AJC.com > Breaking News > Archives > 2005 > April
April 2005
‘Spur-of-the-moment’ decision
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill Elwell, an FBI spokesman in Albuquerque, said Wilbanks, who is a nurse, apparently decided shortly after purportedly leaving for her jog Tuesday night that she was going to run away.
‘‘Based on the information we received, it was a spur of the moment situation,’’ Elwell told The Associated Press.
Elwell said Wilbanks’ relatives were en route to New Mexico and were expected to pick her up in the afternoon and head back to Atlanta.
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
Swank reception had been planned
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jennifer Wilbanks’ planned-but-now-cancelled wedding reception today at the exclusive Atlanta Athletic Club in Duluth would have cost upwards of $10,000.
The country club for the well-heeled, with two 18-hold golf courses, indoor and outdoor tennis and many other amenities, is billed on its Web site as “one of the few facilities on the East Coast that offers” so many services in one place.
It also has one par 3 golf course, a 42,000 square foot athletic center, an Olympic-sized pool, plus large social areas.
The club says it averages at least one wedding reception per weekend, and often two.
Only people who are members or are sponsored by members are allowed to use the facilities.
The club was chartered in 1898 and originally was located downtown on Edgewood Avenue. The club hired its first athletic director, John Heisman of Heisman Trophy fame, in 1908.
The great golfer Bobby Jones grew up playing at the East Lake Country Club, built by the Atlanta Athletic Club in 1906.
Only people who’re invited to join are allowed to become memers.
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
‘Jennifer was a runaway bride’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pastor Alan Jones, who was to have married the couple today, briefly addressed the media Saturday morning.
” John [Mason, Jennifer Wilbanks’ fiance] is a man of faith and he said just an hour ago, everyone has a right to make a mistake. There’s still a lot of pain. No one in this house had any idea that Jennifer was a runaway bride. Jennifer needs help.
“John Mason will not talk to the media for a couple of days” because he’s so tired.
He said he did not know about any future wedding plans.
“Remember what we were praying yesterday, let her be a runaway bride.”
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
Timeline of events
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Developments surrounding the disappearance and reappearance of Jennifer Wilbanks:
Tuesday
Four days before her scheduled wedding, Wilbanks leaves the home she shares with her fiance in Duluth at 8:30 p.m. Her fiance, John Mason, believes she has gone jogging on her daily run through their neighborhood.
Wednesday
Mason calls police at around 1:30 a.m. to report that Wilbanks is missing. Later that day, more than a hundred volunteers, including members of the wedding party and invited wedding guests, search the area for any clues in Wilbanks’ disappearance. Local authorities canvass door-to-door into the night.
Thursday
In the morning, authorities announce they are treating Wilbanks’ disappearance as a criminal investigation and the FBI offers its assistance. However, hours later, Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher acknowledges: “It’s a very real possibility she did get cold feet. I mean, how many husbands have gone out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back?”
Friday
Duluth police call off their search, saying they have “turned over probably every leaf in the city.” Soon after, Wilbanks’ family makes an emotional plea for her safe return and offers a $100,000 reward. Wedding guests plan to attend a prayer service the next day at the church and time where Wilbanks and Mason had been scheduled to get married.
Saturday
On the day of her scheduled wedding, Wilbanks places a collect call to her fiance at 1:30 a.m. She claims that she was kidnapped and was just released by her abductors. She claims she does not know where she is. Authorities trace the call to a pay phone in Albequerque, N.M., and Wilbanks is picked up by police there.
After being questioned by the FBI, authorities announce at 7:20 a.m. that they have determined Wilbanks was not abducted. They say she instead had cold feet about her wedding and left Georgia on a bus to Las Vegas. She then took a bus to Albuquerque soon before her call.
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
As news emerged, house was closed down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Around 7 a.m., as news was emerging about Jennifer Wilbanks having left Georgia on her own, everyone but immediate family was told to leave John Mason’s house. The blinds were drawn and the front door was closed.
Several police officers then began to converge on the front porch and news began to trickle among reporters and friends that something was amiss with Wilbank’s story that she had been abducted.
Then officers told everyone to get off of the front lawn and that a press conference would be held shortly.
Before news that Wilbanks was not abducted, Jennifer’s father, Harris Wilbanks expressed jubilation that his daughter had been found.
“This is a happy, happy day. I don’t even need a plane. I could just flap my arms and fly to Albuquerque and get her. When I went to bed last night, it was probably the lowest I’ve ever been in my life. When I got the call from her, it was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”
Wilbanks said his daughter told him that two people had picked her up and cut her hair. Jennifer later admitted that wasn’t true.
John Mason’s parents, Claude and Vickie Mason, said when they got the call at the house, it was cheers, high fives and hugs.
Claude Mason said his son was “on cloud nine” and Vickie said her son was “over the moon.”
They said that Friday had been a horrible day. That was the day they were to have had the rehearsal dinner. Instead they found themselves defending their son and dealing with issues surrounding a polygraph test.
“It was just horrible watching him like that,” Vicki Mason said. “The heartbreak of it. He was trying so hard to be brave. I don’t know how he held up.”
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
Family makes a statement
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mike Satterfield, Jennifer Wilbanks’ uncle, and family spokesman, emerged from John Mason’s home to issue a brief statement. “We’re so proud Jennifer is alive and well,” he said. “It has been determined Jennifer had some issues the family was not aware of. The family would appreciate some time and space to assist Jennifer in dealing with these issues.”
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
A case of cold feet, after all
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a case of cold feet after all.
Duluth police chief Randy Belcher confirmed reports from Albuquerque, N.M., that Jennifer Wilbanks lied about being abducted.
She got on a westbound Greyhound bus.
Belcher said the 32-year-old medical assistant felt the pressure of the upcoming wedding and couldn’t deal with it.
“She got on a Greyhound bus and went to Albuquerque, New Mexico,” said the chief at an early morning press briefing.
Wilbanks was questioned by the FBI in Albuquerque and admitted the truth, Belcher said.
He would not comment on whether Wilbanks had cut her hair. Authorities in New Mexico said the woman “had a different appearance,” with shorter hair.
No criminal charges are going to be filed by Duluth authorities, said Belcher.
The scene at the Mason household went from jubilant, with fiance John Mason hopping from one TV interview to the next and joking about meeting Sean Hannity, to police putting crime scene tape up around the porch of the house to keep people away.
Belcher said the family will issue a statement later today.
Permalink | Categories: wilbanks
Reaction: St. Benedict Catholic Church in Duluth
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reaction from around metro Atlanta to the selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.
Members at St. Benedict Catholic Church on Parsons Road in Duluth were pleasantly surprised at the choice.
Katharine Dickmann, 40, was at the church Tuesday for a homeschooling session. “I was at home and a friend called me and said habemus papam.
“I didn’t think they would chose someone as old as he, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He is a very solid, very humble man. He is solid in faith, and I have enjoyed his writings over the years.”
The other women at the class seemed joyful and reassured by the selection. They all said they wanted someone very clear in articulating the church’s teachings.
“He’s a very great example of living the Catholic faith,” said Joselyn Schutz, 29, mother of three.
When asked about his age â€â€? Ratzinger is 78 â€â€? she said, “If that’s what the Holy Spirit intends, so be it. Who knows how long he is going to live? There’s no telling. They had been predicting John Paul II’s death for 10 years before it happened.”
“There’s no chance that the beautiful ancient teachings of the church are going to change,” she said. “The way we practice them, or the way we live out are faith may be different but the teachings will not change.”
Luis Guillermo Cordoba, the priest who leads St. Benedict’s hispanic mission, said, “This election has marked the path the church wants to take, in showing a secure and clear way. The view of the church is very clear.”
He wasn’t disappointed that a Latin American was not chosen. “It isn’t where he is from, but that he comes from the heart of Jesus.”
Pamela Lichtenwalner, 33, mother of five, called him a true leader. “Cardinal Ratzinger portrays the church’s teaching as it is. He is a true leader.”
Lichtenwalner has read his writings and thought to herself at the time that they were very clear. “It really made me think at the time he would be a good a pope.”
Rev. Paul Anthony Flood, parish priest at St. Benedict, said the fact that Ratzinger chose their patron saint for his name makes the parish a bit proud. “It just so happens we are the only church in the diocese named for St. Benedict, and we’re proud of that.”
Reaction: St. Patrick Catholic Church in Norcross
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reaction from around metro Atlanta to the selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.
Minutes after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was announced as Pope Benedict XVI, Rev. Thomas Hennessy, pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Norcross, climbed up a stepladder and started bringing down the black drape hung over the door ever since the death of Pope John Paul II. He replaced it with a drape made of intertwined gold and white, the papal colors, to celebrate the naming of the new Pope.
Hennessy came down from the ladder, but he was still on a liturgical high.
“I’m overwhelmed and overjoyed,” Hennessy said.
John Paul was a teacher and scholar, and Benedict XVI will make it a priority to implement those teachings, Hennessy said. Plus, he will bring added clarity and discipline to those teachings.
“The new pope will be able to say, ‘This is allowed, and this is not,’ ” he said.
Benedict’s German heritage also should help him reinvigorate the church where it is in decline, he said. “The church is suffering in Europe,” he said. Benedict will “call youths back to the great faith of their church,” he said.
Some of Hennessy’s parishoners were equally excited.
Margie Segura said she gave out a big “Yessss!” when she saw the news on television.
“It’s fantastic!” said Segura, of Norcross. “For me personally, he (Cardinal Ratzinger) was the best one. He was so close to the pope (John Paul II).”
Segura said her joy came from her belief that Benedict XVI will continue to lead the church down the same path as John Paul II.
“I hope everybody will be as happy as I am,” she said. “I think God heard my prayers.”
Peggy Sant, a St. Patrick parishoner who lives in Gainesville, came out of the church cheering “Habemus Papam” the Latin for the traditional announcement, “We have a Pope.” She said she had been hoping for the selection of Ratzinger, primarily because his record as a non-wavering teacher of church doctrine. “Cardinal Ratzinger reflects everything we want our church to be,” Sant said. “It’s a wonderful day in history and for the church. God is good.”
