Pope John Paul II died this morning.
His death had been expected after his condition suddently worsened Friday. He had been drifting in and out of conciousness most of Saturday, the Vatican said.
Yesterday millions of Catholics prayed and the world witnessed the pontiff's death throes.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims had maintained a vigil for the dying pope in St Peter's Square well into the early hours, overlooked by the apartment of the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
In an indication of the pontiff's worsening health, a mass was celebrated yesterday morning in the pope's presence, but significantly he did not take an active role in the ceremony as he had the day before.
In a statement, Navarro-Valls said: "The general, cardiorespiratory and metabolic conditions of the Holy Father are substantially unchanged and therefore are very serious."
At dawn yesterday, the pope appeared to be moving in and out of consciousness, he said.
Navarro-Valls said in answer to questions that "we noticed a reduction in his consciousness. That absolutely does not mean, technically, that he is in a state of coma.
"When spoken to, he opens his eyes and remains conscious. At times it seems he is sleeping or that he is resting his eyes," he said.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said after visiting the pontiff early yesterday that he "knows he is dying and said his last goodbye" to the influential German head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to Sky Italia television.
Another visitor, Italian Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, said the pope "gave signs of recognizing people."
"I saw him very relaxed," he said, adding he had prayed beside the pope and kissed his hand.
The pontiff also appointed two new archbishops and papal ambassadors and accepted the resignations of three other prelates, approved last month, the Vatican said.
In a previous communique issued shortly before 7pm on Friday, Navarro-Valls said the pontiff's condition was worsening, his breathing had become shallow and his blood pressure was falling.
"The pope has an extraordinary physique, and at the moment even his doctors are surprised" at his will to live, said Corrado Manni, an anaesthetist who has been present at several of the pope's 10 surgical operations.
"I believed that, given the conditions described in the medical bulletin, yesterday he was nearly finished, but he's still not.
"That's surprised everyone a little, even me who has known him well for so long," he said.
The pope was lying under white blankets in the center of his room, propped up by pillows, according to Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, who went to see him on Friday.
"I was captured by the beauty of this smiling look. He clearly wanted me to understand that he recognized me," Pompedda told the La Repubblica daily.
Many newspapers, however, already spoke of the pontiff in the past tense. The Turin daily La Stampa even published a full obituary on its front page, entitled "John Paul II 1978-2005."
The pontiff, who has Parkinson's disease, severe lung and throat problems, suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse late on Thursday, when he was given the last rites.
The crowd in St Peter's Square swelled to nearly 70,000 at one point after midnight on Friday, but as the hours passed the numbers dwindled to several hundred gazing up at the pope's windows.
Across the world, millions of others also prayed for a pontiff who has led the Roman Catholic Church for more than 25 years.
Born Karol Wojtyla in a small town near Krakow, southern Poland, he is the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries.
Elected pontiff in 1978 at the age of 58, he revolutionized the papacy and contributed to the collapse of communism in eastern Europe.
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