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'He had a love for everybody'

MARION TARALLO, 58

College instructor, attending St. Mary's Catholic Church, Lutz

"He had a love for everybody. I feel sad because it's like losing a member of the family."

Priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Tampa

Father Saunders led the noontime Mass Friday. Among his words were these: "We pray for our Holy Father and if this be the time, we welcome him into His arms, that he hears the words we hope to hear one day: "Welcome good and faithful servant."'

Employee in auditing department at Raymond James Financial Services

She left work for Mass at St. Mary Our Lady of Grace in St. Petersburg on the 10th anniversary of her mother's death and learned on the car radio of the pope's worsening condition. "This week is a week for something personal for me, and then just, I left work today to just have a day of reflection. I think he was a pope who brought people together. ... I think of him as a pope who brought people to the church. And he brings peacefulness and love. His whole tenure as a pope has been about peace and love."

Retired real estate agent, St. Pete Beach

"I prayed for the pope. ... I feel like he did a good job with his traveling. But now we need new energy and a new leadership and to let him go with the angels. It's life, it's what we learn. You know we all have our time on the stage to do things and then it's time to pass on the reins."

Tampa law clerk

He prayed for the pope Friday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown Tampa. "Hopefully he'll get better. If he gets more ill, or, God forbid, he dies, he's in a better place. He did a good job."

Team Penske driver at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, met the pope last summer

"The only guy who knows what's going to happen is the guy upstairs. I'm sure God is going to decide what's best for him."

The chaplain of Polish ancestry with the Indy Racing League, in town for the Grand Prix

"Death is not a destruction even though it appears that way. He's preparing for something greater and more glorious after he dies. That takes a lot of faith to do that, and humility."

Of Clearwater, at the midday Mass at St. Cecelia Catholic Church

"I feel sadness. He's been such a great man ... his belief, his thoughts, his thinking ... he was just completeness. It makes me wonder what's going to happen when he's gone."

Of Clearwater, at the midday mass at St. Cecelia Catholic Church.

"It's so sad to see him so ill, that he's so sick and in his last days. I hope he pulls through somehow. I always thought he was a wonderful pope. I always liked to watch him at Easter and especially at Christmas."

- Interviews by MELANIE AVE, CURTIS KRUEGER, DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN, JACKIE RIPLEY and EILEEN SCHULTE