Other pastors had personal reasons to applaud the selection.
Rev. David Dye, priest in charge of Mary Our Queen Catholic Church in Peachtree Corners, said the new pope embodies the Catholic belief that the pope is the theological descendant of St. Peter, whom Catholics belief Jesus called the “rock” on whom he would build the church.
Benedict is “not a hard or difficult man, but he is a man of solid faith.”
In fact, Daye said, it was the “moral clarity” in some of Ratzinger’s writings in the 1980s help guide him in his decision to become a Catholic and then a priest, after having been a priest in the Episcopal Church.
“When everything was up for grabs back then, he restored some order to things that were confused,” Dye said.
Dye said he does not expect the new pontiff to “give in to cultural pressure” on issues such as allowing all priests to marry. Dye is one of the very small number of married priests, but he said he agrees with the church teaching on the matter. “Celibacy is a great gift,” he said.
All the highly publicized recent events surrounding the papacy â€â€? the gathering in Rome to pray for John Paul II, the massive turnout for his funeral, and the throngs who cheered Tuesday’s announcement â€â€? were signs of the vitality of the church and of its sense of pomp and ritual, he said. “No group puts on a show like the Catholics,” Dye said.
Rev. Edward Thein, pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in East Cobb, said the new Pope contributed to his formation as a priest. While he was in the seminary in the 1970s, he studied under priests who had been taught by Ratzinger and they used his books in their courses.
Thein said he sees the new Pope as more of a moderate than a hard-liner. He also sees some indication of that in the name Ratzinger chose, Benedict XVI.
The last Pope named Benedict came in the early 20th Century, and he followed a Pope who was seen as highly doctrinaire, Thein said. That Pope Benedict moderated some of the policies of his predecessor, and this one may do something similar, he said.
“That may be part of what he sees as his mission,” Thein said. “I know he’s aware of where he wants to take the church.”
Thein said the new Pope will likely reach out to those of other faiths, particularly those in the Moslem world. Also, he will be a very challenging Pope to Catholics all over the world, especially to those in the United States.
“Benedict XVI will say, This is who I am, this is who we are. If you don’t believe me, that is not the Cathoic way,” he said. Just as John Paul II challenged Americans for their materialism, the new Pope will say to the U.S., “Just because you are the biggest and the richest doesn’t mean you are always right,” Thein said.
Reaction: At Holy Spirit Preparatory School
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reaction from around metro Atlanta to the selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.
Meghan Fitzpatrick, a 17-year-old junior at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta, was eating her lunch of a corndog and macaroni and cheese Tuesday, when a teacher burst into the cafeteria with the news: “There’s white smoke!”
Within minutes, students and teachers convened in the gym. A nervous energy flowed like spiritual electricity.
There, seated in the green plastic bleachers surrounding the hardwood court, students watched a streaming computer feed from Fox News Channel projected on a big screen. The image showed, emerging on a balcony at the Vatican, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger saying his first blessing as Pope Benedict XVI.
The joy quickly turned into something else: The wave. Some students alternately stood and sat, as though cheering a victory at Turner Field.
“It was spontaneous. It wasn’t irreverent,” Fitzpatick said, after writing a letter to the new pontiff. “It spoke to the emotion of the students. It was a celebration.”
Michael Verlander, the school’s co-chair of religious education and theology department, didn’t know what to think of the display at first. This isn’t a sporting event, he thought. But he thought better of it upon reflection. “Since John Paul II died, we’ve been in a mourning period, and it should last only until we have a new Holy Father,” Verlander said. “Now, with the election, our faith has been restored.”
Ratzinger advocates traditional teachings of Catholicism — which suits 14-year-old Adam Lindenau, an eighth-grader — just fine. Like many of his classmates, he was overwhelmed at hearing Ratzinger’s initial blessing in Latin.
“He’s strong in his faith — and we need that right now,” Lindenau said. “The time that the world is in, with all the sin and evil, we need a light to into the dark and shine it up again.”
Like many others, Lindenau, dressed in his uniform of khakis and navy blue blazer, was happy to greet the new pope with the wave.
“Just sitting there wasn’t enough to express how we felt,” Lindenau said. “I think some seventh-graders started it and we said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it for the pope.’ ”
Verlander said he was the surprised at the selection, noting that Ratzinger, who presided over John Paul’s funeral, is something of a controversial figure in the church.
“I suppose the Holy Spirit doesn’t avoid controversy,” Verlander said.
Maria Guzman, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, said John Paul’s death left her in sadness. She missed most his love. She felt a spiritual void, now filled by a man from the same traditional mold.
“It’s good,” Guzman said. “Even though times are changing, the law of God shall remain the same.”
How good is his health?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The new Pope Benedict XVI has no apparent history of chronic health problems, but the 78-year-old German has been hospitalized at least twice since the early 1990s, according to records and reports. In September 1991, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that temporarily affected his left field of vision, according to the veteran Vatican journalist John Allen in his 2000 book “Cardinal Ratzinger.” There is no indication that it left any lingering health difficulties. In August 1992, he cut his head after slipping in the bathroom during a vacation in the Italian Alps, the Italian news agency ANSA reported at the time. Thomas Frauenlob, director of St. Michael’s seminary in Traunstein where the pope studied as a youth and still visits annually, said he had never heard of any major ailments. “He seems healthy,” said Frauenlob, who last saw him over the New Year’s holiday. “He comes and eats and drinks whatever he wants.” But the Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on Vatican affairs, believed the new pontiff’s health was “not that good” during the past year. He gave no specifics.
The world reacts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From Notre Dame in Paris to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, cathedral bells tolled and prayers were offered Tuesday to celebrate the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Roman Catholics and political and religious leaders around the world embraced the staunchly conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as successor to the hugely popular Pope John Paul II. Many watched live television broadcasts of the white smoke that puffed from a Vatican chimney to tell the world a new pontiff had been chosen. But while some praised Ratzinger as a fitting choice to consolidate and build on John Paul’s work, others saw him as too hard-line to lead the church in the 21st century. Jewish and Muslim leaders said they were hopeful that Ratzinger, who chose the name Benedict XVI, would continue his predecessor’s effort to reach out to those from other faiths. At St. Michael Seminary in Traunstein, Germany, which Ratzinger attended as a child, a roomful of boys jumped up and cheered when the news of his election was announced. “It’s fantastic that it’s Cardinal Ratzinger,” said Lorenz Gradl, 16, who was confirmed by Ratzinger in 2003. “It’s a very good choice,” agreed Alois Kansky, priest at the St. Anthony church in downtown Prague, Czech Republic, as he rang the bells to honor the new pontiff. But some worried about the new pope’s deep conservatism, saying he was the wrong choice to lead the church as it grapples with a host of modern problems. Divisions between the wealthy north and the poor south, priest sex-abuse scandals, a chronic shortage of clergy in Western nations and the stream of Catholics leaving the church are among the issues confronting Benedict XVI. “The election signalizes continuity,” said Hans Peter Hurkal, chairman of the Austrian branch of We are the Church, a group that promotes reform within the church. “But if Pope Benedict XVI refuses to reform, the church’s descent will go faster,” he said. “There is a clear demand for reforms.” The leader of Ireland’s 4 million Roman Catholics, Archbishop Sean Brady, urged the faithful to pray for their new leader. “The election of our new pope is not only a source of great joy and hope for Catholics throughout the world, it is also an important event for the whole human family,” he said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan congratulated the new pope and wished him “every strength and courage as he takes on his formidable responsibilities.” “His holiness brings a wealth of experience to this exalted office,” Annan said in a statement.
Inauguration Mass set for Sunday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pope Benedict XVI will be formally installed Sunday, but his papacy began inside the Sistine Chapel immediately after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected and responded with a simple: “I accept.”
Hints of what that papacy will mean for the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics could come as early as Wednesday in his homily at Mass, which the Vatican said would be delivered in Latin, or during Sunday’s installation at St. Peter’s Basilica.
In the first homily of John Paul II after his election in 1978, the newly minted pope seized the moment to impress the faithful with his now-famous phrase: “Don’t be afraid.” John Paul directed it at all Catholics, but believers in his native Poland â€â€? then struggling to shake off communist rule â€â€? took his words especially to heart.
The Vatican describes the installation Sunday as “a solemn liturgical rite of inauguration.” The ceremony used to be called a coronation back when popes wore crowns and wielded political as well as religious power.
Some previous Pope Benedicts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Benedict, the name of the new pope, is one of the more frequent choices made by pontiffs. A look at some previous Benedicts:
- Benedict XV (reigned 1914-1922): He was chosen as a contrast with his predecessor Pius X, whose theological crackdown against “modernism” had roiled the church. His accession coincided with the start of World War I.
- Benedict XIV (1740-1758): He was a compromise choice after an arduous six-month conclave. Like former professor Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was considered a scholar.
- Benedict XIII (1724-1730): A rare pope from a religious order, the Dominicans, he remained head of his former Italian diocese as well as the bishop of Rome.
- Benedict XII (1335-1342): He was one of the French popes who reigned from Avignon instead of Rome, considered a bleak era for the papacy.
- Benedict XI (1303-1304): Also a Dominican, he was considered scholarly and a peacemaker among church factions.
New pope’s hometown celebrates
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students at the seminary where Joseph Ratzinger studied for the priesthood as a teenager in the 1940s erupted in cheers Tuesday at the news that he had become the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Students at St. Michael’s seminary in Traunstein pumped their hands in the air, and the schools director was in tears.
“I’m completely overwhelmed. I can’t fathom what happened,” Rev. Thomas Frauenlob said. “He eats with us. I can’t grasp it. I know he’s going to do a really good job.”
The class then joyfully ran together into church for Mass, joined by a few people from the town before church’s ornate gold altar. Frauenlob, who officiated, said, “We’re celebrating our Bavarian pope, and we are thankful.”
“It’s fantastic that it’s Cardinal Ratzinger. I met him when he was here before and I found him really nice,” said Lorenz Gradl, 16, who was confirmed by Ratzinger in 2003.
