Kuffel, 41, said he chose it to be his Sunday sermon some time ago, when he outlined a schedule for his series, ``Finding Answers for Tough Questions.''

``I'm trusting that God is the one setting up the timing of messages,'' Kuffel said after the service. ``And what happened this week helped people's attention to be a little more focused on what I was talking about.''

He began the sermon: ``This week we've been hit by a lot of death, with Pope John Paul II on Saturday and Terri Schiavo on Thursday.'' And he included church member Jackie Mills, who died Tuesday night after a brief battle with cancer.

Kuffel presented Biblical passages to illustrate the ``separation in hell,'' ``celebration in heaven'' and the promises he said God makes to everyone about eternal life.

Afterward, Kuffel called the late pontiff ``no doubt a spiritual leader in the world'' and added that the pope used a ``conservative Biblical approach'' to deal with moral issues around the world.

Between the 9 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday Masses, the Rev. Ken Slattery, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Parish in New Port Richey, discussed the selection of a new pope.

``I could give you a million practical qualities in choosing the next pope,'' Slattery, 50, said, ``but above all else is the need for a truly holy man, one who can show Christ in his life. Do that, and the rest falls into place.''

Might the Roman Catholic church venture out of conventionalism and choose a new pope who is black, Hispanic or Asian?

``For a very long time the church was very much a European institution,'' Slattery said. ``But tremendous growth in Third World countries has been generated by the church. If the Holy Spirit guides the Cardinals to select a Third World pope, it will be right.

``A lot of names will be thrown out there, and we'll know when the white smoke comes up.''

White smoke is the signal the Vatican uses to signal the election of a new pope.

Ed Roy, 70, who winters in New Port Richey and lives in Winslow, Maine, said ``color or race is not important'' in choosing the next pope.

``It's the commitment to the religion that matters,'' said Roy, a member of Our Lady Queen of Peace. ``I think the next pope should be liberal and looking to bring women into the priesthood to take care of our shortage of priests. And he should be one who will look into the scandals of the church more than the previous pope did.''

Rose Marie Moore, 58, said she is hoping the tradition of naming an Italian pope, broken with John Paul II of Poland, is revisited. Her maiden name is Sorrenti, and she attended the 9 a.m. Mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace with three of her 12 grandchildren.

``I'm prejudiced there,'' she said, ``but all my family is from Italy.''

John and Dolly Radwanski, who winter in Port Richey and live in Hamtramck, Mich., attended a vigil Mass Saturday at Our Lady Queen of Peace and recalled the pope parading through their hometown outside Detroit in 1987. Hamtramck has many Polish- American residents.

``I was the superintendent of schools there,'' John Radwanski, 69, said, ``and we got to sit in the front row with dignitaries like Sen. Carl Levin. Oh, that was special. We put a statue of the pope up in town in his honor. ... He left a lot of legacies for us to follow.''

Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170.