THOUSANDS IN L.A. PRAY FOR AILING PONTIFF MAHONY GOES TO VATICAN FOR CONCLAVE.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

As Pope John Paul II faded Friday, thousands of worshippers poured to the spiritual core of Los Angeles to pray for the dying pontiff and to celebrate the remarkable life of a man who touched the world.

Mothers pushed strollers, the elderly hobbled with canes, and office workers, court jurors, businessmen and -women and the working class all crowded into two Catholic Masses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

Barbara Kwiatkowska-Amerton, aided by a walker as she left the Mass, felt a tie to the Polish-born pontiff. A middle-school teacher, she came to America from Warsaw 30 years ago.

``He is a hero, not just to me, but to the world,'' Kwiatkowska-Amerton said. ``His goodness and great wisdom go beyond the church. He went all over the world, not to travel but to bring all people together, regardless of faith.''

Cardinal Roger Mahony, joined by three co-celebrants and dozens of lay assistants, celebrated the Masses on the open altar, decked with hundreds of Easter lilies left from services last Sunday.

``We join in prayer to accompany our Holy Father on his very last leg of this journey of life and of death,'' Mahony said. ``It is obvious that death is imminent for our Holy Father, and so we are here to accompany him with our love and our prayers.''

It was fitting, the cardinal said, that the pope ``should be called home during this joyous Easter week.''

``Let us pray in his final hours he will embrace the cross as he did a week ago, on Good Friday.'' One woman clad in black brought a funeral-style spray of flowers onto the altar before the Mass then dropped to her knees in prayer at the foot of the crucifix.

The faithful said they were drawn to the cathedral to pray for John Paul's recovery - or for his soul.

``Either way, he's going to recover - either here on Earth or in heaven,'' said Tillie Roque of Norwalk.

Denise Williams of Manhattan Beach pushed son Nicholas in his stroller. Married to a Catholic, Williams, 35, has been attending Mass for seven years, but it was just this Easter Sunday that she was baptized.

``He's the only pope I've ever known,'' Williams said. ``He's a good, good man.''

Williams was driving when she heard on the car radio that the pope was dying.

``Somehow,'' she said, ``the car brought us here.''

Bob and Michele Spring traveled from La Mirada for the midday Mass. A second Mass was celebrated at 5 p.m., after which Mahony was scheduled to travel to Rome to join the College of Cardinals in choosing John Paul's successor.

Bob Spring called the dying pontiff a world leader, who learned from his own childhood in communist Poland the value of life.

``He was a world traveler - not to travel to see the world, but to see the people,'' Spring said. ``He made himself aware and he spoke up on issues. He spoke out on communism and helped end it. He's the end of an era. He'll be the last pope who remembers the Holocaust, the Depression, World War II, all the things that shaped the world.''

The Springs, both 63, said they had hoped that as the child-sex scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church grew, John Paul would change an 800-year-old rule that prohibits priests from marrying. The change, many believe, would draw more to the priesthood and help clear the ranks of pedophiles.

``I think it came late in his life as he was growing more frail,'' Bob Spring said. ``If it had happened earlier, when he had more energy, when he wasn't so sick, it would have been different.

``There's a limit to what you can do - you have to be in good health to wage a fight like that.''

Alfred Arsul clutched a tissue and frequently wiped tears from his eyes.

``It's heartening and it's heartbreaking,'' said the native of the Philippines. ``He united all the people; he's not supposed to die. We still need him.''

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Cardinal Roger Mahony, above, prays Friday afternoon for Pope John Paul II at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. At right, Floresita Hernandez touches an image of the pope at an evening service.

(3 -- color) Moises Gonzalez, 9, comforts his mother, Leticia, during a prayer service for Pope John Paul II at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles on Friday.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer