Sunday, April 3 2005 08:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vatican City: Pope John Paul II died yesterday (Apr 2, 2005) after a long struggle against crippling infirmity which inspired Christians the world over, ending a tumultuous 26-year reign that shaped world politics and plunging 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into mourning.

The 84-year-old pontiff died at 9:37 pm (0107 IST), according to a Vatican statement, two days after suffering heart failure brought on by two months of acute breathing problems and other infections.

"The Holy Father died this evening at 21:37 in his private apartment," said a brief statement released by the Holy See.

"All the procedures forseen by the Apostolic Constitution 'Universi Dominici gregis' promulgated by John Paul II on 22 February 1996 have been set in motion," it concluded.

News of his death touched not only Catholics from his native Poland to the Americas, from Africa to Asia, but untold numbers of other admirers of one of the most popular and recognizable popes in history.

During his pontificate -- the third longest in 2,000 years of Christianity, he was a master at reaching the masses through the media, displaying public relations skills unknown to his predecessors while at home at the Vatican, as well as on his visits to 129 countries.

But, after he was rushed to hospital on February 1 with breathing problems, his final illness silenced the voice, which had given hope to millions living under oppression while frustrating those who rejected his deeply conservative moral views.