Michael Winichner, the school’s prefect who has had dinner with Ratzinger at Christmas time, said there was “a great feeling of celebration.”
“He’s a very nice man,” he said. “He comes off a little bit shy.”
One reason the students were excited was the possibility of a trip to Rome to meet the pope. Winichner was hesitant: “I imagine he has a rather full appointment calendar.”
Ratzinger was born in the town of Marktl Am Inn, but the family moved often because of his father’s job as a police officer, and he wrote in his memoirs that he considered Traunstein his hometown. He visits the town often, and stays in an apartment at the seminary, which now functions as a high school and no longer focuses on preparing young men for the priesthood.
People in Traunstein say they’ve seen Ratzinger’s softer side, despite his reputation as a theological hard-liner. Frauenlob said he has come home to confirm teenagers and had spent time ministering to the old and sick.
Traunstein was where Ratzinger returned after deserting the German army in 1945, and it was the place where he was taken prisoner by U.S. troops. He was released from a U.S. POW camp in June of that year and hitched a ride home on a milk truck.
Crowd cheers election of pope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There was an agonizing wait as the smoke went up and it appeared to be white — but nobody was sure. Then the bells began to toll and people screamed in joy, “long live the pope!”
For the tens of thousands of people packed St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday for a second day to watch the narrow chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, it was an agonizing 15 minutes of uncertainty. People said “white,” and “black,” then some began to chant “it’s white, it’s white,” and a group of Brazilians started jumping up and down, pushing their fists in the air.
“Habemus papam, habemus papam,” said Daomario Barbalho, 26, from Natal, Brazil.
As the minutes ticked by the uncertainly grew, and at 5:55 p.m. Amy Turnipseed, 21, an American, said: “It looks really white, but I’m not sure.”
There was a brief flutter when the bells rang at 6 p.m., but the cheers died down when they stopped ringing. Minutes later, they began in earnest and the crowd erupted.
“Oh my gosh, this is insane,” Turnipseed said.
Smoke fuels excitement among Vatican crowd
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A false alarm sent people scurrying toward the front of St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday when noon church bells coincided with smoke coming from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.
Sue Zaunbrecher, a 50-year-old accountant from Covington La., climbed over the chair in front her. “I was going to be there,” she said.
It was the second emission from the temporary Sistene Chapel chimney. On Monday night, the smoke first appeared white, then billowed black.
“It’s an incredible experience, even to see the black smoke,” said Christine Lozes, 52, a lawyer also from Covington, La.
The conclave of 115 cardinals meeting here to select a successor to Pope John Paul II broke for lunch after the morning voting. They are expected to resume meeting about 3 p.m., or 9 a.m. EDT.
RELATED
• Read full story | Complete coverage of conclave
Rudolph pleads guilty to Atlanta bombings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a proceeding that took more than an hour, Eric Robert Rudolph today pleaded guilty to setting off three bombs in Atlanta, including one at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics.
“Because I believe that abortion is murder, I also believe that force is justified … in an attempt to stop it,” he said in a statement handed out by his lawyers.
The statement marked the first time he had ever offered a reason for the attacks.
“The purpose of the attack on July 27th (1996) was to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand,” Rudolph said in the statement, which quoted the Bible throughout.
“I am not anarchist. I have nothing against government or law enforcement in general. It is solely for the reason that this govt has legalized the murder of children that I have no allegiance to nor do I recognize the legitimacy of this particular government in Washington.”
Rudolph entered the courtroom on the 23rd floor of the Russell Federal Building in Atlanta wearing a gray suit and blue dress shirt open at the collar. He looked around the room, nodding and greeting members of his defense team, and appeared at ease as he rocked occasionally in his chair, flanked by his three court-appointed public defenders.
As in earlier court appearances during his two years in custody, Rudolph was unfailingly polite in his responses to U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell, who questioned Rudolph about whether he understood the agreement and was pleased with his lawyers.
“More than satisfied,” Rudolph replied as Pannell went through a long list of questions about his representation.
After prosecutors spent more than 30 minutes outlining their evidence in the bombings, Judge Pannell asked Rudolph a series of questions, including if he agreed the government could prove the allegations.
Before Rudolph could speak, one of his lawyers, federal defender Paul Kish, said Rudolph agreed a jury would find him guilty of the crimes, but that Rudolph was not agreeing to each piece of evidence being presented by the prosecution.
“We are not quarrelling that they can prove those things,” Kish said.
Pannell then asked Rudolph “Are you guilty of these charges?”
“I am,” said Rudolph.
Rudolph faces four consecutive life sentences plus 120 years for the charges he pleaded guilty to today.
Pannell said he would defer setting a sentencing date for Rudolph on the charges Rudolph pleaded guilty to in his courtroom until a pre-sentencing report is completed and all of the more than 120 victims have a chance to submit written statements or notify him that they would like to speak at Rudolph’s sentencing.
“I will notify the attorneys of the sentencing date,” Pannell said. “I don’t want to overlook or short-change any of the victims.”
Earlier today, U.S. Judge Lynnwood Smith in Birmingham, Ala., where Rudolph pleaded guilty to a bombing at an Alabama women’s clinic, set a sentencing date for July 18.
In a statement released after the plea, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said, “Eric Rudolph is guilty today. There will be no further delays in obtaining justice for the public and the many victims of his terrorist acts. Eric Rudolph is guilty forever more.”
Outside the Russell Federal Building following the hearing, Olympic Park bombing victim Fallon Stubbs, whose mother Alice Hawthorne died at the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, said she left the session pitying Rudolph.
“I really pity him,” she said. “I only wish he could have been brought up in the home that we were. He’s a product of the home he grew up in.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Permalink | Categories: Eric Rudolph
Rudolph arrives in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Suspected Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph has arrived at the federal courthouse in Atlanta.
Permalink | Categories: Eric Rudolph
Rudolph pleads guilty to clinic bombing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Birmingham — Wearing an orange prison jump suit, his uncuffed hands behind his back and his lawyers by his side, Eric Rudolph looked straight at federal Judge Lynwood Smith and pleaded guilty this morning to the bombing at a Birmingham women’s clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse.
Asked by the judge whether he believed the government had enough evidence to prove his guilt, Rudolph replied, “Just barely, your honor.”
After prosecutors read a summary of the evidence in U.S. District Court, Smith told Rudolph that he understood he might dispute some of the prosecution’s claims.
“But let me just cut to the chase: Did you plant the bomb that exploded at the New Woman All Women clinic?”
“I did, your honor,” Rudolph said.
The bomb was placed in a flower pot and authorities believe it was detonated by remote control.
Smith asked Rudolph whether he detonated the bomb.
“I certainly did, your honor.”
“Are you in fact guilty?” Smith asked.
“I am,” replied Rudolph, 38.
Asked whether he understood that he was pleading guilty to the 1998 bombing in exchange for a life sentence in federal prison, Rudolph nodded and replied: “Correct.”
He could have faced the death penalty if the case had gone to trial and he was convicted.
As the judge reviewed the charges in the federal indictment, Rudolph stood at a podium, occasionally shuffling through papers.
At no point did Rudolph appear to look behind him at the front row of spectators, which included wounded nurse Emily Lyons and the widow of the police officer.
“Are you satisfied with your attorneys?” Smith asked.
“Yes. I am your honor. They’re very, very good. Superlative attorneys,” said Rudolph, who eluded authorities for 5 1/2 years after the Birmingham blast by hiding in the mountains of western North Carolina.
The 50-minute proceeding ended with Smith pronouncing, “The defendant is now adjudged guilty.”
He set sentencing for July 18. Rudolph is expected to receive four consecutive life terms.
Outside the courthouse, Lyons said she was “nauseated” that Rudolph’s plea allows him to dodge the death penalty.
“We’ve always felt the death penalty is what he deserved. The punishment should fit the crime,” Lyons said. “It’s just a sickening feeling.”
Rudolph’s motorcade left for Atlanta at 10:57 a.m., Eastern Time. He will appear in U.S. District Court and is expected to plead guilty to the 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park that killed one woman and to two other Atlanta bombings — at a gay nightclub in Midtown and at another women’s clinic in Sandy Springs.
Authorities plan to hold Rudolph at the county jail in Birmingham while he awaits sentencing.
Sometime after the pleas in Birmingham and Atlanta, defense attorney Bill Bowen said, Rudolph intends to release a written statement explaining the bombings, which also wounded more than 120.
Under the plea deal, Fulton County prosecutors agreed not to pursue future state charges in Georgia against Rudolph at the request of federal authorities, said Erik Friedly, a spokesman for District Attorney Paul Howard. In Alabama, Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber said he wouldn’t comment on the possibility of any state charges there until after sentencing.
—The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Permalink | Categories: Eric Rudolph
Rudolph arrives at Birmingham courthouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eric Rudolph arrived early Wednesday morning at the federal court building in downtown Birmingham for the first of two hearings during which he is expected to plead guilty to four bombings.
The 38-year-old Rudolph arrived in a car surrounded buy 10 marked and unmarked police vehicles, including motorcycles. The car with Rudolph inside pulled directly into the basement of the building, out of sight of spectators outside the court building.
Rudolph is set to plead guilty during Wednesday’s hearings in Birmingham and Atlanta, in four bombings. During the hearings he will likely will do only the minimum required by law to convince a judge of his guilt: Answering “yes” when asked if he agrees with evidence laid out by prosecutors.
Permalink | Categories: Eric Rudolph
Department of Justice announcement
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2005
ERIC ROBERT RUDOLPH TO PLEAD GUILTY TO SERIAL BOMBING ATTACKS IN ATLANTA AND BIRMINGHAM; WILL RECEIVE LIFE SENTENCES
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Justice announced today that Eric Robert Rudolph will plead guilty to federal charges stemming from a series of bombings, including the fatal attacks at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics and at a Birmingham, Alabama family planning clinic in 1998.
