The new hot pilgrimage site in this place of many holy sites is the tomb of Pope John Paul II, a simple slab of white marble in a grotto beneath St. Peter's Basilica where his body was laid to rest in 2005. In some ways it is not surprising. John Paul served for 26 years and was a beloved and well-traveled figure, the Pope who visited more countries than any Pope in history.
The devotion to his grave three years after his death is a testament to his lasting influence.
"You can understand the first week, the first month, the first year, but still they come day after day," said Diego Contreras, a professor of church communications in Rome.
They come by the thousands, and guards are hard pressed to control the crowd in the narrow corridors where the remains of nearly 100 Popes are interred. One guard lets a group of 20 in and then another ushers them through announcing, "Avanti, avanti." ("Move, move.")
On Wednesday, a cluster of devoted followers prayed behind a red rope at one end of the corridor. Three nuns from India, all dressed in white, meditated for a long time without moving.
A young woman from Poland wept openly. "I was born the same year he became Pope, 1979," she said. "He's a special person. He's already a saint. We don't have to wait for beatification. Now we can pray directly to him."
Wednesday is an especially busy day at the Vatican. That is when the current Pope, Benedict, holds an audience with the public in the same way that John Paul did during his papacy.
The Rev. John Wauck, of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, said many expected that the audiences would thin out after the death of the highly popular John Paul.
"But the opposite has happened," he said. For one thing, Benedict, a long time Vatican bureaucrat, has proved more pastoral than many expected and, for another, he has benefited from the new esteem John Paul brought to the papacy.
In the audience hall Wednesday, 12,000 people rose to their feet and cheered as Benedict entered, his hands held high in greeting. People broke into spontaneous song and impromptu bands of musicians rose up to play hymns.
When the crowd quieted down, the Pope spoke at length in Italian about "what it means to be an apostle of Christ today" and then summarized his remarks in five other languages: English, German, French, Polish and Spanish.
He was following a script that was established during the papacy of John Paul. Like his predecessor, Benedict finished by blessing everyone in the crowd and any religious objects they brought with them, such as rosaries and medals. He then personally greeted some 20 people in wheelchairs and made a sweep of a group of brides and their grooms, bestowing blessings on their new marriages.
As the pilgrims filed out of the great hall, thousands headed straight for the tomb of the man who set the standard for the modern papacy. "Joannes Paulus II," the inscription says in Latin. And beneath his name are the dates of his papacy: 1979 to 2005.
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(Source: SA)