United States: Pope John Paul was a revered and charismatic figure in the US, writes Conor O'Cleary in Boston.
President George Bush led the US in mourning for Pope John Paul II, ordering flags to be flown at half-mast on federal buildings and making plans personally to lead the American delegation to the funeral in Rome.
"The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd, the world has lost a champion of freedom, and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home," Mr Bush told the nation in a televised address from the White House.
Although the Pope was critical of the US-led war on Iraq, and said so to the US president, Mr Bush expressed a strong liking for him. "We will always remember the humble, wise and fearless priest who became one of history's great moral leaders," said Mr Bush.
Former president Bill Clinton said: "The Holy Father was a beacon of light, not just for Catholics but for all people."
Shortly after the Pope's death was announced late on Saturday afternoon Eastern Standard Time, crowds of tearful people began streaming into churches and cathedrals across the US.
Yesterday lines of Catholics queued for several blocks on Fifth Avenue in New York for a Requiem Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral. New York Cardinal Edward Egan recalled that the Pope had visited his would-be assassin in prison, and called this a "supremely holy" act.
In Boston on Saturday evening hundreds of people gathered in pouring rain for Mass on Boston Common after news of the Pope's death spread, and a formal notice of his passing was posted on the door of St Anthony's Shrine.
The Archbishop of Boston, Seán O'Malley, who led a service in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross last night, said: "Our lives and our world are forever changed for the better because of the Holy Father's vision and his passionate commitment to the truth and human dignity."
During the era of Pope John Paul II the number of Catholics in the US reached 63 million, the largest ever, but the number of priests has declined, from 30,000 in 1990 to 24,000 today, and a quarter of these are believed to be over 75.
From the time the Pope made his first visit to the US in 1979, he urged American Catholics to reject contraception and abortion and refused to countenance demands for women and married priests. He also rejected many liberal initiatives of American bishops inspired by Vatican II, such as the use of language embracing both sexes in the English version of the revised Catechism.
The Pope loved his priests but his policies could be very difficult for them, according to Father Robert Silva, president of the national federation of priests' councils.
The Catholic Church in America endured its greatest crisis in recent years over sexual abuse, and last year Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston was transferred to the Vatican amid controversy over his handling of abusive priests.
Archbishop O'Malley, a Capuchin Franciscan friar, was chosen by Pope John Paul to lead the troubled archdiocese and heal the deep wounds caused by the scandal.
Asked yesterday if more could have been done to prevent the scandal, which helped bring about the closure of several Catholic churches in the Boston archdiocese due to huge litigation costs, Cardinal Law said: "Now is not the time to be reflecting on that issue."
He added, however, in an interview on ABC television, "All of us deplore a failure to live out fully the message of Christ."
Dr James Post, president of the Voice of the Faithful, an organisation of Catholics that campaigns for greater accountability in the church in the wake if the scandals, said that John Paul II had a love affair with the people of Boston "but his behaviour in response to the sex abuse crisis disappointed many Catholics".
Father Walter Cuenin, a priest who advocated the resignation of Cardinal Law, told the New York Times that "it is difficult for a lot of people" that Cardinal Law would be voting for the new pope, and not Archbishop O'Malley.
Pope John Paul was nevertheless a revered and charismatic figure in the US, transcending divisions in the Catholic Church and honoured more than any previous Pope by evangelicals for his pro-life stance.
The Rev Billy Graham, America's most prominent evangelist, said the Pope was unquestionably "the most influential voice for morality and peace in the world during the last 100 years". Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, praised Pope John Paul II for making it "a special priority of his papacy to continue the process of reconciliation between the church and the Jewish people".
"Catholics worldwide have lost a monumental leader and the Jewish community has lost a treasured friend," he said.
President Bush hailed Pope John Paul 11 as a "hero for the ages" and a great moral leader who "launched a democratic revolution that swept eastern Europe and changed the course of history".
The President and First Lady Laura Bush attended a packed memorial mass in St Matthew's Cathedral in Washington conducted by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick on Saturday evening.
Cardinal McCarrick said the prelates gathering in Rome would be looking for someone to build on Pope John Paul II's lesson that "that the Catholic Church cannot be full and entire without reaching out to non-Catholics."