failing ? before his gearbox gave out. Ferrari are going into the third grand prix of the season almost blind against a rampant Renault team and other rivals who have at least been able to explore the limits of their cars, particularly in the heat of Malaysia, which has provided a template for this race.
Ferrari tested the 2005 car at the end of a European winter and have now brought a car that will be burnished by a searing sun that can play havoc with the most sophisticated machinery. Even Schumacher acknowledged that rushing out the 2005 car ahead of schedule was a gamble, but, with just two points to his name, it was one he had to take. ?It?s a calculated risk,? he said. ?The car is quicker than the old one and handles better, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.?
If the pressure is on Schumacher to keep up Ferrari?s winning record, the man many believe is his natural successor is finding the pressure of winning daunting. Fernando Alonso watched with mounting disbelief television pictures of Spanish fans and journalists surrounding the home of his parents in the city of Oviedo. The house in a quiet suburb was under siege after his win in Malaysia a fortnight ago propelled him to the leadership of the World Championship for the first time in his fledgeling career. ?It went too far,? he said. ?I don?t want people in front of my house wanting a picture. I was not even there. I was with a friend and I watched what they were doing on television. It was ridiculous.?
Practice yesterday was a relief for Alonso, refreshingly down-to-earth about his new position as Formula One?s leading driver at the age of 24. Not even the shadow of Schumacher looming across the bleached horizon of this blazingly hot Sakhir track was enough to knock Alonso from his stride. For once, it was Schumacher playing catch-up to a Renault team that have started this season at a gallop, with Giancarlo Fisichella taking victory in the first race in Australia to complete a double-header for the team.
Sure enough, practice ? part test session and part double-bluff so that nobody can tell which cars are truly fastest in race trim ? could not conceal the all-round capabilities of the twin Renaults. The question is whether there are others in good enough shape to take the fight to them. The formbook compiled in Malaysia provides a pointer with the temperature of the track ? made of unyielding granite imported from Wales ? soaring to 52 C (125F) yesterday afternoon, which means tyre wear will be paramount and the driver that can nurse his car through all 57 demanding laps will be in good shape.
Alonso and Fisichella will be there, barring mishap, but will Jenson Button? His BAR Honda was quick in Malaysia for two paltry laps before expiring, but he has been assured that his car will be reliable tomorrow and he is aching to put right the ills of the first two races he has failed even to finish.
PRACTICE TIMES
* denotes test driver
FIRST SESSION: 1, *R Zonta (Br, Toyota) 1min 31.449sec; 2, M Schumacher (Ger, Ferrari) 1:32.120; 3, *V Liuzzi (It, Red Bull) 1:32.509; 4, *A Wurz (Austria, McLaren-Mercedes) 1:33.106; 5, R Barrichello (Br, Ferrari) 1:33.111; 6, P de la Rosa (Sp, McLaren-Mercedes) 1:33.270; 7, M Webber (Aus, Williams-BMW) 1:33.427; 8, K Räikkönen (Fin, McLaren-Mercedes) 1:33.836; 9, J Button (GB, BAR-Honda) 1:34.002; 10, N Heidfeld (Ger, Williams-BMW) 1:34.722; 11, C Klien (Austria, Red Bull) 1:34.722; 12, D Coulthard (GB, Red Bull) 1:34.984; 13, *R Doornbos (Neth, Jordan) 1:35.432; 14, F Massa (Br, Sauber-Petronas) 1:35.531; 15, N Karthikeyan (India, Jordan) 1:35.766; 16, T Monteiro (Por, Jordan) 1:36.534; 17, J Villeneuve (Can, Sauber-Petronas) 1:37.112; 18, C Albers (Neth, Minardi) 1:37.778; 19, P Friesacher (Austria, Minardi) 1:38.603. No time: T Sato (Japan, BAR-Honda); G Fisichella (It, Renault); F Alonso (Sp, Renault); J Trulli (It, Toyota); R Schumacher (Ger, Toyota).
SECOND SESSION: 1, *Wurz 1min 30.695sec; 2, Alonso 1:31.969; 3, *Liuzzi 1:32.319; 4, De la Rosa 1:32.333; 5, M Schumacher 1:32.431; 6, Trulli 1:32.595; 7, Fisichella 1:32.708; 8, Räikkönen 1:32.988; 9, Button 1:33.037; 10, R Schumacher 1:33.077; 11, Heidfeld 1:33.152; 12, Sato 1:33.205; 13, Klien 1:33.436; 14, Zonta 1:33.443; 15, Webber 1:33.563; 16, Coulthard 1:33.708; 17, Massa 1:33.726; 18, Karthikeyan 1:33.981; 19, *Doornbos 1:34.222; 20, Villeneuve 1:34.300; 21, Monteiro 1:34.727; 22, Friesacher 1:35.325; 23, Albers 1:36.094. No time: Barrichello.
LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS: Drivers: 1, Alonso 16pts; 2, Fisichella 10; 3, Trulli 8. Constructors: 1, Renault 26pts, 2, Toyota 12, 3, Red Bull 11.
TELEVISION: ITV1: Today: Live coverage of the first qualifying session, 10.30am-12.10pm. Tomorrow: Live race coverage, 11.40am-2.35pm.
North Carolina's Raymond Felton celebrates during play in the second half againdt Michigan State in their semifinal game at the Final Four on Saturday, April 2, 2005, at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
North Carolina Clips Michigan State 87-71
By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS - Roy Williams has another chance to win that elusive national championship. Maybe he just needed to come home. North Carolina showed off a dizzying display of weapons in the Final Four, blowing out Michigan State in the second half on the way to an 87-71 victory Saturday night that sent the Tar Heels to the title game against top-ranked Illinois.