Rudolph, 38, of Murphy, North Carolina, was charged in the Northern District of Georgia for the bombing attack at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, which killed Olympic spectator Alice Hawthorne and seriously injured more than 100 other people; the bombing attack on a Sandy Springs, Georgia, family planning clinic on Jan. 16, 1997, which injured more than 50 people; and the bombing attack on a Midtown Atlanta nightclub, the Otherside Lounge, on Feb. 21, 1997, which injured five people. Rudolph was also indicted in the Northern District of Alabama for the bombing attack on a Birmingham family planning clinic on Jan. 29, 1998, which killed Birmingham Police Officer Robert Sanderson and critically injured nurse Emily Lyons.
Rudolph is scheduled to plead guilty to the Northern District of Alabama indictment Wednesday, April 13 at 9:30 AM Eastern Time (8:30 AM Central Time) before U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith at the federal courthouse in Birmingham. On the same day, the U.S. Marshal’s Service will transport Rudolph to Atlanta, where he is scheduled to plead guilty at 3 PM Eastern Time before U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr., at the federal courthouse in Atlanta.
Rudolph has signed agreements with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in Birmingham and Atlanta in which he agreed to plead guilty to the three Atlanta bombings and the Birmingham bombing and agreed to waive all appeals. The plea agreements provide for multiple life sentences for Rudolph without the possibility of parole.
Pursuant to the plea agreements, Rudolph disclosed to the government the existence and locations of more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in several locations in the Western North Carolina area. Three of the locations were relatively near populated areas, including one location where Rudolph buried a fully constructed dynamite bomb with a detached detonator. As required by the plea agreements, Rudolph described the locations of those dangerous materials and provided other information necessary for the government to conduct render-safe procedures.
In response to this information, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dispatched teams to locate the dynamite and hidden bomb. The search teams - with the assistance of other federal agencies and state and local law enforcement in Western North Carolina - located the bomb, which contained approximately 20 to 25 pounds of dynamite, hidden in close proximity to a road, homes and businesses. ATF and FBI explosives experts removed the bomb components and the dynamite was disposed of safely. Agents located dynamite and bomb components at four other locations and safely disposed of that dynamite as well.
“The many victims of Eric Rudolph’s terrorist attacks in Atlanta and Birmingham can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “The best interests of justice are served by resolution of this case and by the skillful operation that secured the dangerous explosives buried in North Carolina.”
U.S. Attorneys Alice H. Martin of the Northern District of Alabama and David E. Nahmias of the Northern District of Georgia stated: “If accepted by the courts, Eric Robert Rudolph’s guilty pleas to having committed the Birmingham and Atlanta bombings will resolve these cases with certainty and finality, and hopefully bring some closure to the many victims of the bombings. The plea agreements will ensure that Rudolph spends the rest of his life in federal prison without the possibility of parole. Importantly, the plea agreements allowed the government to locate and render safe a buried bomb and large amounts of hidden dynamite that posed a significant threat to public safety.”
“Justice has prevailed,” said Director Carl J. Truscott, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Four heinous bombings resulted in two deaths and hundreds injured, and the serial bomber Eric Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars for them.”
“For nearly nine years, state, local and federal law enforcement have pursued these investigations with great persistence and fortitude,” said Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller. “The fruits of their efforts will finally be recognized with the court’s acceptance of these pleas. The FBI is grateful for everyone’s untiring commitment in bringing a final resolution to this matter.”
The United States Attorneys’ Offices for the Northern Districts of Alabama and Georgia are in the process of contacting the victims of the three Atlanta bombings and the Birmingham bombing to inform them of the upcoming plea hearings. Phone lines have been established for victims to receive updated information: for the victims of the three Atlanta bombings, the toll-free number is (866) 290-2782; victims of the Birmingham bombing may contact (205) 244-2015.
Special Agents of the FBI and ATF investigated these cases and conducted the render-safe operations. Several other law enforcement agencies participated in the operations in Western North Carolina, including: the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service; the North Carolina Highway Patrol; the Sheriff’s Office in Cherokee County; North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations; and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources.
The Birmingham case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael W. Whisonant and William R. Chambers of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama and Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Joseph Burby IV of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. The Atlanta case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Quillan Yates, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Phyllis B. Sumner, R. Joseph Burby IV and John Horn of the Northern District of Georgia.
Several offices of the FBI and ATF participated in the investigation and search and render-safe operations, including: the FBI offices in Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta; and Charlotte, North Carolina, and the ATF offices in Atlanta; Charlotte; and Nashville, Tennessee.
The Department of Justice, FBI and ATF will have no further comment on these matters until after the plea hearings in Birmingham and Atlanta are completed, at which point the respective United States Attorneys will have press conferences in Birmingham and Atlanta. Further details on the timing and location of the press conferences will follow, along with details of a possible ATF and FBI briefing for the news media at the scene of the render-safe operations in Western North Carolina.
Permalink | Categories: Eric Rudolph
Chicago’s Polish community mourns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anna Holmberg blinked back tears as she slowly stroked one of the numerous pictures of Pope John Paul II she keeps on display in her clothing store. Chicago has one of the largest Polish populations outside of Warsaw, and Holmberg and others in the community said Tuesday the pontiff’s death Saturday hurt a bit deeper because he was one of their own.
”I feel like I lose my father,” she said in her store in a Polish neighborhood on the city’s northwest side.
Although it has been more than 25 years since John Paul last visited, for many Poles here, his presence still lingers.
Like Holmberg, many Polish shop owners display ornately framed photographs, post cards and posters of the pope in their windows as if his visit was just last week instead of decades ago.
John Paul visited the city in 1969, 1976 and then as pope in 1979. Each time he celebrated Mass at Five Holy Martyrs Church on the city’s southwest side. Many still talk about his last visit, and how tens of thousands packed the parking lot next to the church to hear him speak from an outdoor altar that still stands in the parking lot — adorned now with black bunting.
”It was a chilly morning — I think it was 42 degrees,” said Stanley Moskal, 79, who attended the Mass with his siblings. ”It was a very beautiful occasion, I remember that mostly everybody was so excited that he was here.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Polish lawmakers honor pontiff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lawmakers in Pope John Paul II’s homeland honored him as a national hero on Wednesday with prayers, eulogies and praise for his support of the pro-democracy opposition that peacefully ended communist rule of Poland in 1989.
On the parliament chamber’s podium, a black sash was draped across the white-and-red banners of Poland’s national colors. A portrait of the pope and an ornamented armchair from which he addressed lawmakers in June 1999 stood nearby.
”Poland is crying over the loss of her most outstanding son,” parliament speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told an assembly of the upper and lower houses attended by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Marek Belka and senior Roman Catholic clergy.
”United by sadness and pain, Poles honor the memory of a wonderful, clever man and an outstanding pope,” he said. ”The man is gone, but his ideas and thoughts remain.”
After the assembly watched a video of the 1999 speech, prayers for the pope’s soul to rest in peace rose from the floor and lawmakers observed a minute of silence.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
China irked at Taiwan leader’s visit to Vatican
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taiwan’s leader will make an unprecedented visit to the Vatican to attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral, the government said Wednesday in a move that would likely irk rival China.
President Chen Shui-bian will attend the pope’s funeral on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said. It will be the first trip to Europe by a Taiwanese president, who rarely make foreign visits because of China’s objections.
The Vatican is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe. But under pressure from Beijing, Italy had refused to issue visas to Taiwan’s presidents in the past. Michel Lu, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Chen will depart for Rome on Thursday. Italy issued Chen a visa and will accord him with protocols reserved for heads of state, Lu said.
”He will take a China Airlines charter flight to Rome … and will return to Taipei” after the funeral, he said.
Beijing is expected to lodge a strong protest against Chen’s visit with Italy. China considers Taiwan a part of its own territory and has barred the island’s leaders from taking part in international events.
By attending the funeral, Chen will have the rare chance of meeting heads of state and help raise the international profile of the self-rule island.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
John Paul II was not embalmed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Departing from tradition, Pope John Paul II was not embalmed, only ”prepared” for viewing by hundreds of thousands of mourners, the Vatican said Tuesday. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls did not elaborate on the procedure, but an embalmer in Rome said it appeared John Paul’s remains were only touched up with cosmetics.
Massimo Signoracci, whose family embalmed three other popes, said he could not be certain what had been done without examining the body.
Signoracci said even a light embalming is necessary for a body that is exposed for several days.
John Paul died on Saturday, and his remains were put on public view late Monday on an open platform in St. Peter’s Basilica. He will be buried Friday. Historically, organs were removed to make embalming more durable. Relics of 22 popes — from Sixtus V, who died in 1590, to Leo XIII, who died in 1903 — are kept in Rome’s St. Anastasio and Vincent Church, near the Trevi fountain.
Pope Pius X, who reigned from 1903 to 1914, abolished the custom of removing organs.
Embalming usually consists of draining the blood and other bodily fluids and intravenously injecting formaldehyde and other preserving liquids. Signoracci said his family had embalmed the remains of John XXIII in 1963, and of Paul VI and John Paul I, who both died in 1978.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Three presidents traveling to Vatican
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Presidents Bush and Clinton will accompany President Bush to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the White House said Tuesday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also be part of the small official U.S. delegation, but former Presidents Carter and Ford will not.
President Bush and his wife, Laura, will lead the group representing the United States at the funeral on Friday, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
McClellan said the White House “reached out” to Carter, but he would not explain why Carter was not going along.
A spokesman at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Jon Moore, said Carter — relishing the memories of two visits as president with the pontiff — had told the White House he wanted to go to the funeral. Upon learning that the Vatican was limiting the U.S. delegation to five people and that “there were also others who were eager to attend,” Carter was “quite willing” to withdraw his request, Moore said.
“He and his wife Rosalynn are very pleased with the official delegation,” Moore said of Carter.
Former President Ford, who lives in California, is 91 and no longer travels extensively.
Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy said the former president’s doctors had given him clearance to fly to Rome. Clinton had surgery a month ago in New York to deal with a rare complication from a heart bypass operation six months earlier. His doctors originally told him he would need four to six weeks at home, but he traveled by train to Washington last week to collect an award for his work on AIDS.
