WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush led the nation in mourning Pope John Paul II on Saturday, saying his quarter-century as head of the Roman Catholic Church and his lifetime of dedication to freedom and values made him a “hero for the ages.”

“The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom,” the president said in a brief televised statement from the White House’s majestic Cross Hall entryway.

Both he and first lady Laura Bush, who stood at his side, wore black suits and somber expressions. “A good and faithful servant has been called home,” the president said.

Shortly after his remarks at the White House, the president went by motorcade to St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington for a memorial mass.

Bush was expected to travel to Rome for the funeral, but the White House held off making an official announcement of the delegation it would send out of respect for protocol.

Senior staff had been keeping the president apprised of the pope’s deteriorating condition for days, relaying reports from U.S. embassy officials at the Vatican. But Bush learned of the pope’s passing the way the rest of the world did – from news reports that were aired in the moments after he died at 2:37 p.m. EST in his Vatican apartment.

A member of the White House residence staff told Bush of the reports, which White House chief of staff Andrew Card confirmed for him after the U.S. embassy to the Vatican received assurances the news was true.

The president immediately ordered that the U.S. flags on all federal government buildings be flown at half-staff until the pope is buried. McClellan said the president felt personal sadness as he reflected on his own interactions with the pope during their three meetings.

Bush articulated the grief felt by the nation’s 67 million Catholics as well as the many outside the faith who revered the man for his long service to the church and the poor.

“We will always remember the humble, wise and fearless priest who became one of history’s great moral leaders,” he said. “We’re grateful to God for sending such a man, a son of Poland who became the Bishop of Rome and hero for the ages,” the president said.

Bush heralded the pontiff as “a witness to the dignity of human life” from the beginning to the end – as the first Polish pontiff in history who “launched a democratic revolution that swept Eastern Europe and changed the course of history,” as a passionate advocate for the sanctity of life throughout his papacy and as a man who dealt with debilitating injury and illness.

“During the pope’s final years, his witness was made even more powerful by his daily courage in the face of illness and great suffering,” said Bush.

Earlier Saturday, as the pope was in his last hours, the president had offered prayers and brief praise for the beloved church leader.

Praise for the pope came quickly from leading members of Congress.

“Today we lost a hero of our age,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. “He was more than a good and holy man: he was a lion.”

The top Democrat in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, called the pope “a man of God, and he was also a man of the people. He was a source of hope to so many.”

Added former President Ford: “Both an upholder of tradition, and a breaker of tradition, Pope John Paul II did as much as anyone to liberate the victims of Communism. He was loved by all, even those who did not belong to his church. He will be mourned by the entire human family.”

Friday night, before the pope’s death, Vice President Dick Cheney expressed gratitude for “the good life” of the priest from Poland who was once forced into slave labor by the Nazis. The pontiff, Cheney told a Marine Corps law enforcement gala in New York, became “a lifelong foe of tyranny and a fearless champion of human freedom and a culture of life.”

“John Paul II has been a voice of salvation for the lost, compassion for the weak, and respect for life in all its seasons,” Cheney said. “In times of strength and in this time of suffering, the pope has been a man of unfailing courage and grace, an extraordinary moral leader, an example to all humanity. “

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