Mourners from around the world turned to the Internet to track the waning hours of Pope John Paul II's life and shared their anguish over his death with a global community in cyberspace. Developments on the pope's final days dominated major portals such as www.yahoo.com and www.google.com as well as news media websites, which reported an extraordinary leap in hits as his health took a sharp turn for the worse.
The news director for AOL's German site www.aol.de, Matthias Bruegge, said the number of searches on the pope had increased "five to 10 fold" while the number of entries on a Vatican chat forum had jumped to 10 times the normal level.
Meanwhile a live video stream on the Washington Post website, www.washingtonpost.com, showing throngs of the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square crashed repeatedly, presumably due to high demand from web surfers.
Readers of the BBC News website news.bbc.co.uk turned overwhelmingly to stories about the pontiff and filled a section called "Have Your Say" with their recollections, concerns and prayers.
"I love Pope John Paul II very much and I will continue to pray for him, and now through him, until the end of my life," wrote Zen Udani of China. "I believe that now he's so close to God in heaven."
The site also featured reaction from those of other faiths.
"As a Palestinian Muslim I was very emotionally moved and deeply saddened last night when I learned the news," wrote Mustafa Alami of London. "The Pope was a noble ambassador of good will and great advocate of human rights and justice in the world. I will never forget how the Pope embraced our cause and our struggle for freedom and justice in the Holy Land."
CRITICS, TOO, SPOKE THEIR MINDS:
"Whilst my partner and I sympathise with those of the Catholic faith who seem to have liked Pope John Paul a lot, we sincerely hope that the next pope will be more enlightened and encourage the use of condoms," Amanda and Ben from Paris said.
"There is nothing 'holy' about the spread of AIDS."
On the website of Hungarian daily Nepszabadsag, www.nol.hu, a reader said he had been surprised by the intensity of his own reaction to the news of the ailing pontiff.
"Although I'm not particularly religious nor a member of any church, the suffering (of the pope) has touched me in a strange way."
Google's "Groups" chat forum, groups-beta.google.com, featured a lively debate between Muslims and Christians on a page labelled alt.test.pope-john-paul-ii.
"Active community participation by us all will replace a hundred popes, cardinals, mullahs or whatever they refer to themselves as," Pavel Beckett of Australia wrote in an entry dated Saturday.
Another user of the site named Andreas provided a link to a gold-plated bust of the pope he was selling on eBay.
Online discussion forums in China, which bars its Catholics from recognising the Vatican's authority, were also bombarded with messages. While most were prayers and tributes, there were also sharp words for the Holy See.
"The Vatican is anti-humanity, it is against the world trend. Why has it not established diplomatic ties with China but instead recognises Taiwan? It is continuing to cultivate the Cold War mentality," said one message.
"May God forgive those who are ignorant, because they are not aware of what they are doing," wrote another.
Meanwhile a site called The Pope Blog (thepopeblog.blogspot.com) offered updates, links to news sites and a forum for conversation and condolences.
"Death is inevitable and we should all try not to be too saddened by it," a user named Fred wrote.
"I find it comforting that the beginning of April was chosen as his time of passing. April (Spring) has traditionally been identified as a time of new life, renewal, and regeneration. Let us pray for him as he enters his new life in the heavens."
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