Church reporters at their best!!

CBCP Press Corps

ALMOST a year now since Pope John Paul II died on April 2,2005, I was then a Church reporter and member of Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines(CBCP) Press Corps.

During that timer, I was busy covering the 112 th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)  at the PICC in Manila and then I have to go back to CBCP office to interview some bishops and father about their messages regarding to the sudden death of Pope John Paul II.

While in Vatican , A crowd of over two million present in Vatican City mourned the death of John Paul II. The public viewing of his body in St. Peter's Basilica drew over four million people to Vatican City and was one of the largest pilgrimages in the history of Christianity. Many world leaders expressed their condolences and ordered flags in their countries lowered to half-staff. Numerous countries with a Catholic majority, and even some with only a small Catholic population, declared mourning for John Paul II.