PARIS — Churches were packed, prayers murmured and breath held as Catholics around the world prepared themselves Friday for the imminent death of their spiritual leader, Pope John Paul II.
"We are moved but not desperate -- the church is larger than its popes -- but it wouldn't be human not to be sad," said Jacques Perrier, the bishop of Lourdes, a city in southern France holy to Roman Catholic pilgrims.
Perrier extolled John Paul as a man with "an exceptional destiny, in his youth under Hitler's regime, then under communism and later as a pope."
For many, hopes that the pontiff would recover from his latest illnesses gave way to resignation that mortality would soon overtake the third longest-serving pope, who has led the church for more than 26 years.
In Washington, the White House said President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were praying for the pontiff.
"The pope is an inspiration to millions of Americans and people all over the world for his great moral leadership," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Amid the sorrow, many of the pope's admirers -- not all of them his followers -- focused on the achievements of a pontificate that witnessed the end of the Cold War and reached into the 21st century. Some lauded him for his efforts to heal relations between Christians and Jews and to reach out to Muslims. Others expressed gratitude for his role in helping to bring down the Iron Curtain, especially in Poland, his native land.
"I don't forget that he played a decisive part in bringing the walls of Europe down," making the continent "a reunited land of freedom," said French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin.
Many marveled at the pontiff's longevity, which extended well past an assassination attempt in 1981.
"The pope's condition is very delicate, but we have to consider it a blessing the long life that was given him till now," said Murilo Sebastiao Ramos Krieger, the archbishop of Florianopolis in southern Brazil.
Churches throughout Brazil, a country with more than 120 million Catholics, were filled with worshipers Friday in honor of a pontiff who had visited several times. Father Marcelo Rossi, a young priest whose services attract thousands of congregants, prayed for John Paul's health. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a practicing Catholic, was said to be monitoring reports of the pope's condition.
