Siena student saw John Paul II lying in state at Vatican

It was a night Steven Kennedy will never forget.

The student from Siena College in Loudonville, who is studying in Rome, joined the tremendous line snaking from the doorway of St. Peter's Basilica just before midnight on April 5 -- and waited "neck-to-neck and arm-to-arm" with thousands of people from around the world who had come to pay their final respects to Pope John Paul II.

"It sent shivers up my spine," he said of the historic moment. "I saw the tears on so many people's faces. When I walked past him, shivers rose up my spine."

Bells toll

Mr. Kennedy, who is a Protestant, found out about the pope's death while on spring break in Sicily. He was walking past a church in Palermo when bells struck up all around him.

People knew immediately that John Paul was dead. He recalled that the silent street was immediately choked with people who "walked like zombies" to churches.

Back in Rome, Mr. Kennedy found himself caught up in a bustling city. He heard pilgrims speaking dozens of different languages as they set up temporary camps.

"I could not believe what I was seeing," he said. "People were sleeping on street corners, in parks and in random spots. They brought with them usually just a backpack and maybe a pillow or a blanket."

Waiting in line

Mr. Kennedy spent five hours in line to see the pope lying in state. He said pilgrims passed the time in line praying, talking about the pope and their experiences in Rome, and "singing songs of joy, hope and sadness."

To get a better idea of what the pope meant to others in line, he spoke with the Italians around him. "Everyone had the same answer: They were going to miss him, they loved him and they would do anything for him," he said.

Arriving inside St. Peter's, he struggled with his feelings, he said. It was "scary" to think that "this body in front of me, lifeless and totally still," was once the leader of a billion Catholics across the world.

"He was like a father to so many. It boggles my mind that so many would wait 24 hours to see this man. I realized this: The pope must have been a father to these people. If my own father had passed away, you'd be sure I would wait in line for 24 hours to see his body."

(Steven Kennedy, a Guilderland native, is a marketing and management major who has spent this last year studying history and language in Rome.)

(5/05/05)