Rome crowded for anniversary of John Paul II

Tomorrow will mark one year since the death of Pope John Paul II. Twice this week I have had to go down to the Vatican, including this morning. There are tens of thousands of pilgrims; the area is completely crowded, and the line-up to get into the basilica of St Peter's, or rather, to the grotto to visit the tombs of the popes is very long. In fact, I have not gone into St Peter's yet this year, because I haven't had the time to wait in line for two hours.

Of the statistics that I have heard: the normal amount of visitors to the tombs of the popes has been between 150 and 300 persons a day. Since the burial of John Paul II, the number on weekdays has averaged 15,000 people, while on weekends it has gone up to as many as 20,000 people. In fact, today there were many Italians in the lines. It seems that Italians are also making St Peter's the goal of pilgrimage again: to remember the "papa polacco", who won their affection, and to see "Papa Ratzinger", who speaks simply and seems to have won their respect as well. And that is a more interesting feat, since many Italians have still not gotten over the sufferings of the Second World War at the hands of the German Nazis after the fall of Mussolini's Fascist government.

So, it will be an interesting week ahead for the amount of pilgrims and visitors. To all appearances, the flood of pilgrims will continue through the Spring. In short, there have been as many visitors to St Peter's during this year since John Paul's death and Benedict's election as during the Great Jubilee of 2000.