Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of Pope St John Paul II, whose reign of almost 26½ years is the third longest in history, after those of St Peter (traditionally said to be 32 years, one less than Our Lord’s earthy life), and Blessed Pius IX (31 years and nearly 8 months.) In the days leading up to his funeral, roughly 4 million people came to Rome from all over the world to pay their respects; a friend of mine waited in line for 15 hours to enter St Peter’s basilica and pray at his casket. Rome is a city whose normal state is to teeter on the brink of complete logistic collapse, and yet somehow, it was able to welcome such a huge number of people without any real disruption. Very rightly did the city’s mayor at the time, Walter Veltroni, say, “In these days, Rome is writing one of the most beautiful pages in its history of more than 27 centuries.”
Here is some footage from the YouTube channel of the AP, which shows the official announcement of the Pope’s death to the crowds in the Piazza San Pietro, made by then-archbishop Leonardo Sandri (later created cardinal by Benedict XVI), followed by a press-conference announcement by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, then the ringing of the death knell, and various shots of the crowd with some interviews.And here is CBS’s reportage of his election on October 16, 1978, including the famous first appearance on the balcony of St Peter’s, when he said, in reference to his ability to speak Italian, “If I make a mistake, you will correct me”, greatly endearing himself to the Romans, as their first non-Italian bishop in 455 years.
