EDITORIALS; Caring for Those "Especially in Need of Help".(Obituary)

It is a testimony to Pope John Paul II's longevity that the 264th occupant of the throne of St. Peter is the only Pope half the world has ever known.

It is a testimony to the power of his personality and the incandescence of his commitment to Christ that leaders of other faiths were as generous in their praise of the Pontiff as they would have been had their own spiritual leader died. It did not go unnoticed that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, became the first serving leader of the Church of England to attend a Pontiff's funeral.

It is a testimony to the way he commanded the world's stage for more than 26 years that his final illness, preparations for his funeral, and the funeral itself were virtually around-the-clock staples of cable television and, to a lesser extent, the major networks. The world was captivated one last time by Karol Wojtyla

It is a testimony to the Pope's magnetic hold, not just on youth, that in some sense we all thought of him as Father. It is a testimony to the respect in which he was held that the secular media unselfconsciously used religious idiom pervasively in its wall-to-wall coverage.

Nancy Gibbs' first paragraph in Time magazine weaves these latter two threads together beautifully.

"You feel smaller when your father dies because he was strong and lifted you, carried you and taught you, and when he's gone the room feels too big without him," she wrote. "So it was in St. Peter's Square, where pilgrims kept vigil, their faces traced in low light by candles, murmuring 'Don't leave us.' Among the believers was almost disbelief that death still comes even to a man this strong - - the Holy Father who had carried his people so far, lifted them so high, taught them so much and now finally was slipping away."

For pro-lifers, it is difficult to image a man more committed to our cause than Pope John Paul II, or more eloquent. It was the Pontiff, of course, who coined the phrase, "The culture of life." It is an idea so powerful that those who are more comfortable with the culture of death are forced to address it.