Sean May scored 22 points ? all but four after halftime ? and Jawad Williams added 20. Rashad McCants had 17. And Raymond Felton chipped in with 16 while running the point. This is a deep, talented bunch ? and perhaps the best chance yet for coach Williams to finally win the last game of the season.
He went 0-for-4 in the Final Four during 15 years at Kansas, losing twice in the championship game.
The Tar Heels (32-4) certainly have their work cut out for them Monday night, taking on an Illinois team that has lost only once and was ranked No. 1 much of the season. The Illini cruised past Louisville 72-57 in the first semifinal Saturday.
But North Carolina ended the regular season ranked second, setting up the first 1-2 matchup in the final since UCLA defeated Kentucky in 1975.
Michigan State (26-7), which already had knocked off Duke and Kentucky in the regional, seemed poised to knock off another member of college basketball's royalty. The feisty Spartans shut down May, crashed the boards relentlessly and led 38-33 at halftime.
But North Carolina scored the first six points of the second half to reclaim the lead, made 11 of their first 15 shots to take control and spent the final minutes putting on an emphatic dunkfest.
"I think it was the determination of Jawad and the other guys to play much better and compete harder in the second half," Roy Williams said. "In the first half, we didn't compete like we have all year long.
"Marty Schottenheimer one time told me enjoy the wins until midnight, so I'm going to enjoy this."
Williams, wearing a powder blue tie, ran off the court to chants of "Roy! Roy!" The coach even slapped hands with some fans as he sprinted down the tunnel.
"Illinois is a great club," he said. "I think they've done the most of anybody all year long, but we get to play the game."
May, held to 2-of-8 shooting in the first half, hit 7 of 10 shots over the final 20 minutes. In fact, the Tar Heels had surpassed their scoring output for the first half with more than 10 minutes left in the game. They finished right at their nation's-best scoring average of 88.8 points per game.
Led by May, North Carolina dominated on the inside, finishing with a commanding 46-28 edge for points in the lane. The Tar Heels also outrebounded Michigan State, 51-42, including 27-16 in the second half.
The first half was tight most of the way. Michigan State finally got a little breathing room when Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers from each side of the court, scoring eight straight points in all to push the Spartans to a 35-27 lead with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.
State made only 15 of 40 shots but created plenty of second chances with its work on the boards. As for May, he was surrounded by green every time he touched the ball.
It didn't last. The son of former Indiana star Scott May came alive after halftime. Sometimes, he kicked the ball out to an open teammate. Sometimes, he simply muscled his way toward the basket, making the shot or drawing a foul.
"Yeah! Let's go!" he screamed after one especially dominating move in the paint.
Michigan State made only 10 of 34 shots in the second half, finishing at just under 34 percent. Maurice Ager typified the Spartans' offensive woes, leading the way with 24 points but finishing just 6 of 18 from the field.
The final is a matchup between two sentimental coaching favorites. The mother of Illinois' Bruce Weber died last month during the Big Ten tournament. Then there's Williams, who never quite could take Kansas all the way.
Williams, who's willing to put his emotions on display for all to see, went through a gut-wrenching decision to leave the Jayhawks when the Carolina called him home two years ago.
Williams is a Tar Heel through and through ? a North Carolina native, he went to school in Chapel Hill, sent his two children to school there and learned the coaching ropes as an assistant to Dean Smith.
When Carolina first called, Williams couldn't bring himself to leave Kansas. But he finally made the move that always seemed his destiny when the Tar Heels came back to him in 2003, eager for the right man ? the only man ? to rebuild a program that fell into disarray under Matt Doherty.
Now, just three years removed from a 20-loss debacle and with Smith watching from the stands, North Carolina put itself just one victory away from its first national championship since 1993.
Williams' last trip to the title game was his last hurrah at Kansas. The Jayhawks lost 81-78 to Syracuse, a potentially tying 3-pointer blocked in the waning seconds.
Michigan State was no tournament neophyte, reaching its fourth Final Four in seven years under coach Tom Izzo. The Spartans won the national title in 2000.
But not this year.
North Carolina's Sean May (42) congratulates Raymond Felton after their 87-71 win over Michigan State in a semifinal game at the Final Four on Saturday, April 2, 2005, at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
(1) North Carolina 87, (5) Michigan St. 71
By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP Sports Writer
April 3, 2005
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- For a while there, Roy Williams must have had flashbacks of Final Fours past.
Not to worry.
North Carolina is not Kansas, and the Tar Heels have Williams just one victory away from that cherished national championship.
Spurred on by a passionate halftime speech from Williams, North Carolina showed off a dizzying display of weapons in the second half and cruised to an 87-71 victory over Michigan State on Saturday night. The Tar Heels moved on to the title game against top-ranked Illinois.
Sean May scored 22 points -- all but four after halftime. Jawad Williams added 20, keeping the Tar Heels in the game when just about everyone else was struggling in the first half. Rashad McCants chipped in with 17 points. And Raymond Felton contributed 16 while running the point.
This is a deep, talented bunch -- and perhaps the best chance yet for coach Williams to finally win the last game of the season. He made it to four Final Fours during 15 years at Kansas, losing twice in the championship game and two more times in the semifinals.
The Tar Heels (32-4) certainly have their work cut out for them Monday night, taking on an Illinois team that has lost only once and was ranked No. 1 much of the season. The Illini cruised past Louisville 72-57 in the first semifinal Saturday.
