More from from Rome and beyond

• VATICAN PLANS SUNDAY MASS | 10 p.m. ET

The Vatican is planning several special Sunday services.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano will lead the Repose of the Soul of the Holy Father in St. Peter's Square at 4:30 a.m. ET (10:30 a.m. local time).

Other prayers were to be held at 6 a.m. ET (12:30 p.m. local time).

• IN ASIA, SUNDAY SERVICES MOURN LOSS | 9:30 p.m. ET

In the Philippines, Asia's largest Catholic country, people grieved in churches and in private for a pope who visited twice and inspired a return to democracy when huge protests swelled to chase out dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

"He was the voice and conscience of truth," Gaudencio Rosales, the Archbishop of Manila, told 1,000 solemn worshippers at the small Divine Mercy Shrine. "He spoke on issues that he believed in — especially life, justice, compassion and love."

Priests planned to plant 84 seedlings at a Manila park, to be renamed the John Paul Forest, to mark the pontiff's age.

• NEWLY NAMED BISHOP WEIGHS IN | 8:45 p.m. ET

"This pope will go down as John Paul the Great," said the Archbishop of Accra, Charles Palmer-Buckle, one of the bishops promoted on March 30 in John Paul's last round of appointments.

"With him, there were no shades of gray. It was either black or white, especially in the area of morality."

The Pope's opposition to the use of condoms in the continent worst hit by AIDS generated criticism, particularly by Western health campaigners. But his preference for abstinence as a solution has been echoed by some African governments.

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