While world leaders and thousands of pilgrims traveled to the Vatican yesterday to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II, New York’s Catholics grieved over the loss of their spiritual leader and New Yorkers of all faiths remembered an extraordinary man.

As the pope’s body lay in state yesterday in Rome, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Joseph Zwilling, said the city’s Catholics were expressing “a lot of sadness for this beloved leader” in the aftermath of his death, attributed to septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse, at 2:37 p.m. Eastern time Saturday.

“I’ve heard several people say that they considered the pope an honorary New Yorker,” Mr. Zwilling said. “Not only did he visit New York twice as pope, and before that when he was a cardinal, but he was completely a man of the people. … That’s why I think of him as a real New Yorker.”

Mr. Zwilling shared his personal memories of the pope in New York, recounting how, during the pontiff’s visit to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1995, he “walked along Fifth Avenue, admiring the shops and the sights and the sounds, as anyone else who comes to New York might do.”

In Vatican City yesterday, the pope’s body lay in state at the Apostolic Palace. The College of Cardinals was to meet today to plan for the pope’s funeral, expected to be held this week at St. Peter’s Square and to have President Bush and other world leaders in attendance. The conclave of cardinals to select the successor must begin between 15 and 20 days after the pope’s death, the Associated Press reported.

Around St. Patrick’s yesterday, the sounds were muted as police barricades on 50th Street impeded traffic, and passers-by maintained a respectful hush. Similarly subdued were the crowds who flocked to the cathedral, where a somber scene greeted the faithful and a cold rain fell upon the thousands waiting to attend services in the pope’s honor.

The cathedral’s 10:15 Mass was celebrated by the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan. At a service attended by Mayor Giuliani, Senator Schumer, Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Cardinal Egan reflected on the life and legacy of John Paul II, whom he labeled a “splendid figure” and a “giant.”

Inside, the church was packed with what Mr. Zwilling estimated to be a crowd of 4,000. Outside, a speaker system relayed the Mass to the throng assembled on the cathedral steps and in the line snaking around the side of St. Patrick’s, where Catholics waited patiently for entrance into the noon service. Beneath the black and purple mourning crape draped over the cathedral’s doors, and the papal and American flags flying at half-staff, Catholics prayed and listened to the voice of Cardinal Egan as it boomed over the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue.

In a homily dedicated to the pope, the archbishop of New York celebrated John Paul’s “humility.” Although he was “once a handsome, athletic, imposing figure” as a young man, the cardinal said, John Paul “fell victim to the dreaded Parkinson’s disease” but was able “to take refuge in Christ.” And while Cardinal Egan remembered the pope’s energy, faith, and how he “faced down dictators” in the Soviet Union and Cuba, the archbishop said he never more admired the pontiff than “when, seemingly brought low by physical weakness, he continued to preach the gospel.”

Emphasizing the spiritual poignancy of John Paul’s suffering, Cardinal Egan also called the pontiff a “humble giant” who reached his “loftiest stature when he couldn’t raise his head, lift his arm, or whisper a prayer.”

As yesterday was the first Sunday after Easter, the Gospel reading at the Mass recalled the episode of “doubting Thomas,” the disciple who, after the crucifixion, refused to believe in the resurrection until the risen Christ took him by the hand and encouraged the disciple to touch him as proof of the Easter miracle. Cardinal Egan compared John Paul to Jesus in the story, saying the pontiff preached the Gospel and brought faith to “all the Thomases out there that needed him,” calling him a man “who humbled himself for us, as the Lord did for Thomas.”

“He was Christ to us Thomases,” the cardinal said.

Mourners and worshipers streamed out of the service, many with tears welling in their eyes. A visitor from Washington State, Cindy McGhee, agreed with the cardinal.

“We’re all doubting Thomases,” she said, adding that the pope had been a great beacon to those in spiritual need.

Ms. McGhee, 54, said she found the Mass “very moving.” While she was saddened by the pope’s passing, she said, she wasn’t concerned about the future of the church. “I’m sure they’ll make it,” Ms. McGhee said, regardless of who is selected to succeed John Paul.

Another of the many out-of-town visitors gathered at the cathedral, Nancy Corrigan of Bucks County, Pa., said she, too, was moved by the cardinal’s homily and by the passing of the pontiff. Ms. Corrigan, 54, was unconcerned about the church’s future course but said she hopes “they keep it the way it is.”

A Brooklyn woman waiting in line for the 12 o’clock Mass, Blanche Jackson, 48, said that while she thought it was unlikely, “My hope is that the next pope is from America,” so that he can address the problems facing the church here.

“The papacy represents the presence of Jesus,” Ms. Jackson said. “We are in need of that spiritual guidance.”

