A moment of silence for Pope John Paul II

Ok, so I'm not a Catholic. I never agreed with the Pope's stance on gay marriage or contraception, but at the end of the day, the man was a human being, and his passing from humanity into something greater should be recognized.

As a question of intellectual curiosity, I have a question for my Catholic readers and listeners. How would the Catholic Church's structure stand if the Pope had slipped into a coma? Again, I mean no disrespect to the Catholic Church, but for a religion that places so much trust in one person, you have to admit that the human body is a frail conduit to God, at best. I posed this question to a few of my friends, none of which were Catholic, and we're all really confused. Does Jesus take over for a little while? Is there a Vice Pope? I mean, we just want to know how this works, just for personal edification's sake.