``Illinois is a great club,'' Williams said. ``I think they've done the most of anybody all year long, but we get to play the game.''
But North Carolina ended the regular season ranked second, setting up the first 1-2 matchup in the final since UCLA defeated Kentucky in 1975.
Michigan State (26-7), which already had knocked off Duke and Kentucky in the regional, seemed poised to knock off another member of college basketball's royalty. The feisty Spartans shut down May, crashed the boards relentlessly and led 38-33 at halftime.
``The first half, I didn't think it was North Carolina out there,'' Williams said.
He thought his team was taking too many shots from beyond the 3-point arc. He didn't see them diving for loose balls. He didn't think they were helping each other on defense.
So he gave his players an earful.
``He got his point across, let me put it like that,'' Felton said, trying to suppress a telling smile.
North Carolina scored the first six points of the second half to reclaim the lead, made 11 of its first 15 shots to take control and spent the final minutes putting on an emphatic dunkfest.
Williams, wearing a powder blue tie, ran off the court to chants of ``Roy! Roy!'' The coach even slapped hands with some fans as he sprinted down the tunnel.
May, held to 2-of-8 shooting in the first half, hit 7 of 10 shots over the final 20 minutes. In fact, the Tar Heels scored more points in the first 10 minutes of the second half than they did in the entire first half. By the end, they were right at their nation's-best scoring average of 88.8 points per game.
Led by May, North Carolina dominated on the inside, finishing with a commanding 46-28 edge for points in the lane. The Tar Heels also outrebounded Michigan State 51-42 -- 27-16 in the second half.
``In the first half, we executed the game plan about as well as we have all year,'' Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. ``We really dug in on May. (Jawad) Williams went off a little bit, but we got every loose ball. We got after it defensively.''
And the second half?
``We fell apart a little bit, to be honest with you,'' Izzo conceded.
The first half was tight most of the way. Michigan State finally got a little breathing room when Shannon Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers from each side of the court, scoring eight straight points in all to push the Spartans to a 35-27 lead with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.
State made only 15 of 40 shots but created plenty of second chances with its work on the boards. As for May, he was surrounded by green every time he touched the ball.
It didn't last. The son of former Indiana star Scott May came alive after halftime. Sometimes, he kicked the ball out to an open teammate. Sometimes, he simply muscled his way toward the basket, making the shot or drawing a foul.
``Yeah! Let's go!'' he screamed after one especially dominating move in the paint.
``I've been told the least important score is the halftime score, so I wasn't worried that we were down,'' May said. ``I didn't play well in the first half, but Coach told me, 'We're not going to stop coming to you.' They had faith in me.''
Michigan State made only 10 of 34 shots in the second half, finishing at just under 34 percent. Maurice Ager typified the Spartans' offensive woes, leading the way with 24 points but finishing just 6 of 18 from the field.
The final is a matchup between two sentimental coaching favorites. The mother of Illinois' Bruce Weber died last month during the Big Ten tournament. Then there's Williams, who never quite could take Kansas all the way.
Williams, who's willing to put his emotions on display for all to see, went through a gut-wrenching decision to leave the Jayhawks when the Carolina called him home two years ago.
Williams is a Tar Heel through and through -- a North Carolina native, he went to school in Chapel Hill, sent his two children to school there and learned the coaching ropes as an assistant to Dean Smith.
When Carolina first called, Williams couldn't bring himself to leave Kansas. But he finally made the move that always seemed his destiny when the Tar Heels came back to him in 2003, eager for the right man -- the only man -- to rebuild a program that fell into disarray under Matt Doherty.
Now, just three years removed from a 20-loss debacle and with Smith watching from the stands, North Carolina put itself just one victory away from its first national championship since 1993.
Williams' last trip to the title game was his last hurrah at Kansas. The Jayhawks lost 81-78 to Syracuse, a potentially tying 3-pointer blocked in the waning seconds.
Michigan State was no tournament neophyte, reaching its fourth Final Four in seven years under Izzo. The Spartans won it all in 2000.
But not this year.
``We just didn't have enough weapons,'' Izzo said. ``It's going to be a great championship game with two No. 1 seeds. It's probably the way it's supposed to be.''
Thousands of worshipers gathered in St. Peter's Square as the Vatican announced the death of Pope John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II blesses the crowd at St. Peter square in October 1994.
Pope Succumbs to Illness Suffered at Length and in Public
By IAN FISHER
VATICAN CITY, Sunday, April 3 - Pope John Paul II died Saturday night, succumbing finally to years of illness endured painfully and publicly, ending an extraordinary, if sometimes polarizing, 26-year reign that remade the papacy.
He died at 9:37 p.m. in his apartment three stories above St. Peter's Square, as tens of thousands of the faithful gathered within sight of his lighted window for a second night of vigils, amid millions of prayers for him from Roman Catholics around the world as his health declined rapidly.
People wept and knelt on cobblestones as the news of his death spread across the square, bowing their heads to a man whose long and down-to-earth papacy was the only one that many young and middle-aged Catholics around the world remembered. For more than 10 minutes, not long after his death was announced, the largely Roman crowd simply applauded him.
"I have looked up to this man as a guide, and now it is like a star that has suddenly disappeared," said Caeser Aturi, 38, a priest from Ghana, which the widely traveled pope visited in 1980, on a continent where the Roman Catholic church grew sizably under his reign.
He was born Karol Wojtyla on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. He was 84 years old.
Hospitalized twice since Feb. 1 and suffering for a decade from Parkinson's disease, John Paul's health hit its last crisis on Thursday, when the Vatican announced that a urinary tract infection had caused a high fever and unstable blood pressure.
