World Tunes In to Watch Rites

RIO DE JANEIRO — It was the simple cypress coffin that moved Luiz Alves Franco Jr. to tears. Such a spiritual giant, such an extraordinary life in a wooden box that surely seemed too small.

“He represented God to the whole world,” said Franco, 26, his voice catching as he watched the funeral of the only pope he has known. “He had such love for people.”

Franco, his parents and two sisters crowded around the living room TV in their apartment near Brazil’s Copacabana Beach before sunrise Friday to join countless others around the planet in paying respects to John Paul II.

In places and time zones as varied as those the pope visited, the modern rituals of everyday life were temporarily set aside for a medieval one as people stopped to watch the late pontiff’s funeral Mass.

Londoners shivering beneath their umbrellas gathered in front of a large outdoor screen. Russians overflowed one of Moscow’s two Catholic houses of worship. In tiny Madagascar, people flocked to town halls to see the telecast.

In Bethlehem in the West Bank, which John Paul visited in fulfillment of a lifelong dream, pilgrims sat hushed in an inn close to the Church of the Nativity, built over the spot where tradition holds that Christ was born.

Commentators called the funeral in St. Peter’s Square the largest public gathering of the mighty and meek in modern times, attended by millions in and around the plaza. But mass media made it an event of global dimensions.

Aerial shots of the casket, the throngs of mourners and the colorful sea of robes and miters were broadcast live by the Al Jazeera satellite channel to the Arabic-speaking world. CNN carried three hours of the service. African nations such as Senegal, Rwanda and Congo also aired live telecasts.

The “ ‘global village’ has found a place. It is Rome,” the Berliner Zeitung declared in an editorial in the German capital. “What is to be seen in Rome is not just the one Catholic Church. It is rather a nearly unique glance at the world community.”

In the Philippines, four huge outdoor screens went up in Manila’s Luneta Park, which drew about 500,000 people.

“I had to come to Luneta to share my grief,” said Lita Tenorio, 67, who saw the pontiff up close 24 years ago when he visited her parish. “The pope is a saint. At home, when he is on TV, I wipe the TV set with my handkerchief. The pains in my joints disappear when I touch them with the hankie.”

The Charbels, an Egyptian Catholic family in Cairo, tuned in to BBC to follow the funeral rites for their spiritual leader.

“He was a very simple man and down to earth,” said Theodore Charbel, a 63-year-old businessman.

“You would expect to see him in a fancy coffin with decorations,” said his wife, Evelyn. “But look, his coffin is so simple. What a humble person.”

Here in Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country, it was the first papal funeral many could remember and certainly the first they could watch live as it unfolded far across the Atlantic Ocean.

Alarm clocks clamored early and breakfast was delayed in order for the Franco household to gather around the television for the ceremony, which began at 5 a.m. local time.

In between prayers chanted sotto voce, family members recalled the pope’s 1997 visit to Rio, when he famously quipped, “If God is Brazilian, then the pope is Carioca” -- the term for this city’s inhabitants.

Luiz Alves Franco, born the same year Karol Wojtyla became the first Polish pope, has photos of himself with the pontiff taken during a group pilgrimage to Rome three years ago. The pope’s frailty did nothing to diminish his presence then, or the impact of his death.

“That was a difficult moment,” said Franco, who attends Mass regularly.

In Mexico, TV networks estimated that 5 million people watched the funeral, even though it began in the middle of the night. Many Mexicans felt a personal connection to the pope in light of John Paul’s five visits to their country.

Admiration for the pontiff came from non-Catholics as well. In Moscow, a predominantly Orthodox city, a capacity crowd paid homage at the neo-Gothic Church of the Immaculate Conception.

The sonorous liturgy from Rome, emanating from a large-screen TV on the altar, echoed into the high arches as mourners placed flickering candles at the base of a makeshift shrine.

“I was a Young Communist League member. I never went to church, I never prayed. I thought the main thing was to build communism,” said Yelena Vudzilovich, 70.

“But when John Paul entered my consciousness, I realized the main thing was God. Heaven all of a sudden opened up to me.... This pope didn’t limit himself with the concept that ‘we are Catholic.’ He sent a message to the world at large that God was in the world. For everyone.”

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Times staff writers Robyn Dixon in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ken Ellingwood in Jerusalem, Petra Falkenberg and Christian Retzlaff in Berlin, Kim Murphy in Moscow, Hector Tobar in Buenos Aires and Narayani Lasala in Mexico City and special correspondents Hossam Hamalawy in Cairo and Sol Vanzi in Manila contributed to this report.