Surely, the Pope will be buried in Rome, his ‘heart’ belongs to Poland

When President GMA flies off to Rome tonight, she will arrive there two days too early. This is because the Vatican has announced that His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, will be buried next Friday (Roman time) in St. Peter’s Basilica in accordance with recent papal tradition.

This announcement puts to rest rumors that the deceased Supreme Pontiff, now lying in state in St. Peter’s, might be buried in his native Poland instead (it turns out this was not his behest).

For days, speculation ran rife that John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla on 18 May 1920, in the small town of Wadowice (Wadewiso), some 30 miles southwest of Cracow, might have written in his legacy that he wished to be buried beside his mother whom he adored, or in the royal city of Cracow (a.k.a. Krakow) where he spent four decades of his adult life.

It is in Wadowice, the Pope’s hometown, that the Baroque Church of the Virgin Mary stands in Market Square – the church in which he had been baptized. A museum was set up in his family house there, and a monumental votive church of St. Peter the Arch-Shepherd was built on the town’s outskirts in thanksgiving for the Holy Father having survived the bullets of a Turkish would-be assassin in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on May 13, 1981.

Or he might have been buried in the crypt of Wawel Castle in Cracow where Poland’s kings reigned until the royal court moved from there to Warsaw, or else in the royal tombs underneath the Zygmunt Chapel of the magnificent Cracow Cathedral.

But this is not to be. Papa Wojtyla belongs to all the world – although, surely, his "heart" belongs to Poland.

It was in Cracow that he was a student, a young priest, a theologian and philosopher, a playwright and a poet. Karol Wojtyla had arrived in that city in 1938 to study Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University. When World War II interrupted his studies, he went to work for a chemical plant, but was active in the "underground" Rhapsody Theatre. In 1942, he enrolled in the underground theological seminary where he juggled both his studies and missions for the Resistance against the Nazis during the five years of German Occupation.

It was his election as the Vicar of Christ, the Supreme Pontiff, that gave Archbishop Wojtyla of Cracow the opportunity to fight Communism – and help sledgehammer, with his words and prayers, the Soviet Empire into collapse. He provided the backbone for Lech Walesa’s "SOLIDARITY". Imagine his dizzying rise from humble curate at St. Florian’s church to university professor, to bishop, to Cardinal – to the first non-Italian Pontiff in 450 years. To the shepherd who jetted everywhere, Pope John Paul II has forever changed the nature of the Papacy.

But who will the next Pope be?

Already the world is wondering about how the 117 Cardinals – motivated by the Holy Spirit – or whatever spirit, will vote. The Pope has not yet been laid to rest, but already various candidates are being put forward. Will the next Pope be European? Or someone from Africa? (The Cardinal from Nigeria is already being touted by the cable networks). Or from the Americas where the bulk of the 1.1 billion Catholics come from? Mexico and Brazil are in hot contention.

Will the next Pope, instead, come from Asia? The Philippines is not even being seriously considered, since our no longer so turbulent Eminence, Jaime Cardinal Sin is weak and ailing, and indeed in… semi-retirement.

I won’t join the guessing game. Que sera, sera. That’s what the old Italian song says.

* * *

The Presidential party gets bigger and bigger. La Presidenta will now leave on a chartered plane (from Philippine Airlines, presumably) and will bring along with her 15 bishops and perhaps other dignitaries. Foreign Affairs Secretary Bert Romulo will, of course, be a member of the official party.

Since there is a chartered aircraft, there’s even the possibility that Cardinal Sin could be able to make the journey under medical supervision. If he does so, will he then be able to join His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and His Eminence Jose Tomas Cardinal Sanchez (our other two Cardinals) in The Conclave to elect the next Pope?

Cardinal Sanchez, by the way, is based in the Vatican, with his office not far from the late Holy Father’s.

It used to be said in ancient times that "all roads lead to Rome." In the past few days this has proven true once more. I think yesterday’s Financial Times banner headline says it all: Millions to Visit Rome to Mourn the Pope.

Reported Tony Barber, the daily newspaper’s correspondent: "Up to two million pilgrims are expected to flood in to Rome this week to pay their last respects… about 200 foreign leaders will attend the Pope’s funeral expected to take place at the end of the week."

I guess GMA will have to brave the traffic jam.
The big networks, Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), and Fox News have been covering the unfolding events in the Vatican non-stop for the past three days.

The immense outpouring of love and admiration for the deceased Holy Father – I hesitate to use the term tsunami for its dire connotations – is nothing short of amazing.

I don’t believe, however, that the next Pope to be chosen ought to be bulldozed into fitting into his saintly predecessor’s mold, an intimidating thought even at this stage. He’ll probably have his own style and his own ideas. Who could have foreseen what Papa Wojtyla would make of his 26-year Papacy? The world already half expects the next Pope to be somewhat of a let-down, even a disappointment. Admittedly, John Paul II’s spectacular act is a hard one to follow. But the next Vicar of Christ might surprise us yet.

Truly, Our Lord’s pledge to the first Pope, Simon Peter – the chief Apostle who had denied Him thrice before the cock crowed in Jerusalem – was that he would be The Rock on which he would build his church – "and the gates of hell" would not prevail against it. Often the gates of hell" would not prevail against it. Often enough, the Vatican’s own gates seemed like the portals of hell themselves. But the Church rolls on – immortal for all its human foibles, instances of corruption, deoiation, heresy, and excruciating moral dilemmas.

* * *

Police Director General & Chief Art Lomibao got into trouble with Manila’s scrappy Mayor Lito Atienza owing to yesterday’s over-enthusiastic page 4 headline in the STAR – the one which blared forth: "AVOID MANILA’S NIGHT LIFE, PNP URGES IPU DELEGATES."

"Whaddya mean avoid Manila’s night life?" Hizzoner Mayor Atienza roared. "Manila’s safe!" I think his rejoinder might even have been spiced by a few gaddamits.

General Lomibao rushed to mollify the Mayor, saying he had never uttered the alleged admonition to avoid the "night-life" in Manila. He reiterated he had merely advised the 1,000 delegates attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference here to first inform their Organizing Committee as to where each of them was going so the proper police protection could be arranged. Indeed, when one reads the actual article by reporter Cecile Suerte Felipe, this is what the story says.

Lomibao, in fact, cancelled an originally planned trip to Pagadian to check on smuggling activities there so he could personally supervise security arrangements for the IPU delegates. Thus far, only 1,000 or so are here, representing 104 countries. The Italian delegation, 29-strong arrived, but on hearing of the Holy Father’s death, turned around and flew back to Rome.

As for anybody admonishing delegates to shun night-life or the nightclubs and entertainment centers, he sadly misreads the purpose of inter-parliamentary union junkets held annually in selected cities of the world. The delegates may pretend to discuss serious business during part of the day, but towards sunset they invariably turn to other… well, pursuits. That’s the whole point.

Some of them might already be fidgeting to go off to Rome to join the funeral rites – and be captured on television in the proper poses of piety for the edification of their Catholic constituents. Politics after all is not just "the art of the possible" these days, as the old saw goes, but the art of getting yourself on TV.

Why, the last report we got is that US President George W. Bush may be going to Rome, too, with his entire family, including perhaps brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida (which is in the Catholic belt). This goes to show that Bush is grateful to have gotten – even if the late Holy Father had just about scolded him for the Iraq War – as many Catholic votes as his really Catholic opponent, the Democrats’ Sen. John Kerry.