In the next day, his kidneys and cardio-respiratory system began to fail. On Saturday morning, his chief spokesman, Dr. Joaquín Navarro-Valls, announced grimly that the Pope had begun to fade from consciousness.
His last hours were spent, Dr. Navarro-Valls said in a statement early on Sunday, by "the uninterrupted prayer of all those who surrounded him." At 8 p.m. Mass was celebrated in his room, the statement said, and he was administered the final Catholic rite for the sick and dying for the second time, having already received it on Thursday.
He was surrounded at his death by a close circle of aides from Poland: his two personal secretaries, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz and Monsignor Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki; Cardinal Marian Jaworski, Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko; the Rev. Tadeusz Styczen, as well as three Polish nuns who have long worked in his residence. His personal doctor, Renato Buzzonetti, two other doctors and two nurses were also there.
After a doctor certifies his death, tradition calls for the Vatican camerlengo, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, who will run the Vatican until a new pope is chosen, to call out his baptismal name three times. He then strikes the pope's forehead with a silver hammer to ensure he is dead. The hammer is then used to destroy the papal ring, the symbol of his authority.
The Vatican said the body of John Paul II would lie in state at St. Peter's Basilica no sooner than Monday. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that his funeral - to be attended by leaders from all over the world - was expected no sooner than Thursday.
In the last few weeks before his death, he deteriorated to the point where he seemed, as his spokesman once said, to be "a soul pulling a body" - an example, his supporters said, of the dignity of old age and the value of suffering. Some critics said it was a symbol of a papacy in need of rejuvenation.
In his last public appearance, from his window on Wednesday, he looked weak and gaunt, unable to pronounce a blessing to the crowd. Still recovering from a tracheotomy on Feb. 24, a pope known for his great ability as a communicator could hardly speak.
From his home country of Poland, to Africa, Asia and Latin America, world leaders and ordinary people alike reacted both in sorrow and some relief that the pope's long suffering had finally ended. There are more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide.
"The world has lost a champion of human freedom and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home," President Bush said at the White House. "Pope John Paul II was himself an inspiration to millions of Americans and to so many more throughout the world."
In 1978, he came to office as a fit and handsome 58-year-old, blessed with a charisma, intellectual vigor and energy that took him to 129 foreign countries as the pulse of the Catholic Church moved away from an increasingly secular Europe to Africa, Asia and Latin America.
He served either the second or third longest of any pope, depending who did the counting, in the nearly 2,000-year history of the papacy.
A Pole chosen as the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, he transformed the papacy into a television-ready voice for peace, war and life, from the womb to the wheelchair. He also reached beyond religion into human rights and politics, encouraging his fellow Poles and other Europeans to reject Communism. Many historians say he deserves part of the credit for the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union.
Even as his own voice faded away, his views on the sanctity of all human life echoed unambiguously among Catholics and Christian evangelicals in the United States on issues from abortion to the end of life. He died just two days after Terri Ann Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose supporters cited the pope's teachings in long court battles with her husband, who won the right to remove her feeding tube. On Wednesday, the pope was himself fitted with a nasal feeding tube.
"This pope will have a place in history," Giancarlo Zizola, an Italian Vatican expert, said Saturday after his death. "Not just for what he is glorified for now, for attracting the great masses, as a sporty pope - this won't last. Not even the fall of Berlin Wall, the defeat of communism, because he himself said it would destroy itself.
"But he will be remembered for the seeds he laid," he added. "He will be remembered for his great favoring of dialogue between different religions, for the culture of peace, and the courage to speak against wars. For having saved the values of the West from the West itself. And the human form he gave to the papacy. It is not negative or positive: it is a complete pontificate."
John Paul's detractors were often as passionate as his supporters, criticizing him for what they said was tradition-bound papacy in need of a bolder connection with modern life if the church wanted to bring back to the faith people in more secular Western nations.
"The situation in the Catholic Church is serious," Hans Kung, the eminent Swiss theologian, who was barred by the pope from teaching in Catholic schools because of his liberal views, wrote last week in an open letter to several European newspapers. "The pope is gravely ill and deserves every compassion. But the church has to live."
"In my opinion, he is not the greatest pope but the most contradictory of the 20th century," he added. "A pope of many, great gifts, and of many bad decisions."
Among liberal Catholics, he was criticized for his strong opposition to abortion, homosexuality and contraception, as well as the ordination of women and married men.
Though he was never known as a strong administrator of the dense Vatican bureaucracy, he kept a centralizing hand on the selection of bishops around the world and enforced a rigid adherence to many basic church teachings among the clergy and Catholic theologians like Dr. Kung.
But he defied easy definition: For all his conservatism on social and theological issues, he was decidedly forward looking - too much so even for some cardinals - on the delicate question of other religions.
While never veering from his belief that Jesus Christ alone was capable saving the souls of human beings, he reached out tirelessly to other faiths, becoming the first pope to set foot in a synagogue, in Rome in 1986, as well as in a mosque, in Damascus, Syria, in 2001.
And, as attention turned to who might be the next the pope - would he be old or young; conservative or liberal; Italian, South American or African? - most experts said John Paul-like charisma would no longer be optional. He was a most public man: traveling, bear-hugging, chatting and preaching the value of love with a warmth that belied his often-doctrinaire positions on church issues.
"He came across in some ways as a regular guy," said Michael Walsh, a British biographer of the pope and a former Jesuit priest. "Famous for looking at his watch. What pope looks at his watch? In Britain we're proud that he used to wear Doc Martin boots. He would watch football, drink a glass of wine."
