SEATTLE (WA)
KING 5
From KING 5 Staff and Associated Press
SEATTLE -- At St. James Cathedral in Seattle, a bell began tolling at 1 p.m. as parishioners, some with tear-stained faces, quietly filed inside.
Services were held at St. James Cathedral in Seattle Friday.
"I'm happy for John Paul, he's with God. I have no doubt of that. He ran his course magnificantly," said the Rev. Michael G. Ryan, pastor at St. James. "I have to think he's having a great homecoming," he added.
Referring to John Paul's appeal to non-Catholics, Ryan said, "He connected with people's hearts." Many feel the pope's appeal lay in his ability to command respect from those who challenged his views. ...
The crisis of clerical sexual abuse emerged during his long tenure, and some Catholics blame him for driving parishioners out of pews and priests from the seminaries.
"He didn't put into office men who have an abiding pastoral care for priests. A great deal of this hideous crime of pedophilia has to be attributed to the fact that priests have no pastors. Their bishops don't take care of them," said the Rev. Matthew Naumes, a retired priest in Tacoma.
He said he hopes the new pontiff "will love the priesthood and remember he is a priest." "If we don't have a pope like that, soon the Catholic world will be a great deal smaller than we have right now," Naumes said.