"This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the Pope," Angelo Comastri, the 84-year-old Pope's vicar general for Vatican City, said as John Paul lay in his apartment above the square, his heart and kidneys failing. In the small hours of the morning, the crowds dwindled, but as dawn approached they began to swell again.
The prayerful scene at the Vatican was echoed around the world, with special Masses celebrating John Paul's reign and his example in confronting death.
In Washington, a White House spokesman said that the President and Laura Bush were praying for the Pope and that the world's concern was "a testimony to his greatness."
In Wadowice, Poland, people left school and work early, and headed to church to pray for their native son. "I want him to hold on, but it is all in God's hands now," said Elzbieta Galuszko, 64, at the church where John Paul was baptized. "We can only pray for him so he can pull through these difficult moments."
Newspapers in Italy devoted most of their Saturday editions to the suffering of the Polish Pope, whose given name is Karol Wojtyla. Il Tempo showed a photo of him, his back turned to the camera, with the headline "Ciao, Karol."
The Il Secolo XIX newspaper of Genoa reported that John Paul, assisted by his private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, had written a note to his aides urging them not to weep for him.
"I am happy, and you should be as well," it reportedly said. "Let us pray together with joy."
Yesterday morning, the Vatican said the Pope's condition was "very serious," and had "developed negatively" as he battled a blood infection. In the final medical update of the day, at 7 p.m. in Rome, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Pope's "breathing has become shallow" and his overall health had become "compromised."
He said the Pope had chosen not to go to the hospital.