Though the next nine days will be devoted to praising and burying John Paul II - he will likely be interred aside other popes inside the subterranean grottoes at St. Peter's Basilica - the ancient institution of the Roman Catholic Church will soon turn toward the future and the selection of the next pope.
No sooner than 15 days after his death, and no later than 20, most of the 117 voting members of the College of Cardinals will meet in secrecy below the frescoes of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel to decide who will inherit the seat of St. Peter.
They will be, by long tradition, cut off from the outside world during their deliberations, though now in a new $20 million residence, outfitted like a hotel, built by John Paul II on the Vatican grounds. They cannot make phone calls, read newspapers, watch television or listen to the radio. All but three of the cardinals were appointed by John Paul II and to some extent share his conservative views, but there is no guarantee the next pope will be chosen in his image.
"Always follow a fat pope with a skinny pope," goes a typically knowing old Roman saying. Some Vatican watchers call it the "pendulum effect," in which cardinals seek to restore a balance - or to correct faults in the previous pope - as they work, in the words of one papal expert, to answer the question: What sort of pope do we need for what sort of world?
There is, at the moment, no favorite in the running, no single, obvious inheritor to John Paul II's formidable legacy. In theory, the cardinals can select any baptized Catholic male for the job, but in practice, it will almost certainly be one of them.
As with the selection of many popes - among them, Cardinal Wojtyla, who introduced himself to Rome as John Paul II on Oct. 16, 1978, in adept Italian - it is possible the new pope will be a surprise, virtually unknown to most Catholics when the white smoke announcing his election rises from a chimney on the roof above the Sistine Chapel.
But in making their choice, the cardinals will have to weigh the range of issues facing the church - many of which, critics as well as some supporters argue, have been left languishing in the pope's illness, especially these last few months of virtual incapacitation.
Among those issues are: the increasing secularism of Europe, where the church has become a decidedly less relevant institution; poverty and the widening economic divide between the northern hemisphere and the south, where the church is growing strongest; the balance of power between the church bureaucracy and local bishops, along with the concern that the Vatican bureaucracy has long been left to its own devices without day-to-day coordination by the pope; relations with other faiths, particularly Islam and the rising number of Muslim immigrants in Europe; and the undermining of the authority of the church in the United States after the wrenching sex scandals there.
Not least, the long illness of John Paul II - and the realities of modern medicine - may force the cardinals to confront an uncomfortable and historic change: whether the next pope should be forced to retire after a certain age. Already bishops are required to hand in their resignations at 75, an age at which this pope was beginning to show the signs of sickness.
"We elected a Holy Father, not an eternal father," went one quip attributed to a cardinal during the 25-year reign of Leo XII, who died in 1903. That saying has been resurrected often to apply to John Paul II, but with more immediacy now that the Vatican realizes that a papacy of 20 years or more may no longer be unusual.
Elisabetta Povoledo and Jason Horowitzcontributed reporting from Rome for this article.
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Illini Top Louisville 72-57 in NCAA Semis By EDDIE PELLS, AP Sports Writer ST. LOUIS - The best season in a century of Illinois basketball just got better. The Illini moved one win from the first championship in their 100-year history Saturday thanks to Roger Powell Jr. and Luther Head, who scored 20 points each to spark a 72-57 victory over Louisville and keep coach Bruce Weber's magical bus ride going straight through the title game. The Illini (37-1), the best team in the country all season, got the tough test they expected from the Cardinals (33-5) and Rick Pitino, who made history by taking his third different program to the Final Four. But Head and Powell made the difference as Illinois pulled away in the second half. Head, one of three guards who make his team tick, made his first four 3-point attempts in the second half to help the Illini on an 11-0 run for a 61-49 lead with 6 minutes left. Powell, meanwhile, proved Illinois isn't just about guards. The 6-foot-6 forward hit a pair of 3s and powered underneath for a few more buckets to help the Illini pull away and give them an edge on the inside in an otherwise very even game. Next for Illinois, a matchup Monday against either Michigan State or North Carolina for the championship. If the Illini win, they'll become the first team since the 1974 North Carolina State Wolfpack to win the championship without getting on an airplane in the postseason. Indeed, this one felt a lot like a home game for the Illini, whose Orange Crush fan base has followed them around the country this season, especially over the last three weeks, when they've played in Indianapolis, Chicago and now St. Louis ? all just a bus ride away. Head's backcourt mates, Deron Williams and Dee Brown, each struggled, shooting a combined 5-for-17, and just 3-for-14 from 3-point range. But, as usual, they did the little things. Williams, who scored Illinois' first and last bucket of the game, finished with nine assists and five rebounds to go with his five points. Brown ran the point and took care of the ball, adding four assists. Williams, Brown and Head also put some major `D' on Louisville. Francisco Garcia, the Cardinals' best player most of the season, finished with four points and ended the season with two subpar games, this one coming on top of the come-from-behind win over West Virginia in which he fouled out and watched the last 9 minutes from the bench. Taquan Dean and Larry O'Bannon picked him up in that one, but not this time. Dean never found his touch, going 4-for-15 and only making two 3-pointers as part of a 12-point night. O'Bannon went 4-for-10 for 12 points. Forward Ellis Myles led the Cardinals with 17 points, but that was the problem: Louisville simply doesn't win much when it has to look to its forwards for the bulk of the scoring. Pitino put on his usual show ? stomping, screaming, trying to coax more out of a team that has largely been regarded as an overmatched underdog on many of its stops this year. But unlike last week, when the Cardinals rallied from 20 points down for a win over West Virginia and the eighth trip to the Final Four in program history, there was no adjustment Pitino could make. His team was getting beaten on the boards ? 38-26 ? and in the end, Illinois had too many good players in too many spots for the Cardinals to overcome. The Illini pulled away after halftime, thanks mostly to Powell, who fell just four points short of his career high after playing only five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. After O'Bannon scored five straight to open the second half and give Louisville its first and only lead at 33-31, Powell spotted up for a 3-pointer to grab the lead back. On the next possession, he shot an open 3, which he missed, but grabbed the rebound himself for a two-handed jam. In all, he scored 12 of Illinois' first 14 points in the second half, mixing lay-ups, short, spinning jumpers, another 3-pointer and one other putback of a teammate's miss. Leading 64-55 and with both teams unable to score for nearly 2 minutes, it was Powell who layed in another teammate's miss to make it 66-55 with 2:30 left and begin the celebration. When the buzzer sounded, several Illini stuck their forefingers in the air ? as good a symbol as any for the team that has been ranked No. 1 since December and now has one more win to end what Weber called a fairytale season.
