Rome was an extraordinary place to be in 2005. In March I had submitted my doctorate to the professors of the Gregorian University, and was able to escape from the room-to-library-to-room treadmill of student life. I still had to defend the thesis; thirty minutes of giving a public lecture followed by an hour of being grilled by the two Readers, but that wasnt until April 14. Meanwhile, I was free to get involved in the dramas surrounding the end of a long papacy, the interregnum, and the election and installation of a new Pope.

St Peter’s Piazza in front of the basilica was the focus of the attention of the world. As the news of the declining health of John Paul got out, the media started to converge. Initially the focus was on whether or not John Paul II would resign. This was a topic that few in the Roman Church were prepared to comment on. One intrepid, or desperate, Irish radio journalist rang me and asked if I would be prepared to talk about the possibility of a papal resignation. I assured him of my complete lack of insight into the intentions of Holy Father, that I considered it unlikely and that I knew very little of the complexities that might ensue. By way of a sop, I offered to talk to him about the last and only time a Pope resigned. He accepted, arranged an interview time and I spent a couple of hours in the Gregorian University library reading up on the short and inglorious pontificate of Celestine V five months in the year 1294. That radio interview, led to a television one, and I acquired a reputation as someone prepared to speak to the media. There were an enormous number of news people arriving in Rome, and much of the worlds media operates in English, so any Anglophone cleric foolish enough to appear on air was in demand.

Prayerful, solemn crowds gathered beneath the window of the papal apartment and prayed for John Paul II as he neared death. On Saturday April 2 I had presided at the vigil mass at Santa Susanna and group of us walked from there into Piazza San Pietro. The media were kept out of the piazza, and it was eerily quiet for such a large crowd, groups reciting the rosary, candles alight, many simply standing praying and waiting. It was a deathwatch the family of the Church gathered near the deathbed of John Paul. We had gone away for a meal when the news came through the Pope was dead. We returned to find the whole crowd reciting the rosary together. At midnight I tried to explain the experience to the BBC World Service; What was the mood of the crowd? We were mournful but not too upset, it was a long awaited death, we did not want John Pauls suffering to be prolonged.

Sunday April 3, (Divine Mercy Sunday) was the first of the nine days of official mourning, with Cardinal Sodano leading a mass in the piazza. The crowd that turned up was so immense I had a struggle getting there. Any priest was welcome to concelebrate and I joined the tail end of a very long procession emerging from St Peter’s. Because I was at the back of the concelebrants I was one of those tapped on the shoulder to stand behind the altar holding the chalices and ciboria that could not be fitted on it. This had the effect, from the viewpoint of the television camera broadcasting the event, of making it look like I was standing between Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Sodano. My closest brush with greatness!

Over the next few days the Pope’s body lay in state in St Peter’s. The waiting line of mourners kept growing longer and longer until it was a twenty-four hour ordeal to queue up to walk past the bier. Lyndsay Freer, who had been holidaying in Italy, came to Rome and did a superb job of facilitating access for the New Zealand media. Reporters unaccustomed to dealing with matters of religion had trouble understanding Catholic ritual and terminology. Our favourite blooper was on the front page of the International Herald Tribune when it referred to the object beside the Pope’s body on the bier as a silver staff, called the crows ear.

In researching this article, Ive found online a news video from that time. http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0405/pope_av.html