Carol Kelly, 59, of Riverdale in the Bronx, said of John Paul: “I don’t think we’ll see a man of his caliber again. He was the best pope in 500 years.”

As for John Paul’s potential replacement, Ms. Kelly said, she was hopeful the church would select a pope from the Third World. She mentioned Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, whose name appears on speculative short lists of possible papal successors.

Whatever the next pontiff’s country of origin, it is sure to be a comedown for the faithful of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. There, a heavily Polish community mourned the loss not only of a spiritual leader and historical figure, but also of one of its own – a man who stood against the twin totalitarianisms that ravaged his homeland, and who was instrumental in freeing Poland from the yoke of Soviet communism.

The sense of loss was particularly profound at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Site of a 1969 visit by John Paul when he was Karol Wojtyla, cardinal of Krakow, the church was filled beyond capacity at a special 1 p.m. Polish Mass held for the pope yesterday.

Praying before an altar adorned with a portrait of John Paul, the faithful occupied every pew and every inch of standing room, spilling into the church’s vestibule, down its front steps, and onto the sidewalk of Humboldt Street. Where the liturgy called for the congregation to kneel, devoted parishioners following the Mass outside fell to their knees on cold, wet concrete.

One of the parishioners, Malgorzata Dubilo, 22, said she was “very saddened” by John Paul’s passing. Regardless of who becomes the next pontiff, she said, “It won’t be the same.”

“He was the only Polish pope,” Ms. Dubilo, a Greenpoint resident who moved to America from Poland when she was 8, said.

John Paul’s papacy “meant a lot to his people,” Ms. Dubilo said, adding, “He represented Poland, and what it went through – and he helped Poland.”

John Paul, Ms. Dubilo noted, was the only pope she has known.

The same was true of Pawel Dowal, 81, and Monika Dowal, 21, a husband and wife who both moved to America from Poland as children.

“He was such a great person to the Polish community – he’s done a lot for the Polish people,” Mr. Dowal said.

In the Greenpoint community, Mr. Dowal said, “Everyone feels like somebody from their family died. Everyone’s so attached to him.”

Yet grief was not the only emotion expressed by worshipers at St. Stanislaus Kostka. Robert Glinka, 40, lives at Rego Park, Queens. He said Catholics “should be happy” to have had such a pope, and to know that John Paul had entered Heaven.

“He was chosen by God,” Mr. Glinka said, adding that John Paul’s papacy was providential, the kind that comes along “once in a lifetime.”

“He was the right person, in the right position, at the right time,” Mr. Glinka said.

He also spoke of John Paul’s ecumenical outreach. Mr. Glinka carried a bouquet to add to the mound of flowers and candles set beneath a statue of John Paul in front of the church’s rectory. When he was purchasing the flowers, Mr. Glinka said, he was joined by an Orthodox Jew who also wanted to pay a floral tribute to the deceased pontiff. Mr. Glinka saw the gesture as evidence of John Paul’s wide appeal, his ability to bring people together.

Non-Catholics echoed Mr. Glinka’s sentiments. At a Jewish-community breakfast in Brooklyn yesterday, the executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, William Rapfogel, said Jews who pay attention to international issues and to Israel were especially “aware of the difference that this pope has made in terms of relations between Jews and Catholics, and Jews and Christians around the world, because of his emphasis on really trying to repair the rift over anti-Semitism.”

And Mayor Bloomberg, who is Jewish, said of the pope yesterday: “When you write history 20 years from now I think he will have been shown to be a leading figure, not just in the church, but outside of the church as well.” Mr. Bloomberg said the pope’s first-hand witness of the Holocaust as a young man influenced his efforts to improve Jewish-Catholic relations.

Other indicators of the pope’s wide international appeal could be found at the Plaza hotel, where the Vatican flag flew at half-staff yesterday morning, and at St. Patrick’s, where a special Polish Mass was celebrated at 2 p.m. Cardinal Egan planned to say today’s 5:30 p.m. Mass, usually celebrated in English, in Spanish.

Tomorrow, the cardinal is scheduled to join his colleagues from around the world at Rome, to participate in the conclave at the Sistine Chapel that will determine John Paul’s successor.

In the meantime, New Yorkers will continue their “outpouring of affection for a man we all acknowledge to have been a great spiritual leader,” a spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn, Frank DeRosa, said.

Mr. DeRosa added that Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has called for special remembrance services to be held throughout the diocese. The bishop himself will celebrate a funeral Mass on Friday at St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn in honor of the papal funeral in Rome, to be held the same day.

Mr. Zwilling said that no similar directive has been issued by the archdiocese, but that it was in the process of preparing informational materials for parish priests on how to commemorate John Paul in coming days.