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The Pope of Popes From Richard Owen in Rome HE HAD received the last rites and the Vatican was openly preparing for his passing. But even as the life ebbed from his afflicted body yesterday, Pope John Paul II kept fighting. As the world prayed for the dying pontiff and cardinals began to fly to Rome to prepare for the succession, the Vatican announced that the Pope had appointed 17 bishops and archbishops and accepted the resignation of six others. Having declined further hospital treatment, the 84-year-old pontiff lay in his private quarters attended by four doctors, a cardiologist and two nurses. He had suffered heart failure and septic shock, his kidneys were failing and he was struggling to breathe. ?They were giving him oxygen through the nose. I blessed him and he tried to make the sign of the Cross,? Edmund Szoka, the Polish-American governor of Vatican City, said. The Pope remained conscious until the evening. He received several senior cardinals, participated in early-morning Mass and asked aides to read him the biblical passage describing how Christ?s body was taken down from the Cross, wrapped in a linen shroud and placed in His tomb. Outside a crowd which, by midnight, had swollen to around 70,000 gathered in of St Peter?s Square and gazed tearfully at the third-floor window where the final act of the Pope?s extraordinary life was playing out. They listened to the latest developments on radios and mobile telephones. Each report swept through the sea of people ? the Pope was unconscious; his heart had stopped beating; a Vatican denial that he had died. Monsignor Angelo Comastri, the Vicar General for Vatican City, told the crowd: ?This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the Pope.? Alvaro Alvarez Escobar, a Mexican priest in the square said: ?I?m not here to pray for the Pope to get well. I?m not here to pray for the Pope to die. I?m here to pray to God to do what he has to do.? The windows of the Pope?s apartment lit up an otherwise darkened Apostolic Palace. Most in the square stood still and silent after prayers ended. The Vatican had made no attempt to disguise the seriousness of the situation. Joaquín Navarro-Valls, the Pope?s normally impassive spokesman, fought back tears as he announced that his condition was very grave. Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur, of Poland, a close friend, said that the Pope was ?fading away serenely?. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar of Rome, who has the task of announcing the Pope?s death, said that the pontiff had ?completely left himself in God?s hands?. Around the world, millions of Catholics waited and prayed. From the Holy Land to the Indonesian island of Nias, devastated by Monday?s earthquake, from the few remaining Christian churches of Iraq to the teeming congregations of Africa and Latin America, they prayed for his recovery or for a peaceful end to his suffering. The White House said that President and Mrs Bush were praying for the Pope, and that the world?s concern was a ?testimony to his greatness?. In an Istanbul prison cell, Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish extremist who tried to assassinate the Pope in 1981, was praying for his ?brother?, according to his lawyer. The two men have long since made their peace. Thousands gathered outside the basilica in the Polish town of Wadowice, where Karol Wojtyla was born in 1920, many weeping. As a mark of respect, Italian politicians stopped campaigning in important regional elections tomorrow. The death of a Pope is traditionally verified by the Cardinal Chamberlain, in this case Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo of Spain. There follow nine days of official mourning, with the funeral taking place between the fourth and sixth days. It is not yet known whether the Pope has asked to be buried in Rome, in accordance with tradition, or Poland, where he did so much to destroy communism. In the interregnum, power in the Vatican passes not to the Secretary of State or any other senior official but to the chamberlain or camerlengo. There is no post-mortem. The chamberlain seals up the papal properties, including his private apartment and his summer residence at Castelgandolfo and breaks the papal ?Fisherman?s? ring and seal. The conclave to elect the next pope has to begin not less than 15 days and not more than 20 days after the Pope?s death, allowing time for cardinals to assemble from all over the world. Their deliberations part horse-trading, part divine inspiration, can take hours, days or weeks before a puff of white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel announces that they have reached a decision. Walter Veltroni, the Mayor of Rome, said that he was planning to erect a tented city for the thousands of young people who are pouring into Rome to witness the transition.
