WHEN Joe and Linda Amaral watch television coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II today, prominent in their minds will be the day they were blessed by the Holy Father four and a half years ago.

The Bermudian couple enjoyed the rare privilege of a five-minute papal audience in October 2000, something they both described as an unforgettable experience.

Mr. Amaral, a travel consultant with C-Travel, had organised a pilgrimage for a group of around 40 people to Ireland and Italy, including the Vatican.

He and his wife were part of the group having reached St. Peter's Square, inside the Vatican City, an enclave within the city of Rome that is the smallest independent state in the world and the home of the Holy See, the central authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Around 60,000 were crowded into the square and neither Mr. nor Mrs. Amaral realised what was about to happen.

"(Bermuda's) Bishop Robert Kurtz had two tickets for a papal audience for people from his congregation," Mr. Amaral said. "We were in a large group and we had no idea it would be us.

"The group selected us because I'd worked so hard to organise the trip. We got to find out about ten minutes before we went up."

The couple had to wait their turn on seats next to the stage where the Pope met pilgrims. They received instructions on what to do.

"We were told that the protocol was to do nothing more than kneel and kiss the Pope's ring ? not to embrace him," Mr. Amaral said. "I was so nervous that I was almost sick. My blood was rushing.

"When we got up on the stage, a cardinal introduced us as Mr. and Mrs. Amaral from Bermuda. We knelt down and we kissed his ring and he gave us a blessing.

"All I could do was look at his shoes for the whole five minutes. I remember they were brown and polished, with not a scratch on them. Linda did all the talking."

Mrs. Amaral recalled: "He said to us, 'Oh, you are from Bermuda, a beautiful island'. The whole time he was talking to us, he had a hand on my face.

"Even though he was quite sick at the time, I remember there was something unusual about his complexion. It was almost saintly. He had an aura about him.

"I kept wondering why we had been chosen. I knew that we'd been selected by other members of the group, but it was as if we were destined for that moment.

"I didn't know why, but I did know that from that moment, my life would never be the same again. It's something I will never forget."

The couple has closely followed the Pope's life since and sympathised greatly with his increasing health problems in recent years. When they met him, John Paul was already suffering from Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Amaral said it had been sad to see a man who had once been so vibrant and who had "held the world in his hands" confined to a bed by illness.

Last weekend, the couple maintained a candle-lit vigil at a shrine, set up by their son Tomas, at their Smith's home.

Pope John Paul II passed away last Saturday at the age of 84.

Mourners were expected to number more than a million for the pontiff's funeral today. The ceremony was scheduled to start in the early hours, Bermuda time. The couple vowed to get up at 4 a.m. to watch it. Mr. Amaral recalled a story that summed up one of the Pope's qualities for him.

"In Africa he was riding along a road in a motorcade when they came across a beggar," he said. "He stopped the car, picked up the beggar, gave him some food and dropped him off at the next village. He really reached out to every human being.

"He was the first pope to go into a synagogue and the first pope to go into a mosque. He tried to bring people together."

Mrs. Amaral added: "John Paul's message was that every human being should be treated equally, whether a beggar or a king."

The couple attended a memorial mass for John Paul at St. Theresa's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Hamilton on Wednesday night.

Today, all flags on Bermuda Government buildings will be flown at half-mast in a mark of local respect, as the Pope is laid to rest.

"We join the many millions around the world in recognising the passing of Pope John Paul II," Premier Alex Scott said in a Press statement. "He was a history-making figure well before his passing, having played a significant and influential role in world events."