Bush is leaving Washington for Rome on Wednesday, and was to spend Thursday meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. The president planned to leave Italy immediately after the funeral to spend the weekend at his ranch in Texas.
Bush will be the first sitting president to attend a pope’s funeral. The pontiff died on Saturday, ending more than a quarter-century as leader of the Catholic Church.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Archbishop of Canterbury going to funeral
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said Tuesday he will attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, becoming the first serving leader of the Church of England to attend a pontiff’s burial.
At the funeral, he would be wearing a ring presented by Pope Paul VI to a previous archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, Williams’ office said. Ramsey, who was then retired, attended Paul VI’s funeral.
Pope John Paul II visited Canterbury Cathedral during his trip to Britain in 1982, and Williams has described the late pontiff as a ”faithful and prayerful friend of the Anglican Church.”
England’s national church split from Rome more than four centuries ago when the pope refused to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Italy calls off Friday sports events
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Italian sports events will be suspended Friday as a mark of respect for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
The Italian Olympic Committee’s decision on Tuesday means that the Italian swimming championships at Riccione and a world tourism car championship practice session at the Monza circuit will be stopped.
All horse racing and a golf tournament at San Remo also will not proceed.
The Serie B soccer match between Venezia and Catanzaro has been moved from Friday to Saturday.
All Italian sports were suspended last Sunday — Serie A matches were postponed for one week — because of the death of the pope.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Bells will announce election of new pope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The ringing of bells will accompany the traditional signal of white smoke to announce to the world that a new pope has been elected, a top Vatican official said Tuesday.
Archbishop Piero Marini, master of ceremonies for liturgical celebrations, said the bells were being added to avoid confusion over the color of the smoke coming from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
Black smoke signals no decision has been made, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Castro calls John Paul a ‘tireless fighter’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Fidel Castro praised Pope John Paul II for his support of world peace and defense of the poor before joining other communist leaders, diplomats and church officials at Havana’s cathedral for a funeral Mass in the pontiff’s honor.
”Rest in peace, tireless fighter for friendship among peoples, enemy of war and friend of the poor,” Castro wrote Monday afternoon in the condolences book at the Papal Nunciature, the Vatican’s mission in Havana.
Accompanied by his younger brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro, President Castro also recalled John Paul as an ”unforgettable friend” who would be remembered on the island for speaking out against the U.S. trade embargo during his January 1998 visit.
”This earned you the gratitude and the affection of all Cubans forever,” Castro wrote.
The Cuban president, dressed in a dark suit and tie, later traveled to the Havana cathedral for the Mass on Monday celebrated by the island’s highest ranking Roman Catholic prelate, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Farewell Mass today in Warsaw
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Poles filled churches, lit candles and gathered in Warsaw on Tuesday for a farewell Mass for Pope John Paul II in a square where he once rallied the nation against communist rule.
Authorities said 200,000 people were expected at the afternoon Mass on Pilsudski Square in downtown Warsaw. Among the dignitaries expected were President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Marek Belka.
Workers busily decorated an altar on the square with flowers in the Polish national colors — red and white — and the papal banner’s yellow and white.
Across Warsaw, national and papal flags with black ribbons fluttered everywhere, signs of an official period of mourning to last until the pontiff’s funeral at the Vatican on Friday.
John Paul celebrated a Mass on the square in 1979 that is credited with giving courage to the anti-communist opposition, which brought about the peaceful end of communism 10 years later.
”We wanted to be with other people in this sorrow,” said Anna Plewa, 35, a teacher planning to attend the Mass. In the morning, she and her two young children lit candles and placed flowers at the site.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Pope’s death generated thousands of articles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Major news media around the world devoted 10 times as many stories to Pope John Paul II’s death as they did to the re-election of President Bush, according to an analysis released Monday.
The Global Language Monitor, which scans the Internet for the use of specific words or phrases using Roman characters, found 35,000 new stories on the pope in the 24 hours after his death Saturday.
That compares with about 3,500 new stories on Bush within a day of his re-election and 1,000 new stories on former President Reagan within a day of his death last year.
The count includes stories at news Web sites as well as printed stories and transcripts of broadcasts found in electronic repositories such as LexisNexis.
About 3,000 newspapers and 1,000 broadcasters around the world were tracked. Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language, said the jump reflected the Roman Catholic pontiff’s influence.
”He was tied in history, probably more than any pope in contemporary time,” Payack said. ”Because of his extensive travels, he’s well known in many more countries.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Partial list of dignitaries attending funeral
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dignitaries planning to attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral:
ALBANIA: President Alfred Moisiu, Prime Minister Fatos Nano.
ARGENTINA: Vice President Daniel Scioli, Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa.
AUSTRIA: President Heinz Fischer, Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, Parliament Speaker Andreas Khol.
BELGIUM: King Albert II, Queen Paola, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. BRITAIN: Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair.
BULGARIA: President Georgi Parvanov.
CHILE: Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker.
CZECH REPUBLIC: President Vaclav Klaus, Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda.
ESTONIA: President Arnold Ruutel.
FINLAND: Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac and his wife, Bernadette.
GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, President Horst Koehler.
HUNGARY: President Ferenc Madl, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.
IRELAND: President Mary McAleese, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
LATVIA: President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
LEBANON: President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Omar Karami
LIECHTENSTEIN: Prince Hans-Adam II, Princess Marie, Prince Nicholas.
LITHUANIA: President Valdas Adamkus.
LUXEMBOURG: Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.
POLAND: President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his wife, Prime Minister Marek Belka, former President Lech Walesa.
PORTUGAL: European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Jorge Sampaio.
ROMANIA: Romanian President Traian Basescu, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.
RUSSIA: Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov; Metropolitan Kirill, foreign minister for the Russian Orthodox Church.
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova.
SLOVAKIA: President Ivan Gasparovic, Parliament Chairman Pavol Hrusovsky. SPAIN: Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.
SWITZERLAND: President Samuel Schmid.
SYRIA: President Bashar Assad.
UNITED STATES: President George Bush and his wife, Laura.
VENEZUELA: Foreign Relations Minister Ali Rodirguez, Planning Minister Jorge Giorda
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Rome building massive camp for pilgrims
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rome is bracing for a crush of up to 2 million mourners expected to pay tribute to the pope who reigned firmly over his flock for 26 years with unbending loyalty to its ancient precepts, resisting calls from modernizers for the church to adapt.
A massive camp site is being set up on the outskirts of the city to house pilgrims, and city hall has increased the number of bus runs and prepared bus shuttles to and from the capital’s two main railway stations
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Poll: Changes needed in Catholic Church
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most Americans want the next pope to work for changes in Roman Catholic Church policies to allow priests to marry and women to join the priesthood. And they want more done to combat sexual abuse by priests, an AP-Ipsos poll found.
A solid majority of Americans, and Catholics, in the country are calling for the changes even while saying they widely admire Pope John Paul II, who favored the traditional policies.
”He crossed so many boundaries, opened doors to many governments,” said Joseph Riess, a Catholic businessman from Vienna, Va. ”But I think it’s time for changes.”
Just over half of Americans, 51 percent, and almost three-fourths of Catholics say John Paul, who died Saturday, will be remembered as one of the greatest popes, according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
But they would like to see the next pope initiate changes. About two-thirds said priests should be allowed to marry and almost that many said they want women in the priesthood. A majority of Catholics supported both steps.
More than four in five Americans — and about the same number of Catholics — said they want to see the next pope do more to address the problem of priests sexually abusing children.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
President, first lady will attend funeral
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Bush and his wife will attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral, the White House said Monday.
Press secretary Scott McClellan said the White House would announce the rest of the delegation that will attend with Bush. He said with all the countries planning to send high-level representatives to the funeral, the United States will keep its delegation small.
The Bushes probably will leave Wednesday for the Friday funeral, although plans were still being finalized.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Turk who shot pope joins in mourning
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II, said from his Turkish prison cell Monday that he was joining in mourning the death of the pontiff.
The pope met with Agca in an Italian prison in 1983 and forgave him for the shooting. Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after almost 20 years behind bars in Italy. He is serving a 17-year prison sentence in Istanbul for earlier crimes in Turkey.
”I participate in the mourning of my Christian Catholic people,” Agca said in a written statement in Italian faxed to The Associated Press through his lawyers. He referred to the pope as ”my spiritual brother” in the letter.
Agca has given conflicting reasons for his 1981 assassination attempt against the pope in St. Peter’s Square and has sometimes suggested his actions were part of God’s plan.
”The divine plan has come to its conclusion,” Agca said in his handwritten letter.
Suspicions that the Turk acted on behalf of the former Soviet bloc, which feared that the Polish-born pope would help trigger anti-communist revolts, linger despite denials by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
The pope has long said he believed the hand of the Virgin Mary deflected Agca’s bullet.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Memorials stand in St. Peter’s Square
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Impromptu memorials to Pope John Paul II sprang up Monday in the center of St. Peter’s Square, transforming street lights into freeform sculptures of flowers, icons and farewell notes pinned up with candle wax.
One note carried a small Nigerian flag and a recent photo of John Paul II lifting his hands to bless the faithful. ”Pope John Paul II, we love you. May your gentle soul rest in perfect peace,” it said.
Others were scrawled on train tickets or scraps of tissue, tucked among pictures of saints and rosaries and accompanied by children’s drawings. ”Goodbye, father, hero, friend,” said one letter written in a childlike hand. Flowers poked out from holes in the iron lamp posts, which surround an obelisk in the center of the square.
People arrived to see John Paul’s body, which was to go on public display in St. Peter’s Basilica later Monday, two days after the pontiff’s death. The body lay in state on Sunday for prelates, ambassadors and other dignitaries.
”We thought it was right to come because he has always loved us young people, and we want to pay back what he has done for us,” said Monica Favalli, part of a group from northern Italy who came to pay their respects to the pope.
At the basilica, the Swiss Guards wore black cloaks instead of their usual red and gold uniforms.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Some want John Paul’s heart buried in Poland
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some officials in Krakow, where Pope John Paul II was archbishop, hope his heart can be buried in their cathedral alongside Poland’s medieval kings and saints, but a senior cardinal cast doubt on that happening.
