The two-hour Mass ended with card. Bertone giving card. Ortega an unexpected present: a chasuble of John Paul II’s, also received by applause from the crowd. Among the crowd that was standing, crammed, beyond the crush barriers, past the guests’ seats, there was also a group of “Damas de blanco”, the white-dressed mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the 75 political prisoners arrested in March 2003, 20 of whom have been released for health reasons, while 55 are still in prison, serving about 20 years’ sentences. "We are here so that card. Bertone and the Pope may intercede with the government for releasing our relatives said Miriam Leiva and Laura Pollàn who have been in prison for years just because they dared voice their opinions". Requests that were also repeated by other women, complaining of the hard conditions of the prisons, the diseases of their relatives and their hard family life without their husbands, fathers or sons.
