Jerusalem, Middle East - Israelis and Arabs united in mourning on Sunday for Pope John Paul, hailing him as a man of peace who sought to heal ancient wounds and forge a brighter future for the Middle East.
At the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, the faithful lit candles next to a portrait of the Pope. Worshippers in Nazareth, the Galilee town where Jesus grew to manhood, filled the Basilica of the Annunciation.
In Jerusalem, hundreds of worshippers chanting hymns marched by candle light in the pouring rain through the old walled city to Gethsemane, the site where Jesus was believed to have been arrested before his crucifixion.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called John Paul "a friend of the Jewish people" and said the world had lost "one of the most important leaders of our generation."
He said the Pope had "worked to bring about historic reconciliation" between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jews, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the Jewish state in 1993.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described John Paul as "a great religious figure who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom, justice and equality for all races and religions, as well as our people's right to independence."
Lebanon, which has more than a million Catholics, most of them Maronites, declared three days of official mourning.
"The Holy See has always stood by (the Lebanese people), shared their sufferings during years of bitterness and inspired them with hopes of reuniting and of joining hands to build their nation," President Emile Lahoud said.
CHRISTIAN SECT IN IRAQ MOURNS POPE
In the mountains of northern Iraq, followers of the ancient Chaldean Christian sect, watched over by guards armed with AK-47 assault rifles, gathered for mass to mourn the Pope.
"This news touches me greatly," said worshipper 26-year-old Wamibh Yuhana. He said one lesson Iraqis could learn from the Pope was that he had forgiven the Turkish gunman who shot him in St. Peter's Square in 1981.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak praised the Pope as "a symbol of love and peace and one who called for dialogue between religions." Grand Sheikh Mohamed Sayed al-Tantawi applauded his "moderate position supporting Arab issues in each of Palestine and Iraq."
But not all in the Middle East were sympathetic. In Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, Abdul Rahman al-Mashari, a 45-year-old engineer, said: "He meant nothing to me. He was not even as important as a hair on my head."
But Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, said: "We express our sadness over the loss and send our condolences and best wishes to all the Christian communities around the world."
Grand Mufti Ikrima Sabri, the leading Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, called the Pope's passing "a loss for the world, the Catholic Church, peace and freedom-lovers."
Kuwait's ruler Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah said in a condolence message to the Vatican that the Pope was "a great man who worked for the betterment of humanity and for cooperation, understanding and spreading peace among peoples."
At the age of 79 and already ailing, the Pontiff embarked on a gruelling seven-day millennium pilgrimage to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan in March 2000 that took him to the very roots of the Roman Catholic faith.
For Israelis, two images stand out: the Pope's pilgrimage to Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and his prayer at Jerusalem's Western Wall for forgiveness for historical Christian mistreatment of Jews.
Jewish leaders had long praised the Polish Pope's repeated condemnation of anti-Semitism and his description of Jews as the Church's "dearly beloved elder brothers."
Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the Pope, who visited a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem five years ago, had shown that "respect for human dignity" was fundamental to resolving the Middle East conflict.