”We would like the heart of the greatest Krakovian and the greatest Pole to rest at Wawel (Cathedral),” Mayor Jacek Majchrowski was quoted as saying Monday by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. ”But the rules are set by the church and we will respect them.”
The heart of another great Pole, composer Frederic Chopin, rests in an urn in Warsaw’s Holy Cross Church, although the rest of his body is buried at Paris’s Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
The College of Cardinals said Monday the pope’s remains would be interred in the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Asked if this ruled out sending his heart to Poland, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls did not directly reply, saying he was merely transmitting information on decisions taken by the cardinals.
In an interview with Rzeszpospolita daily, Krakow’s Cardinal Franciszek Macharski said the age of dismembering the corpses of great figures had passed.
”There was once this Romantic custom that after death parts of the body of known and loved people be placed in important places,” Macharski said. ”This tradition is no longer ours. Respect for the human body says that it ought to be laid in a grave.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Charles moves wedding to Saturday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Prince Charles’ wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles will be delayed a day so it does not coincide with the funeral for Pope John Paul II, Charles’ office said Monday.
The heir to the throne will represent Queen Elizabeth II at the Vatican funeral on Friday, the originally planned day for the wedding, the prince’s office added.
Prince Charles and Parker Bowles made the decision to move the wedding to Saturday after he cut short his Swiss skiing holiday Monday, a spokesman for his Clarence House office said.
Charles returned to attend a Monday afternoon memorial service for the pope at London’s Westminster Cathedral, which Parker Bowles also planned to attend, the spokesman said. She will not be going to the pope’s funeral, he added.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
College of Cardinals convenes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The College of Cardinals convened Monday ahead of a secret vote later this month to elect a new pope, with the red-capped prelates planning Pope John Paul II’s funeral and arranging the destruction of his papal ring.
The meeting at the Bologna Hall of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace was the first gathering of the world’s Roman Catholic cardinals since the pontiff’s death. They were to open any final documents John Paul may have prepared for them and were to set a date for this week’s funeral.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Politicking vies with piety
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An elite group of pilgrims flocked to Rome on Monday, princes of the church who have started sizing each other up and expressing their views before they closet themselves in the Sistine Chapel to elect one among them as successor to John Paul II.
Some of the cardinals flew to Rome while John Paul was still dying, even at the risk of seeming too eager to be visible. Others lingered at home to comfort the faithful in their diocese before heading to the Vatican for the funeral and the secret voting sessions of the conclave.
Either way, politicking vied with piety as the cardinals spoke before congregations in cathedrals or gaggles of microphones at airports.
”Only the Holy Spirit knows who the successor is to His Holiness, although it makes me happy that I’m mentioned so that the world knows that good things exist in Honduras,” said Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa. He is a ”papabile,” Italian for someone who has pope potential.
Being in pole position might or might not be an advantage. An Italian bishop, Libero Tresoldi, reminded reporters in Milan’s Gothic cathedral about the oft-quoted proverb warning cardinals against overconfidence: ”He who enters a conclave as pope leaves as a cardinal.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Norcross
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The pope’s death hit Norcross resident Kamali Lara particularly hard. Kamali, 16, said she grew more connected to the pontiff when visiting him at the Vatican in January.
Kamali and 40 other parishioners from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Norcross were among several groups to gain a private audience with the Pope. He blessed them and posed for pictures with the awestruck worshipers.
“I feel horrible that I lost him because I was there and I saw him,” she said. “He was coughing a little, but not much. It’s a shock that he’s not here anymore.”
Kamali, a junior at Meadowcreek High School, said she’s sure the pope is much happier now. But she still considers Pope John Paul II, the only pope she’s ever known, to be her pope.
“I think it’s going to be weird to have another pope,” she said.
Natalie Ann Abreu, a Meadowcreek High senior who sings at St. Patrick’s, also was part of the group. She and her family were praying for the pope between college visits over the weekend in South Georgia.
Natalie, 17, recalled the song they sang to the pope upon being introduced to him in an auditorium. It made him chuckle, Natalie said: “Oh Holy Father we love you. Oh Holy Father yes it’s true. When we’re in Georgia we’ll pray for you. Oh Holy Father we love you.”
The St. Patrick’s parishioners were standing in the fifth row, with the pope looking on from the stage. Kamali said she finds comfort in the thought of providing a little comedic relief for the pope.
“The whole time he seemed really bored, until we sang,” she said. “I choose to believe he was laughing with us, not at us.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Outside Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Gina Jiannuzzi and Jordana Garcia, there was never a time in their lives when Pope John Paul II wasn’t there. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland became pope 26 years ago, and both women are 23.
Outside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, Jiannuzzi described him as an inspiration to all people, including young people. Garcia agreed, saying, “He was normal and had that much connection with the faith and the church. He was the first one to reach out. He was the first one to visit a mosque. Because of him, the church no longer blames the Jews for the death of Christ, and he asked forgiveness for the Holocaust.”
She observed he was on television constantly, traveling and encouraging people, but he didn’t hesitate to lay down the law.
Jiannuzzi said she didn’t always agree with him on all issues, but said she still felt a sense of loss at his death.
“I respected him, but he didn’t necessarily change my views,” she said. “We’re starting over in a sense.”
“I wonder what the next pope will be like,” Garcia said. “How do you follow up on what he’s done?”
Steve Verlander, 39, of Atlanta also reflected on John Paul II after Mass at the cathedral.
“I think he will stand out in history,” Verlander said. “He’ll be remembered for his travels and his connection with the people. He loved the faithful, especially the youth. I think people admired his humility. He admitted he wasn’t a big disciplinarian. His was a more pastoral and loving approach.”
He said even as John Paul II suffered in his last years, he used his pain as a lesson.
“He was trying to give an example that all life is meaningful, no matter how disabled they are, and their life has meaning, and suffering has value,” Verlander said. “Our suffering joins us in Christ.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
The scene at Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lone, weeping woman knelt in prayer today before the black-shrouded painting of Pope John Paul II at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta. She was oblivious to the continuous stream of communicants filing past her, heedless of the hard stone marble she kneeled upon. A few others knelt beside her for a while, but she was there a long time, her head bowed in prayer, occasionally wiping tears from her cheeks.
Finally, Judy Raggi Moore of Atlanta arose and returned to her pew.
Moore, a professor of Italian at Emory University, said she felt a strong connection with the late pontiff, and even traveled to Rome for Easter to see him at St. Peter’s Square last week.
“I knew this would be his last time,” Moore said. “It was so painful to see him at the window. The piazza was packed. Even with all those people, there was silence. At noon, we were looking at the balcony and when he came out, there was such an outpouring of love. He was in pain but he did it. He was a people’s pope.”
The scene at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, Lilburn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Between services at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Lilburn, Bill Marten, of Lawrenceville, today hammered a sheet of black mourning cloth over the main entrance into the sanctuary.
“He touched everyone’s heart because he reached out to everyone,” he said of Pope John Paul II. “He believed in the dignity of the human person and it didn’t matter where you lived. He was inclusive. He was a great source for life itself.”
During early Mass, Rev. John DeVore observed the Sunday after Easter is a time of celebration of Christ’s victory over death, and yet the church was saddened over the loss of its shepherd. Near the altar was a painting of a younger John Paul II, but it had a golden shroud, and a vase of dozens of red roses and baby’s breath.
“It’s a time of mixed feelings,” he said.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
The scene at Holy Trinity Church, Peachtree City
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At Holy Trinity in Peachtree City, worshippers at the first of six Sunday Masses heard one priest’s memory of meeting, praying and exchanging gifts with the pope.
In 1996, the Rev. Paul Burke, now chaplain at Our Lady of Mercy High School in Fairburn, celebrated Mass with the pope in his private chapel. He recalled the awe he felt watching the pontiff in prayer beforehand with pieces of paper laid out on his prie-dieu. They were prayer requests and as he prayed, the pope touched each one. And those petitions were on the altar as the pontiff and the newly ordained priest said Mass together.
His gift to the pope was a simple one, Father Burke told churchgoers - a white skull cap, or zucchetto.
The pope laughed when he saw it, took off the zucchetto he was wearing and put on the one Father Burke had given him. “Feels good,” the pontiff said, tapping his head. Then he gave the young priest the skullcap he’d been wearing, along with a Rosary “that will be buried with me when I die,” Burke said in a voice husky with emotion.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
The scene at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, Buford
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Metro Atlantans attending Sunday Mass joined with the world in offering prayers for Pope John Paul II, who died Saturday.
At Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Buford, a picture of the 84-year-old pontiff that usually hangs in the narthex, or gathering area, was moved to the foot of the altar and placed on an easel.
Before the 10 a.m. Mass began, a standing-room-only congregation honored the pope with a 4-minute silent prayer.
“Let us pray for our church in transition,” said a speaker at the service.
During the Prayers of the Faithful, the first petition was offered for the pope’s “eternal rest.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Standing-room-only at Norcross church
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The always well-attended Spanish-language mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Norcross drew a standing-room-only crowd at sunset Saturday. More than 600 people crammed into the stone sanctuary to hear Father Abe Guerrero. Many stopped near the entrance to make the sign of the cross in front of a white-framed photo of the Pope flanked by wicker baskets of flowers.
Maria Morales, of Lawrenceville, said a wave of peacefulness washed over her upon learning of the Pope’s death while dining with her husband at a Doraville restaurant. It was the same feeling she had when watching the Pope ride down a thoroughfare in her native Cali, Colombia in 1986.
“He was waving at everybody,” Morales recalled. “He gave off a peacefulness so marvelous, so nice. It was very special.”
Morales noted that Pope John Paul II had embraced Latin America through frequent visits, particularly to Mexico.
“Let’s not forget how he beatified Juan Diego,” Morales said, referring to the Indian said to have seen the Virgin of Guadeloupe in 1531. Pope John Paul II both beatified and canonized Juan Diego during trips to Mexico.
Belarmina Arriola, of Norcross, said she had planned to relax between her two Saturday shifts cleaning office buildings. But after learning of the Pope’s death, the El Salvador native said she decided to put on her church best and pay homage to the pontiff before returning to work at 9 p.m.
