'We want to thank him for all that he's done for the world'

Catholic churches and schools also showed television pictures from the funeral at the Vatican.

In Glasgow, the Polish community filled St Simon’s Church for a funeral mass in the afternoon.

A capacity congregation of more than 300 packed the church in Partick to hear Father Marian Lekawa give a mass in Polish.

Among those attending the service were former soldiers who settled in Glasgow at the end of the Second World War bearing banners in Poland’s national colours, while children dressed in the regional costume of the Pope’s birthplace.

In Edinburgh, St Patrick’s Church in the Cowgate held a special requiem mass attended by 250 people drawn from the local congregation and tourists visiting the capital.

The hour-long service was conducted by Father Richard Reid who said the Pope commanded considerable universal appeal because, "he walked among his people".

He said: "People who did meet him said the Pope had a genuine aura, dynamism and sincerity about him. We have become so used to the pop star culture that Pope John Paul II stood as someone who was famous as well as being real and sincere.

"He was not a Pope who remained hidden in Rome but went out to walk among his people. Almost everyone here who I have spoken to seems to have a story about when they met or saw him.

"As for his successor the Vatican would be well advised not to try and find someone like him because they won’t be able to. But John Paul II was an unknown when he was elected so there is no telling who the Holy Spirit will send us."

A special screen was erected at St Mary’s Cathedral in Aberdeen so mourners could watch the Pope’s funeral.

Mourners from across the UK also attended services to mark the funeral.

A service at Westminster Cathedral coincided with the start of the Vatican ceremony, with requiem masses also held in Birmingham and Liverpool.

About 200 mourners gathered in the rain in London’s Trafalgar Square to watch the funeral on a giant television screen.

One of the more unusual gatherings took place in Caldey Island, Wales, where a group of monks had a satellite dish installed at their monastery so they could watch the service.

They already own a television set, but have not used it for some time and needed the satellite dish because reception is poor. The monks decided they needed to tune in for the "one-off" event.

JOINED IN REMEMBRANCE

FOR the world’s one billion Catholics, Pope John Paul II was God’s representative on Earth. But for the people of Poland, he remained one of their own: a local boy, a friend, a goalkeeper, a priest.

In Krakow yesterday, a city just 30 miles from his birthplace Wadowice, more than 800,000 people gathered in a vast field to be together, to sing hymns and to watch Pope John Paul II’s funeral on giant video screens. Across Poland, the picture was the same. Schools and businesses closed as the country mourned a national hero.

"I could not go to Rome, but here I am in Rome under the skies of Krakow," said Genowefa Hanusiak, 60, a retired teacher. "This was the most wonderful man in the world, and we want to thank him for everything he has done for us, for everything he has done for the world."

In Warsaw, sirens wailed for three minutes to announce the funeral. Stores and schools closed, major newspapers did not publish, and pictures of the Pope with black ribbons hung in windows everywhere. In John Paul’s hometown, people gathered in front of his baptismal church and wept as they watched his coffin carried into St Peter’s for burial.

Word spread by text message and television for people across Poland to turn out their lights for five minutes at 9:37pm, the time the Pope died last Saturday. "The Pope was always an inspiration to my family," Urszula Hurtowska, 27, said. "No-one ever gave us such a feeling of pride that we were born as Poles."

Across the world there were similar scenes as the faithful bid farewell to Pope John Paul II.

While Asians prayed in their thousands at outdoor masses, Catholic faithful in the US slipped into church pews in pre-dawn darkness. New York’s Empire State Building dimmed its tower lights for all of Thursday night from 9:37pm, while a giant screen showed the funeral live in Times Square from 4am.

In Los Angeles, dozens gazed at a large-screen television at Our Lady of the Bright Mount Church, home to a mostly Polish congregation, which the Pope visited in 1976.

In Canada, about 2,000 people attended an outdoor mass in the darkness near a statue of Pope John Paul north-west of Toronto.

Throughout Asia, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs joined Catholics in church services and prayers to honour the pontiff.

In Tokyo, the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, urged people to continue the pontiff’s legacy of peace. "Firstly, we lost a great human being, a leader of a great religion," he said. "Now it is important that we must carry all his messages and guidance with us. We must make every effort to fulfil his wishes."

The funeral service in Rome was telecast simultaneously to churches around the globe. Florence de la Rousserie, 27, one of 7,000 worshippers who filled Notre Dame in Paris, said: "He has had a huge impact on us; we are the generation of John Paul II. He has taught us all the rules of Christian morality, of spirituality. I am moved, I am sorry."

Television screens were also set up in churches across Africa. In Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, choir music floated from open windows, residents tuning their televisions and radios into the funeral in Rome. Flags flew at half-staff in Ivory Coast, a West African country that has been racked by civil war. The government closed its offices and called for a day of mourning.

In Moscow, several hundred people packed the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

"I am Orthodox, but I am here today and not for the first time" said Nadezhda Chekhova, a teacher. "The Pope is a figure for whom I have great respect and interest. I liked his idea of unifying the churches."

MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

IN KRAKOW