Pope John Paul II dies at 84

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II, a dynamic preacher who traveled the world, battled communism and proclaimed his moral code, set an example of how to live life. In his later years, crushed by sickness that slowed his vigorous gait and silenced his powerful voice, he became an example of how to suffer and how to die.\nAs he hovered near death, his system failing, he refused to go to the hospital, preferring to remain in his Vatican apartment with his closest aides at his bedside. Medical experts said hospitalization would not have significantly prolonged his life.\nThe Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, celebrated Mass on Sunday for John Paul on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, calling on the tens of thousands of people gathered there to pray for "our beloved John Paul."\n"We entrust with confidence to the risen Christ, Lord of life and history, our beloved John Paul II who for 27 years guided the universal church as the successor of Peter," he said.\nThe Polish pontiff who led the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century and became history's most-traveled pope, died Saturday in his Vatican apartment. He was 84.\nJohn Paul died as cardinals led some 70,000 people at St. Peter's Square in prayers for him in his "last journey." Bells tolled at the Vatican and across Rome, and Vatican, Italian and European Union flags were lowered to half-staff across the capital.\nIn a statement issued early Sunday, the Vatican said the pope's body was expected to be brought to St. Peter's Basilica no earlier than Monday afternoon. The statement did not give a precise cause of death.\nFrom his surprise election in 1978, John Paul traveled the world frequently, staunchly opposing communism in his native Poland and across the Soviet bloc and preaching against rampant consumerism, contraception and abortion.\nA fierce enemy of communism, he set off the sparks that helped bring down communism in Poland, from where a virtual revolution spread across the Soviet bloc. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said much of the credit belonged to John Paul.\nJohn Paul was a robust 58 when the cardinals stunned the world and elected the cardinal from Krakow, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.\nHe survived a 1981 assassination attempt, when a Turkish gunman shot him in the abdomen.\nIn his later years, John Paul -- the most-traveled pope in history -- was the picture of frailty, weighed down by Parkinson's disease and crippling knee and hip ailments. Although he continued his travels, he was too weak to continue his famous gesture of kissing the ground when he arrived at his destinations.\nJohn Paul's death set in motion centuries of tradition that mark the death of a pope.\nThe Vatican chamberlain formally verified the death, which in the past was done by tapping a pope's forehead three times with a silver hammer. The Vatican summoned the College of Cardinals, and the Vatican chamberlain destroyed the symbols of the pope's authority: his fisherman's ring and dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters.\nJohn Paul's funeral will be held within four to six days. The Vatican has declined to say whether he left instructions for his funeral or burial. Most popes in recent centuries have asked to be buried in the crypts below St. Peter's Basilica, but some have suggested the first Polish-born pope might have chosen to be laid to rest in his native country.\nIn the pope's hometown of Wadowice, Poland, people fell to their knees and wept at the news that the pontiff had died. Many of them learned of his death at the end of a special Mass in the church where John Paul worshipped as a boy.