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Don't weep for me John Paul II has died peacefully in his Apostolic apartment above St Peter's Square in the Vatican, ending a period of public suffering that that spoke of the sanctity of life and the dignity of death April 03, 2005 Final hours Last messages from the brink of death JOHN FOLLAIN, ROME A FORCEFUL communicator to the end, the Pope managed to send two last messages as he hovered near death. With worshippers gathering in St Peter?s Square outside the Apostolic Palace, John Paul II, barely able to speak, repeated himself again and again until his aides made out the words: ?I have looked for you. Now you have come to me, and I thank you.? According to the Pope?s spokesman, the message late on Friday was probably directed at the many young people among those outside his window. John Paul had long prized the young as one of his principal audiences during a papacy that saw him travel a distance equivalent to three times that between the Earth and the moon. Earlier on Friday, he had indicated that he would embrace death. ?I am happy and you should be happy too,? he was reported to have said. ?Do not weep.? Yesterday, however, the Pope was in no condition to speak or receive visitors. ?As of dawn, the start of a compromised state of consciousness was observed,? said his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls. The last hours, described by insiders with access to his third-floor apartment in the Apostolic Palace, showed that he was determined to die in the Vatican rather than in hospital, and appeared to be identifying with Christ?s suffering by asking that texts describing the crucifixion be read out to him. In his apartment, the Pope lay under white sheets and blankets in a big bed placed almost in the centre of his room. Two chairs were placed at the foot of his bed, one for a nun and one for his personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. ?Everything was white,? said Mario Francesco Pompedda, an Italian cardinal who saw him shortly after noon on Friday. ?The Pope was lying down, resting on some cushions, a little turned on his right side.? The Pope tried to speak to Pompedda but failed. ?He spoke to me with that smiling and serene face. Though his breathing showed he was suffering, it had nothing of a death- rattle,? Pompedda said. He added that the Pope?s eyes followed him until he left the room. Until the middle of the week, the Vatican had maintained that the Pope, who had suffered from Parkinson?s disease, was recovering after leaving hospital on March 13. But on Wednesday afternoon his doctors inserted a nasal- gastric tube to make it easier to feed him. Unconfirmed reports said he had lost 40lb since December because of problems with swallowing. Shortly before 6pm on Thursday a high fever was caused by an infection of the urinary tract, which often affects elderly people unable to move freely. The infection prompted ?septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse?, the Vatican said. His face was said to be as white as a sheet and he fought to breathe as he was helped to his bed. ?His blood pressure was down to the floor,? an aide confided. At 7.17pm Dziwisz called for some holy oil and used it to wet the pontiff?s forehead and hands as he recited the last rites, a sacrament for the sick. When his doctors were able to brief him on his condition, the Pope asked whether it was ?strictly necessary? for him to go to hospital. The doctors replied that it was not and the pontiff announced that he would remain in his apartment.This was widely interpreted as a decision by the Pope to die in the Vatican rather than a clinic. In his apartment, the Pope was given antibiotics and watched over by a team including a cardiologist, a throat specialist and two nurses. On Friday, the Pope?s condition was described as ?very serious?, his blood pressure unstable. He celebrated mass at 6am, and an hour later recalled what day of the week it was. Navarro-Valls, who was with him, said he had followed attentively as texts concerning the crucifixion were read out. ?The Holy Father made the sign of the cross at each text,? Navarro-Valls said. Later that morning, cardinals were called to the Pope?s bedside but Navarro-Valls did not say whether they managed to communicate with him. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, an Italian, said: ?He had the intense gaze he has always had and he made himself understood clearly.? That evening his condition deteriorated further. Navarro-Valls said the Pope?s breathing had become shallow and a medical source disclosed that he was ?beyond hope?. By then, the Pope lay for most of the time with his eyes closed. Among the prayers that were recited at his bedside were the words, ?Leave this world, Christian soul? and ?Let the angels in the heavens welcome you and accompany you to the throne of the highest?. At no time did the Pope show any fear of death.
FILE -- Pope John paul II kisses an unidentified baby at the end of a general weekly audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 14, 2001. Pope John Paul II, the Polish pontiff who led the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century and became history's most-traveled pope, has died at 84, the Vatican announced Saturday, April 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)
Pope John Paul II Dies at 84
Europe - AP
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II, who helped topple communism in Europe and left a deeply conservative stamp on the church that he led for 26 years, died Saturday night in his Vatican apartment, ending a long public struggle against debilitating illness. He was 84.
"We all feel like orphans this evening," Undersecretary of State Archbishop Leonardo Sandri told the crowd of 70,000 that gathered in St. Peter's Square below the pope's still-lighted apartment windows.
In the massive piazza that stretches from St. Peter's Basilica, the assembled flock fell into a stunned silence before some people broke into applause ? an Italian tradition in which mourners often clap for important figures. Others wept. Still others recited the rosary. A seminarian slowly waved a large red and white Polish flag draped with black bunting for the Polish-born pontiff, the most-traveled pope in history.
At one point, prelates asked those in the square to stay silent so they might "accompany the pope in his first steps into heaven."
But as the Vatican bells tolled in mourning, a group of young people sang, "Alleluia, he will rise again." One strummed a guitar, and other pilgrims joined in singing the "Ave Maria."
"The angels welcome you," Vatican TV said after papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls announced the death of the pope, who had for years suffered from Parkinson's disease and came down with fever and infections in recent weeks.
In contrast to the church's ancient traditions, Navarro-Valls announced the death to journalists in the most modern of communication forms, an e-mail that said: "The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. in his private apartment." The spokesman said church officials now would be following instructions that John Paul had written for them on Feb. 22, 1996. A precise cause of death was not given.
In the last two days of the pope's life, after it had become clear he would not recover, the tide of humanity near the vatican had ebbed and flowed, swelling again Saturday night.
"He was a marvelous man. Now he's no longer suffering," Concetta Sposato, a pilgrim who heard the pope had died as she was on her way to St. Peter's to pray, said tearfully.
"My father died last year. For me, it feels the same," said Elisabetta Pomacalca, a 25-year-old Peruvian who lives in Rome.