“I’m glad his suffering is over,” she said. “He was such a beautiful man.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Notre Dame Cathedral’s bells toll
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Paris, the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral rang out individually 84 times in homage to the late Pope John Paul II — once for each year of his life.
The cathedral in the heart of Paris stayed open through the night for prayers. More than 3,000 worshippers crammed inside, with 1,000 others gathered outside as the towering cathedral’s bells sounded over the French capital.
A giant portrait of John Paul, showing him holding a staff, was hung from the middle of Notre Dame. Mass was said, and worshippers knelt in prayer.
French President Jacques Chirac, in a statement after the pope’s death, said the pontiff ”touched spirits and hearts” with his courage and determination. ”An enlightened and inspired priest, he devoted himself to responding to the search for sense and the thirst for justice that is expressed today on all continents,” Chirac said.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Condolences from Arab League
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Arab League expressed sorrow Saturday for the pope’s death, calling him a man of peace who encouraged dialogue between nations and religions.
”This is a sad day, we are very sad to lose him,” said Hesham Youssef, a spokesman for the secretary general of the league, a group widely seen as a mouthpiece for the Arab world. ”We will never forget his noble stance in support of the oppressed people, including the Palestinians,” Youssef said.
Sulaiman Awad, a spokesman for Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak said ”Egypt received the news (of the pontiff’s death) with deep sadness.” He said Egypt would send a high-level delegation to the pontiff’s funeral.
The Polish-born pontiff, who became history’s most-traveled pope, visited several Arab countries including Egypt, Lebanon and Syria during his 25 year- reign, in addition to being the first pope to visit a mosque.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Grief, tears in pontiff’s hometown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The people in Pope John Paul II’s Polish hometown of Wadowice fell to their knees and wept Saturday as news of his death reached them at the end of a special Mass in the church where he worshipped as a boy.
”His life has come to an end. Our great countryman has died,” parish priest the Rev. Jakub Gil told worshippers.
In Warsaw, church bells rang and traffic halted. At Pilsudski Square, the former Victory Square where he conducted a mass in 1979 in then-communist Poland, people laid flowers in the form of a cross. Others walked to church holding candles.
The pope was deeply loved in mainly Roman Catholic Poland, where his 26-year pontificate served as a source of national pride. Gratitude remains strong for his role in helping topple communism and free Poland from Soviet domination.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Pope’s body will go to basilica Monday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pope John Paul II’s body was expected to be brought to St. Peter’s Basilica sometime late Monday, the Vatican said Sunday.
A Vatican statement said the pope’s body would not be brought to St. Peter’s before Monday afternoon. The statement did not give a precise cause of the pope’s death Saturday night.
The statement said the College of Cardinals would meet at 10 a.m. Monday in its first gathering before a secret election to be held later this month to choose a successor to John Paul.
The cardinals were expected to set a date for his funeral.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Atlanta Catholics drape church doors in black
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nowhere was the pain of the pope’s death felt more deeply and personally than among metro Atlanta’s Polish Catholics.
Andrzej Wor, a Polish native who resides now in Duluth, said the impact was “like losing a part of our family.”
His wife Teresa made a habit of sending cards to Pope John Paul II on birthdays and holy days, he said. She now has a collection of thank you notes signed by the pope which she prizes very highly, he said.
Shortly after the Pope’s death, the offices of the Atlanta archdiocese sent a letter out to all churches, suggesting that the doors to all churches be draped in black.
Rev. Brendan Doyle, pastor of St. Marguerite D’Youville Church in Lawrenceville, said he had only a short time to put up the drape, since he finished a wedding at about 4 p.m. and he had to prepare for a mass at 5:30.
Doyle said John Paul II will be remembered as a Pope of great achievement. “It was phenomenal what the man accomplished,” Doyle said.
Rev. Ed Thein, pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in East Cobb, said John Paul II “provided a clear voice in a world of conflicting values.”
Before his papacy, there was an “anything goes” spirit in both the spiritual and secular worlds, Thein said. And though some viewed John Paul II as being conservative almost to the point of being reactionary, Thein said he actually preserved the spirit of Vatican II, the council on reform of the Catholic church held in the early 1960s.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Archbishop recalls pope’s humor, concern
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The pope “always exhibited a pastor’s concern for the flock,” Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory said at a Saturday news conference.
Gregory, who as the bishop of Belleville, Ill., headed the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during a national priest sex abuse crisis, said the pope gave him “rapt attention” when they met to discuss the scandal.
“He asked me, ‘How are the priests? How are the people?’” Gregory said. “He strengthened me by his complete concern.”
The pope also exhibited his famous sense of humor, Gregory said, greeting the head of the bishops conference with, “Ah, Bishop Gregoroy, president of the United States,” then laughing richly.
“For more than 26 years his was a voice of constancy and clarity,” Gregory said. “He cared for the church of Christ with great zeal and compassion.”
But, the archbishop said, John Paul II never hedged on his beliefs. “He taught clearly, forcefully and consistently,” Gregory said. “He taught the truth in season and out of season. He was not a teacher who felt that his teaching had to be politically correct.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Somber remembrances at U.S. churches
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Quietly at home, or with heads bowed in church, Americans marked the death Saturday of Pope John Paul II, recalling him as a great leader who combined warmth with moral power, a call to care for the poor with an emphasis on liberty.
Bells tolled at Roman Catholic churches across the nation, as they did at the Vatican and around the world. Religious leaders of all faiths spoke out to honor him, as did political leaders. Flags were lowered to half-staff.
”We will always remember the humble, wise and fearless priest who became one of history’s great moral leaders,” said President Bush, who singled out John Paul’s praise for America’s Constitution. ”All popes belong to the world, but Americans had special reasons to love the man from Krakow.”
Many mourners reflected on John Paul’s long suffering and graceful acceptance of death. Others looked to the Polish-born pope’s clear-voiced denunciation of communism. And others remembered his conservative church doctrine, some gratefully and others not.
In downtown Boston, a sign posted on the door at the St. Anthony Shrine announced his death.
”I think his journey through suffering is complete. I’m proud, as a Catholic, of the way he died. He was a model of how to die with dignity,” said Christine Hall, a 25-year-old teacher co
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Bush: World loses ‘champion of human freedom’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Bush led the nation in mourning Pope John Paul II on Saturday, saying ”a good and faithful servant of God has been called home.”
”The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom,” the president said in a brief televised statement from the White House.
The pope, who died at his Vatican apartment at 2:37 p.m. EST, ”left the throne of St. Peter in the same way he ascended to it — as a witness to the dignity of human life,” Bush said.
The president said the first Polish pontiff in history ”launched a democratic revolution that swept Eastern Europe and changed the course of history.”
”Throughout the West, John Paul’s witness reminded us of our obligation to build a culture of life in which the strong protect the weak,” a somber Bush said.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Bush will address nation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Bush called Pope John Paul II ”an inspiration to us all” on Saturday and reacted to the pontiff’s death by immediately ordering that the flags over the White House fly at half-staff.
Bush planned to speak at the White House not even 90 minutes after the death of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope died at 2:37 p.m. EST in his Vatican apartment.
Hours earlier, in his weekly radio address, Bush spoke of John Paul as ”a faithful servant of God and a champion of human dignity and freedom.”
”He is an inspiration to us all,” the president said. ”Laura and I join millions of Americans and so many around the world who are praying for the Holy Father.”
Bush had gotten regular briefings about the pontiff’s condition since his health began deteriorating Thursday. On Saturday, Bush was in the Oval Office before 7 a.m. EST, receiving his usual national security and intelligence briefings along with updates on the pope from senior aides, spokesman Ken Lisaius said.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Thousands of pilgrims converge on Rome
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Preparations began Saturday for the elaborate rituals marking a pope’s death, and officials scrambled to accommodate the tens of thousands of pilgrims converging on Rome as Pope John Paul II’s health deteriorates.
Workmen in lift rucks dismantled the canopy that normally stands on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica to shield the pope from the sun during outdoor Mass. A workman told The Associated Press the space was being cleared for the pontiff’s funeral.
The city of Rome, meanwhile, began making plans to put up tens of thousands of pilgrims expected to descend on the city in the coming days.
Portable toilets and extra ambulances appeared in greater numbers near the Vatican on Saturday and the city transport system said it was increasing service on bus and subway lines which stop at St. Peter’s.
City officials also lined up fairground pavilions and sport stadiums to house the faithful, and the Italian state railway said it would add additional trains to bring pilgrims to Rome.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Bush: Pope an ‘inspiration to us all’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Bush on Saturday said Pope John Paul II has been ”a faithful servant of God and a champion of human dignity and freedom.”
”He is an inspiration to us all,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. ”Laura and I join millions of Americans and so many around the world who are praying for the Holy Father.”
The president has received regular briefings about the pontiff’s condition since the pope’s health began deteriorating Thursday. The Vatican, describing the pope’s health status as ”very grave,” said he showed the first signs of losing consciousness at dawn on Saturday.
Bush, who was spending the weekend at the White House, was in the Oval Office before 7 a.m. EST Saturday. In addition to getting his usual national security and intelligence briefings, Bush was getting updates on the pope from senior aides, spokesman Ken Lisaius said.
Bush normally tapes his radio address on Friday for its broadcast Saturday morning. He rarely delivers them live.
This time, the wait for developments out of Rome had the president holding off until shortly before the broadcast to tape the address in which he mentioned the pope.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
‘Perfect person to lead the church’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Smyrna, parishioners spoke of ailing Pope John Paul II as they made their way to noon mass Friday.
They praised him for his outreach to all parts of the world, his role in the fall of Communism, and his openness and charisma.
“He spoke so many languages, so people felt like he was really talking to them,” said Pat Rossman of Smyrna. “He was the perfect person to lead the church at the time.”
“He truly was a holy man,” said Katherine Garger, of Smyrna. “He was wonderful with the youth of the world, and people appreciated the fact that he loved life, that he enjoyed life. Other popes were isolated.”
