Pope's last blessing: Be happy

After paying her respects at St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland, a woman walks past a large photo of Pope John Paul II wearing a korowai. The picture was taken during his 1986 New Zealand visit. Picture / Dean Purcell

"I am happy and you should be as well," was the Pope's final message to 1.1 billion Catholics and well-wishers around the globe.

The personal touch from John Paul II, who died in his Vatican apartment at 7.37am, just as the New Zealand faithful were heading to Sunday morning services, summed up a 26-year papacy that combined warmth and moral certainty.

His papacy gave the church a new direction, touching more lives than ever before in New World countries while facing challenges in its traditional heartlands.

A successor must now be found who can juggle the demands of steering the church in a modern age. Cardinals, including New Zealand's Catholic prelate, Cardinal Tom Williams, who leaves for Rome today, will gather in conclave to determine the church's future amid 2000-year-old rituals.

It will be two to three weeks before a successor is known, signalled when white smoke rises from a Vatican chimney, indicating the cardinals have reached a two-thirds majority consensus.

The Pope will lie in state from today, while the political manoeuvrings to replace him step up. Of the favourites, three are from Italy and others include a Nigerian and several South Americans, recognising that 65 per cent of Catholics now come from Africa, Asia and South America.

The man born Karol Wojtyla in Poland was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years and his surprise election at a relatively young 58 is thought unlikely to be repeated. His was the third-longest reign of any Pope.

An older cardinal with conservative views is tipped, possibly a transitional figure as the church weighs whether to reform or continue its crusades into new lands.

According to church rules, the Pope's mourning rites will last for nine days. His body is likely to be laid to rest in the crypt beneath St Peter's Basilica.

The Government has asked that flags on public buildings be lowered to half-mast today and again on the day of the Pope's funeral.

St Peter's Square, where tens of thousands of people held a vigil in the days before the pontiff's death, filled again with crowds at dawn. At the same time, but half a world away in New Zealand, evening Masses were remembering a visionary leader of courage and charisma.

"His name symbolised where he stood as a moral authority and world leader. John was an icon of the contemplative and Paul was a missionary to the world. He gave to the people and was the Pope for the people," Father Allan Jones told the congregation at St Mary of the Angels in Wellington. "He wasn't just one of the great Popes, but one of the great men of history."

Cardinal Williams said: "Inevitably there is a sense of loss ... but on the other hand there are also feelings of relief, that his suffering is at an end and he has gone to God."

The 84-year-old Pope dictated his final message to his "guardian of the gate", Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.

It was a scene that could have come straight from the walls of the Vatican Museum's vast art galleries.

Beside the Pope, two nuns rested adoring hands on soft sheets, knowing little time remained. Opposite the bed, on wooden armchairs, sat another nun and the archbishop.

He is a man used to insisting over recent years, and especially the past few months, "Il papa sta bene" - the Pope is well. No proclamations of good health were being made this weekend, however, a week after the extent of his decline became apparent, when at Easter Sunday he had appeared briefly at the window of his Vatican apartment to bless the faithful, but was unable to speak. It was the first time in 26 years that the Pope, who suffered from Parkinson's disease and was hospitalised twice this year because of breathing problems, had delegated the main Easter ceremonies to his cardinals.

The 65-year-old archbishop was alerted by one of the attendant nuns when the pontiff, barely able to speak, indicated he was needed.

Archbishop Dziwisz, who just 24 hours earlier had administered the last rites to the Pope for the third time, went to his bedside.

Together they had seen off assassination attempts and serious illness. They had eaten every meal together and lived side by side in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Pope John Paul II looked up, barely able to speak, and the inseparable pair prepared one of their final personal messages to the world's Catholics.

Desperately, the pontiff tried to explain his thoughts. Archbishop Dziwisz wrote, "I am happy and you should be as well. Let us pray together with joy."

The Pope's personal doctor, Renato Buzzonetti, and his specialist team were outside the room.

Only an electronic ventilator, suction devices and breathing tubes betrayed the fact that this departure was taking place in the 21st century.

Later they and other senior Vatican figures were present as Viaticum, or communion received when death appears imminent, was administered.

Death came as the Pope was staring at his window, which looked out over the crowds gathered in St Peter's Square, a Polish priest told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. According to the paper, Father Jarek Cielecki said the Pope raised his right hand as if to offer a blessing to those reciting the rosary in the square.

"Once the faithfuls' prayer ended, the Pope made a huge effort and pronounced the word 'Amen'," he said. "An instant later he died."

It was unclear how Father Cielecki learned of the details.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls was reduced to tears as he revealed the Pope had asked to stay in his apartment overlooking St Peter's Square after being "informed of the gravity of his situation".

The Pope's own words rang out across St Peter's Square last night as Archbishop Leonardo Sandri read out an address the Pope had prepared for the regular Sunday Mass.

"To all humanity, which today seems so lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, our resurrected Lord gives us his love which forgives, reconciles and reopens the soul to hope."

Special Requiem Masses will be held this week around New Zealand to mark the Pope's death.

A decision on who will represent the country at his funeral will be announced soon.