"I'm Polish. For us, he was a father," said pilgrim Beata Sowa.
A Mass was scheduled for St. Peter's Square for 10:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. EDT) Sunday. The pope's body was expected to be taken to the basilica no earlier than Monday afternoon, the Vatican said.
It said the College of Cardinals ? the red-robed "princes" of the Roman Catholic Church ? would meet at 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EDT) Monday in a pre-conclave session. They were expected to set a funeral date, which the Vatican said probably would be between Wednesday and Friday.
Karol Joseph Wojtyla was a robust 58 when the last papal conclave stunned the world and elected the cardinal from Krakow, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.
In his later years, John Paul was the picture of frailty. In addition to Parkinson's, he survived a 1981 assassination attempt, when a Turkish gunman shot him in the abdomen, and had hip and knee ailments. His anguished struggle with failing health became a symbol of aging and, in the end, death with dignity.
People in John Paul II's hometown in Wadowice, Poland, fell to their knees and wept as the news reached them at the end of a special Mass in the church where he worshipped as a boy.
Church bells rang out after the announcement, but it took several minutes for people inside the packed church to find out as they continued their vigil into a second night.
Then the parish priest, the Rev. Jakub Gil, came to the front as the last hymn faded away. "His life has come to an end. Our great countryman has died," he said. People inside the church and standing outside fell to their knees.
John Paul's passing set in motion centuries of tradition that mark the death of the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, whom he led into the faith's third millennium.
The Vatican chamberlain formally verified the death and destroyed the symbols of the pope's authority: his fisherman's ring and dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters.
The Vatican did not say if the chamberlain followed the other ancient practice of verifying death by calling the pope's name three times and tapping his forehead three times with a silver hammer.
The Vatican has declined to say whether John Paul left instructions for his funeral or burial. Most popes in recent centuries have asked to be buried in the crypts below St. Peter's Basilica, but some have suggested the first Polish-born pope might have chosen to be laid to rest in his native country.
As John Paul's death neared, members of the College of Cardinals were already headed toward the Vatican to prepare for the secret duty of locking themselves in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pope. Tradition calls for the process to begin within 20 days of death.
Among possible successors are German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger ? one of the pope's closest aides and the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog. Others mentioned include Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Vatican-based Nigerian, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria and Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Italy.
In Washington, President Bush mourned the loss of "a good and faithful servant of God (who) has been called home" and said the pontiff "launched a democratic revolution that swept Eastern Europe and changed the course of history."
A fierce enemy of communism, John Paul set off the sparks that helped bring down communism in Poland, from where a virtual revolution spread across the Soviet bloc. No less an authority than former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said much of the credit went to John Paul.
But his Polish roots also nourished a doctrinal conservatism. He reaffirmed the church's ban on artificial birth control and denounced in vitro fertilization, abortion, euthanasia, divorce, sex outside marriage, homosexual relations and same-sex unions.
He demanded celibacy of Roman Catholic priests and said yet again that the priesthood was not open to women. He did give in to the demands of liberal Catholics to allow altar girls.
A man who had lived under both the Nazis and the Soviets, he loathed totalitarianism, which he called "substitute religion." As pope, he helped foster Poland's Solidarity movement and bring down Communism. Once it was vanquished, he decried capitalist callousness.
During World War II, he appeared on a Nazi blacklist in 1944 for his activities in a Christian democratic underground in Poland. B'nai B'rith and other organizations testified that he helped Jews find refuge from the Nazis.
While the pope championed better relations with Jews ? Christianity's "older brothers," as he put it ? the Vatican formally recognized Israel in 1993. He also met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and urged the Holy Land's warring neighbors to reconcile.
John Paul was intent on improving relations with Muslims. On a trip to Damascus, Syria, in May 2001, he became the first pope to step into a mosque.
The 264th pope also battled what he called a "culture of death" in modern society. It made him a hero to those who saw him as their rock in a degenerating world, and a foe to those who felt he was holding back social enlightenment.
"The church cannot be an association of freethinkers," John Paul said.
However, a sex abuse scandal among clergy plunged his church into moral crisis. He summoned U.S. cardinals to the Vatican and told them: "The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God." Critics accused the pope of not acting swiftly enough.
Other critics said that while the pope championed the world's poor, he was not consistent when he rebuked Latin American priests who sought to involve the church politically through the doctrine of "liberation theology."
John Paul's health declined rapidly after he suffered heart and kidney failure after he was hospitalized twice in as many months. Just two hours before announcing his death, the Vatican had said he was in "very serious" condition, although he was responding to aides.
After his passing, Vatican, Italian and European Union flags were lowered to half-staff. In Washington, flags over the White House also were lowered.
The pope's final public appearance was Wednesday when, looking gaunt and unable to speak, he briefly appeared at his window.
His health sharply deteriorated the next day after he suffered a urinary tract infection.
In his last medical statement Saturday, Navarro-Valls said John Paul was not in a coma and opened his eyes when spoken to. But he added: "Since dawn this morning, there have been first signs that consciousness is being affected."
"Sometimes it seems as if he were resting with his eyes closed, but when you speak to him he opens his eyes," Navarro-Valls said.
Navarro-Valls said the pope was still speaking late Friday but did not take part when Mass was celebrated in his presence Saturday morning.
He said aides had told the pope that thousands of young people were in St. Peter's Square on Friday evening. Navarro-Valls said the pope appeared to be referring to them when he seemed to say: "'I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you.'"
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Associated Press reporters Nicole Winfield, Frances D'Emilio, William J. Kole and Brian Murphy in Rome contributed to this report.
