Message from Patrick Dunn, Catholic bishop of Auckland

Patrick Dunn, Catholic Bishop of Auckland, offers a message of support for the ailing Pope:

The Catholic community of Auckland joins Catholics of the other dioceses of New Zealand and Catholics and people of goodwill from all over the world to pray for and to commend into God's loving hands our universal pastor Pope John Paul II.

While we hope and pray for his recovery, we accept the mortality of this great leader and pray that God will be with him in what may be his final journey.

Pope John Paul II has lived a life of outstanding holiness. His wise advice and strong leadership, especially over these recent difficult times when he has led us, in his own words, from the cross with great personal suffering, have helped the Catholic Church to remain true to the values and ideals of its founder, Jesus Christ.

It is impossible to calculate how profoundly this leader has changed and shaped our world, uniting Christians of many differing denominations as has no other religious leader of this, or perhaps any age.

Pope John Paul II has witnessed, and probably helped to influence, great changes in Europe, including the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union, has taken the unprecedented step of initiating dialogue between leaders of Christianity and those of other faiths, and personally travelled to and pastorally visited more of the faithful all over the globe than any other Pope in history by far.

In proclaiming and canonising many new saints, he has called the world's attention to the value of humble lives of holiness and to the great, if not always appreciated, difference this can make in the hearts of communities and families.

The Pope has been a wonderful blessing to this world. My prayer is that he will continue to be close to God, his loving Father, and that he may know how fervently his children everywhere wish him well.

Our thanks, our prayers, our hopes and our love are with him.

* St Patrick's Cathedral, at 43 Wyndham St, Auckland, will remain open until 10pm every day, so people can pray and light candles for the Pope in his illness.