'Amen.' A Moment Later, the Pope Was Dead

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23595-2005Apr3.html

By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 4, 2005; Page A14

ROME -- In his last moments, Pope John Paul II lay in the large but modestly furnished bedroom he had called home for 26 years. His longtime aide, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, a fellow Pole who for nearly 40 years was as close to him as a son, sat by his bedside and prayed. The pontiff was given the sacrament for the sick and dying. Thirteen other people were in the room -- doctors, nurses, servants and senior clerics -- when at 9:37 p.m. Saturday his heart finally stopped beating.

Those are the bare facts of the pope's death as reported by Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Vatican press office. No one who was there has come forward to speak publicly, and much of John Paul's final hours are shrouded in mystery.

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Another account came from Marco Politi, Vatican reporter for La Repubblica newspaper, who quoted the Rev. Jarek Cielecki, editor of the Vatican news service, as saying: "At a certain point, a few moments before he died, the Pope raised his right hand, moving it in an obvious, if only faint, gesture of blessing, as if he were aware of the crowd of the faithful present in the square who at the time were following the saying of the rosary.

"As soon as the prayer was over, the pope made a very great effort and said the word 'Amen.' A moment later, he was dead."