The Pope today:

Towards the end, Benedict XVI recalled the last days of John Paul II, sick and in silence. The pope said the Lord “stripped him of everything to assimilate him with himself… His gestures and proclamations were reduced to the bare essential: to the gift of himself to the last”. The pope added: “His death was the fulfillment of a testimony of faith that touched many men of goodwill”.

Introducing the Angelus prayer, Benedict stressed that John Paul II died on Saturday, “the day dedicated to Mary”, to who we ask to “make ours that which this great pontiff showed and taught us”.

He also invited all youth to participate in the vigil on Thursday 6 April in the lead-up to the XXI World Youth Day. This vigil too, held in St Peter’s square, will mark the memory of John Paul II.

After the prayer, the pope greeted pilgrims in several languages, especially the Poles, who came to Rome to honour the memory of Pope Wojtyla. In Italian, he recalled the little Thomas, an 18-month-old epileptic baby, kidnapped some weeks ago, whose death was announced in the news only yesterday. The pope also recalled, in prayer, “all victims of violence”.

Before the greetings, the pope launched an appeal for two days of prayer and fasting for peace in Iraq, on 3 and 4 April. The appeal, made by Benedict XVI, was the desire of the Patriarch of Baghdad, Emmanuel Delly and the Iraqi bishops, and it has been made to all believers, including Muslims.