“His traveling to other countries had a lot of influence,” said Joe Hawkins of Marietta. “It showed him not just sitting on a throne.”
Henry Y. Harris and his wife, Beverly Harris, of New Orleans, La., attended mass while visiting their daughter who lives in the area.
They said they strongly supported the pope’s “religious conservatism” and hoped his successor would follow.
“Some people might thing we need to go with a new approach in this modern society, but I don’t want the new pope to walk the fence,” Mrs. Harris said.
The Rev. James Kuczynski, the church pastor, cited the pope’s “humanism,” and said, “He’s someone who acted from his heart.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
‘I love this papa’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At St. Ann’s Catholic church this morning, George Luiz B. Silva emerged from the chapel visibly distraught. He said that he and a friend had come to pray for Pope John Paul II. In broken English, Silva said, “I love this papa.”
Several hundred people attended masses at 6:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Friday at St. Ann, double the number usually in attendance, said Tom Reilly, the pastor. Reilly said that prayer was offered at both services and during his meeting with priests on Friday morning.
Reilly said he asked members to pray for John Paul’s health, his recovery and for his healing and noted that the church’s phone lines have been flooded with callers asking about the pope’s health and what church officials think about him and the times
“It’s a time of uncertainty and transition,” Reilly said. “There’s a sadness.”
Reilly said that John Paul has endeared himself even more so to the people because he has continued even in his infirmity to reach out to them. “He gives new meaning to service in that way,” he said.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
‘He’s the main shepherd’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sean Pek, 31, prayed for the pope at a noon Mass on Friday at St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church in Decatur. That wasn’t unusual, he said.
“He’s always in my mind, constantly in my mind,” said Pek, a chef with two brothers who are priests. “He’s the main shepherd.”
What was especially noteworthy, Pek said, was the dignity with which the pope appeared to be facing death.
“Now, he’s an example of how to carry the cross, how to suffer and take it,” Pek said.
Metro Hispanics concerned for pope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Several Hispanic day laborers were paying attention to the pope’s condition as they waited for work assignments Friday morning at a labor center in Duluth
Jose Plaza, 46, is from Colombia. He says he is here with his family. They have been worried about the pope’s deteriorating health throughout the week.
“He may be at the end of his reign,” said Plaza, who attends Prince of Peace church in Buford. “He has been a big influence in the life of the Catholic community. It’s very lamentable about his condition.”
Plaza plans to pray for the pope, and he will go to church this weekend.
“He has lived a life of dedication for others. He is interested in everyone, not just the Catholic community. He has been a pope who gave himself completely and did not hold back any of himself.”
Miguel Escamilla, 52, who arrived from Guatemala less than a week ago, learned of the pope’s failing health was he was traveling
“He has been a good pope. I hope there will be another one like him since he is in his last days.”
Angelica Luna, 21, has been here about 18 months from Hidalgo, Mexico. She remembers the pope’s last visit to Mexico and how it was celebrated with masses and parties. “Pobrecito (poor pope), everbody is very worried about his condition. He has helped the world with his blessings. Latin Americans and Mexicans were very important to him. Mexico was his second home.”
Luna has an altar to the Virgin of Guadelupe at home, and she put a votive candle on the altar with a prayer for the pope..
Said 27-yeear-old Teresa Martinez also from Hidalgo: “Whatever is God’s will. He is very ill.”
Mario Monroy, 34, from Hidalgo, said John Paul II has been “a traveling pope who always gave message of peace and brotherhood. We have been watching the reports about his condition. It’s very worrisome, but this is part of life.
“I think we have to let him rest in peace. We have to leave him be. He is missed and loved very much,” he said.
‘Today is for the pope’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cheryl Lively made a special trip from Griffin to attend noon Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Peachtree City to pray for the ailing pontiff.
“Today is for the pope,” Lively said before entering the church.
Like many Catholics, Lively said she has been following news of the pope’s deteriorating health.
“I wept this morning,” she said. “It hurts my heart.”
“It’s a shame,” Claire Fachet, 81, a parishioner at Holy Trinity said of the pope’s failing health.
Fachet, a regular church-goer, said she has long prayed for the pope — in sickness and health.
“Because he’s got a lot of problems up there,” she said.
Fachet, who said she keeps small photographs of the pontiff on a table in her living room, said that if the pope dies, “it will be a personal loss for all of us.”
When Karen Niederhausen, a 49-year-old church volunteer in Peachtree City, heard the news of the pope’s grave health this morning ,she said she immediately started praying the rosary.
“It’s so hard because I know he’s going to pass on,” she said, her voice straining with emotion. “But he’s going to a better place.”
For Niederhausen, who said she converted to Catholicism in 1989, Pope John Paul II is the only pontiff she’s ever known.
“He means a lot to me,” she said, “even though I don’t know him personally.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Students discuss pope’s illness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students at St. Pius X Catholic High School have been discussing the pope’s illness this week, said Cynthia Carson, who chairs the north DeKalb County school’s theology department and teaches a theology class for juniors.
The talk has centered on two points, Carlson said Friday: the elegance with which the pope appears to be handling his illness and the knowledge that the end of an era is looming.
“Mostly, they’re very impressed with the fact that everything is borne so graciously,” Carlson said. “This is the pope, the only pope these students have ever known. We even have younger teachers who have never known another pope. For them, this goes beyond an interesting fact. This is their life and faith.”
The pope’s decline, coming so quickly after Terri Schiavo’s death, has resulted in deep discussions among her young charges, Carlson said. The focus of the talks, she said, is the width of the spectrum of human life.
“We’ve had discussions in our classes — particularly with young people who can’t imagine life in any other way than how they live it — that have really given them pause to think what constitutes human life. We’ve had really good discussion from both sides. I can look at their faces and tell that they’re really processing things in a different way than they had before,” Carlson said. “They’re becoming aware that there are more ways of being alive than just what they see.”
Students were supposed to hear a wheelchair-bound guest speaker Friday, Carlson said, but bad weather forced a postponement.
To healthy teen-agers, Carlson said, “Being paraplegic sounds as bad as being in a coma. If they’re not willing to say life is valuable until life ceases, they’re certainly thinking of it more.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
President, first lady praying for pope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The White House said Friday that President Bush and his wife were praying for Pope John Paul II and that world’s concern over his failing health was “a testimony to his greatness.”
Bush was briefed on the pontiff’s health Thursday evening by White House chief of staff Andy Card and then updated Friday morning by Card when the president arrived in the Oval Office, spokesman Scott McClellan said. The U.S. Embassy in Rome was in close contact with the Vatican, McClellan said.
He said it was inappropriate to discuss whether Bush might go to Rome for funeral services if the pope died.
“The president and Mrs. Bush join people all across the world who are praying for the holy father,” McClellan said. “He’s in our thoughts and prayers at this time. The outpouring of love and concern from so many — including millions of Americans — is a testimony to his greatness.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Vatican has traditional signs of pope’s passing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many papal observers are watching for the traditional signs the Vatican uses to announce a pope has died.
The Vatican says Pope John Paul is in very serious condition and suffered heart failure last night.
The church could announce his death by drawing his shutters, or by closing a bronze door. But the use of that door has been spotty in modern times. The tradition was ignored in 1978, when two popes died.
The most traditional sign is the tolling of the Vatican’s bells, which prompts churches across Rome to join in.
Tradition holds that the pope’s vicar for Rome would make a formal announcement to Romans. The Vatican would almost certainly have made an earlier announcement to the media. That would come either through Vatican Radio, which then plays somber music, or through the pope’s spokesman.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Former archbishop prays at pope’s bedside
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DETROIT — A former Detroit archbishop who visited Pope John Paul today says the pontiff was having trouble breathing but was alert.
Edmund Szoka told a Michigan television station that the pope “recognized me immediately” and that Szoka knelt by his bed and prayed for him.
Szoka says when he was leaving, he gave the pope a blessing and then the pope tried to bless himself with his hand.
Szoka left his post in Michigan in 1990 to work at the Vatican.
Szoka says he believes the pope “could get well” if doctors can alleviate his breathing troubles.
The pope suffered heart failure yesterday and the Vatican says his condition remains “very serious.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Atlanta Catholics urged to pray
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Catholics logging onto the Web site of the Atlanta Archdiocese Friday were seeing this message:
Join Archbishop Gregory in Prayer for Pope John Paul II
Archbishop Gregory asks that you join him in prayer for the recovery of Pope John Paul II, the Pontiff who has been a “great voice for peace.”
“He has been a friend of humanity and a great voice, especially for the poor and the downtrodden. There is no reason to doubt his great contribution, and may that contribution continue.”
— Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
Age, illness put pope at risk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doctors say the latest health crisis will be a challenge for Pope John Paul II to overcome, given the number of ailments weakening his frail body.
“It’s not a very promising situation,” said Dr. Benjamin Ansell, an internist at UCLA School of Medicine. “When you see recurrent infections as the pope has had, each round of antibiotics may lead to resistance.”
Ansell said a healthy person may recover from a high fever with no problem, but it could be devastating for those with neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, which the pope has suffered for at least a decade. Some Parkinson’s patients who develop a fever may turn catatonic, Ansell said.
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
People around world pray for pope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WADOWICE, Poland � From Polish workers to monks in Norway and parishioners in the Philippines, Roman Catholics around the world prayed Friday for Pope John Paul II.
“The only way we can help him is by prayer,” said 17-year-old Danuta Chowaniec, one of the worshippers at St. Mary’s Church, where the pope was baptized. “In spite of these alarming statements from the Vatican, that he is really worse, I still hope he improves.”
Krystian Zajac, 47, came to the church in tears from his work at a plumbing company.
“This situation is so difficult. I took time off from work to come and pray,” he said. “This is the will of God, we just have to pray, everything is in the hands of God.”
At a tiny cloister on the Lofoten Islands, off northwestern Norway, three Polish monks were prayed for the pope.
“We pray for him as we do every day,” said Dariusz Banasiak, superior of the Cister Monastery. “Our prayers are more intense today, with what we feel in our hearts.”
Permalink | Categories: Pope John Paul
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
