The small, framed photo of Pope John Paul II, tucked to the side of the altar at the St. Thomas More Newman Center, was unimposing against the chapel’s backdrop, which was dressed in flowers and festive colors for the Easter season.
Nonetheless, churchgoers couldn’t keep their eyes off of the pontiff’s candlelit picture during the center’s somber Saturday evening Mass.
Pope John Paul II died midday Saturday in his apartment in Vatican City. The 84-year-old pope suffered from Parkinson’s disease and, recently, a string of illnesses that had left him frail and weak.
Local Catholics joined an estimated one billion others worldwide in mourning the death of John Paul, who had led the church since October of 1978. Many attended Mass or reconciliation at area churches on Saturday or Sunday. Several knelt in prayer, rosaries in hand, in the dimly lit chapel at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown Eugene on Saturday afternoon.
“He was like a person in everyone’s family,” said Justin Schneider, a senior business administration major, outside the Newman Center on Sunday. “To see a family member pass is about what it’s like to see the pope die.”
Schneider said he was on his way downstairs to watch basketball when he saw the news.
“It was a sad day,” said Schneider. “He’s a man who brings peace to the world.”

John Paul, born Karol Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, was the first non-Italian pope to be elected in more than four-and-a-half centuries. He became one of the most beloved popes in history over his 26-year pontificate, using television and other media to enhance his visibility. He was also the most traveled, having visited 129 countries during his reign. He made several trips to the United States.
Reports indicate that John Paul’s papacy is either the second or third-longest in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history.
For most University students like Schneider and Newman Center Peer Minister Kristin Gay, John Paul is the only pope they have known.
“He has been pope since before I was born, so it’s definitely sad that he’s gone,” said Gay, a junior religious studies major. “Right now he’ll be remembered in our prayers.”
Many Catholics used the pontiff’s death as a reminder about the nature of
Christianity.
“Pope John Paul II leaves us now,” said Fr. John Evans, Newman Center associate pastor, at Mass on Saturday. “But not really, because we believe in the resurrection.”
As vigils were held in locations all over the world, the faithful said they felt unified Saturday as they gathered in prayer and remembrance.
Catholics expressed affection for John Paul despite disagreements within the religion over his beliefs, which didn’t fall neatly into either side of the American political spectrum. The pope disagreed with abortion and the war in Iraq. He supported the poor and spoke against the excesses of capitalism. Some say he is, at least in part, responsible for the break-up of the U.S.S.R.
“We share our mourning for the pope,” Edgar Gallardo, freshman multimedia design major, said of Catholics worldwide.
David Orique, Newman Center pastor, said he’ll remember the pope’s efforts to reach out to different religions. John Paul was the first pope to visit a mosque and synagogue. He prayed at the Wailing Wall and made attempts to reconcile with Jews for the Vatican’s silence during the Holocaust.
“This was really an extraordinary pope in many ways,” Orique said. “He was that visible and earthly symbol of unity to us.”
Orique said he was proud of John Paul’s consistent message of respect for human life and support of the poor and needy.
“(John Paul) was a tireless champion for peace and justice,” he said, emphasizing that Catholics could even learn from the pope’s long, public suffering during the later years of his life.
“Suffering helps us be more compassionate,” Orique said.
John Paul’s illness was visible to the faithful. His decline from a young and vibrant pope who withstood being shot by an assassin’s bullets to an ailing pontiff no longer able to walk or speak was televised often.
When the faithful assembled at St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, the pope appeared at his window for 12 minutes. After attempting and failing in efforts to speak to the crowd, the ailing pontiff made the sign of the cross with his hand and retreated into his apartment.
The pope was hospitalized twice since Feb. 1. The Vatican announced that he had fallen ill with a urinary tract infection on Thursday, inspiring a vigil of thousands in St. Peter’s Square that lasted through his death at 9:37 p.m., Vatican time, on Saturday evening. Vatican sources reported that John Paul received the Catholic rite for the sick and dying, formerly known as last rites, on Thursday and again on Saturday.
Upon his death, the people assembled in St. Peter’s Square applauded, according to news reports.
Archbishop John George Vlazny of the Archdiocese of Portland, which includes Eugene Catholic churches, commented in a press release.
“We will remember his zest for life, his love for young people and his compassion for the most vulnerable among us,” said Vlazny, who was appointed by the pope in 1997. “Throughout these 26-plus years, Pope John Paul II taught us how to live and now he has shown us how to die. We mourn his loss and we celebrate his life.”
The Newman Center will pray for Pope John Paul II at tonight’s prayer session at 5 p.m.
“I think that it was his time,” Gay said of the pope. “It’s right that he’s now in peace.”

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