Catholics Worldwide Offer Unceasing Prayers in the Pope’s Last Hours

With a sorrowful but peaceful heart, Roman Catholics worldwide continue to offer up their unceasing prayer to God while their beloved leader of the Church, Pope John Paul II goes closer to the heavenly father’s arms.

Currently, the whole world is focusing intently on the Vatican; the majority have already prepared themselves to receive the news of the death of this influential religious leader. On Saturday, Reuters reported that Pope John Paul’s condition remained very serious and he was slipping in and out of consciousness.

However, the Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls insisted, "This absolutely does not mean he is in a coma." He further explained that at times the Pope's "eyes are open and he remains conscious, but at times he seems to be sleeping"

"The clinical conditions of the Holy Father remain very serious. In late morning, the high fever developed. When addressed by members of his household, he responds correctly," it was said in a statement.

"John Paul is now very close to God," said Italian Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi to Reuters.

The flock in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas has been faithfully accompanying their shepherd to walk through the last journey of his life in prayers. With the foundation of Christian faith on the sovereign plan of God, worshippers have not prayed to keep the life of the Pope according to their humanistic will, instead they hoped for a dignified end to his suffering.

Several thousands of pilgrims, some singing, dancing and clapping, gathered in St. Peter's Square to cheer up the Pope, who was lying in his bed in the papal apartment overlooking the square.

"If God decides that the Pope should perish, I wish God will give us another Pope just like our beloved John Paul," Gregoria Elabastina, a nun in the Philippines, quoted by Reuters.

Candlelit photos of the Pope John Paul were displayed in London's Westminster Cathedral. The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor described "the pope is serene, calm" in the last hours of his life.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien said to BBC that he believed "the Pope is ready to hand himself over to the will of Almighty God, as he has done throughout his life."

"He has made his peace with God and is just tranquilly waiting for God to call him, if that is God's will."

At a Mass in St. Mary's basilica in Wadowice, the birth town of the pope in Poland, the Rev. Krzysztof Glowka told a packed church that "we are here to be with John Paul in his agony, to experience, together with him, this great mystery of life that is death."

"Now as a sick and dying person he is teaching us the most important lesson, the lesson of dying and the lesson of perseverance," he said.

In Croatia, where Roman Catholics compile nearly 90 percent of the 4.5 million people, thousands flocked to churches to pray. Some Croats made a trip to Prague to pray for the pontiff in the church where he was baptised.

The 84-years-old Pope has led the Catholic Church for 26 years - the third-longest reign of a Pontiff - and visited more countries than any predecessor. He has visited more than 100 countries and is estimated to have effectively circled the globe 27 times.

In face of the widespread secularisation in the past few decades in Europe, the Pope has endlessly defended church orthodoxy. He challenged the world’s declining ethics on issues such as divorce, abortion and homosexuality.