Local reaction: Loss is mixed with joy that leader will be in heaven.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Standing in front of a large weekday congregation Friday at St. Mary Catholic Church, the Rev. Mark Bachmeier prayed that the ailing Pope John Paul II be given a happy and speedy death.

About 150 people attended the 12:15 p.m. Mass in downtown Eugene, many drawn to pray for the 84-year-old pontiff as he lay dying at the Vatican.

They wore business suits and track suits, leather jackets and raincoats, sitting, kneeling and standing by turns in the stained-glass light on a rainy spring afternoon. They prayed, sang hymns, wished each other peace and took communion, the pope never far from their minds.

The Catholic parishioners said they felt both sadness that he was in his final hours, but also joy that he would soon be at rest and in heaven.

"It's a little bit like losing a father," said Cheryl Horner of Eugene.

"His death is not to be mourned, certainly, except we've lost our pastor," Mike Shenon of Eugene said. "He's obviously at the end of his ministry and he goes to a better place.

"I'll miss him," Shenon said. "He's been an outstanding pope."

Tim and Lorna Durkin of Eugene expressed some of the mixed feelings Catholics hold toward the pope's passing.

"It's a sad day," Tim Durkin said.

"But it's a day to rejoice," Lorna Durkin said. "He's going to heaven to live with the Lord for eternity."

Greg Wilderman of Norfolk, Va., in Eugene to visit his son, said he was impressed by the conservative pope's charisma, which allowed him to build bridges with the more liberal American Catholic Church.

"I feel personal loyalty to this pope," he said. "I'm very saddened by his death."

Bachmeier said that the Friday afternoon congregation was a little larger even than the crowds that attended during the 40 days of Lent leading to Easter.

As with any death in the family, he said, Catholics feel "sadness that we're not going to be able to see that person in the same way, but there's also a real longing that we'll be reunited some day."

The pontiff is a source of hope and encouragement for Catholics because of his stamina and persistence, he said.

"He just never quits," he said. "He's still offering a healthy and good example of what it means to perservere."

During the service, Bachmeier said a prayer that the pope would have a happy death, and a speedy one as well if need be. It's a traditional Catholic invocation, he said, to pray that the dying "be given the full gift of peace in as happy and speedy a fashion as possible."