c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ In a Mass at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday (April 3), an estimated 100,000 mourners prayed for the soul of Pope John Paul II as the body of their beloved pontiff lay in state in the Apostolic Palace.

The Vatican announced that the official cause of John Paul’s death Saturday was septic shock and an irreversible collapse of blood pressure. It also publicly acknowledged, for the first time, that the debilitating neurological condition that afflicted the pope for at least 15 years was Parkinson’s disease.

The death certificate was signed by the pope’s longtime personal physician, Renato Buzzonetti. It also said the 84-year-old pope suffered from acute breathing problems, a benign enlarged prostate complicated by a urinary infection and heart disease.

Buzzonetti said he declared John Paul dead at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) Saturday after carrying out tests for 20 minutes with electrocardiograph equipment designed to register death. A more traditional method, abandoned in modern times, involved knocking on an apparently deceased pope’s forehead three times with a silver hammer bearing the papal crest.

Romans, pilgrims and tourists _ many wiping tears from their eyes _ gathered in the square on a mild spring day as Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, presided over a Mass for the repose of the pope’s soul. It ended with the dramatic reading of a posthumous appeal from the pope to the world to “understand and welcome the Divine Mercy.”

The Vatican said that John Paul had prepared the text for Sunday’s Solemnity of the Divine Mercy, a feast that he himself established to celebrate the mystery of God’s love for humanity.

“To humanity, which sometimes seems lost and dominated by the power of evil, egoism and fear, the risen Lord offers as a gift his love that pardons, reconciles and reopens the soul to hope. It is love that converts hearts and gives peace,” the pope said in a message that seemed to sum up the mission of his 26-year pontificate.

The message was read by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, assistant secretary of state and a member of the papal household, who often stood in for John Paul when the pope was too weak to read his own texts.

In the prepared text of his homily for the Mass, Sodano called the late pope “John Paul II the Great,” a title usually reserved for popes who become saints. But he did not read those words.

John Paul, he said, became “the cantor of the civilization of love.”

Sodano ended his homily with a poetic evocation of the pope’s death, saying, “From heaven may he look over us always and help us to cross the threshold of hope,” referring to the title of one of the pope’s most popular books, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope.”

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At midday, the pope’s body was moved to the richly frescoed Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace for a private viewing by members of the Roman Curia, the central administration of the church, and the Italian government. The hall usually is used for papal audiences.

With the expected approval of the College of Cardinals at a meeting Monday morning, the body will go to St. Peter’s Basilica at 5 p.m. (11 a.m. EST) Monday for a public viewing that is expected to attract at least 1 million people.

The cardinals also will read the pope’s will and decide the date of the funeral, which must be held on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this week. It is also their job to set a date, from 15 to 20 days after the pope’s death, for the opening of the conclave at which 117 cardinals will meet to choose his successor.

The private lying in state began with a brief ceremony in which Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo blessed John Paul’s body and sprinkled it with holy water. The Spanish prelate _ the chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church _ will serve as administrator of the church until a new pope is elected.

The pope lay on a coffin-shaped structure called a catafalque, covered in gold brocade, wearing a white miter and vestments of dark red, the mourning color of popes. His shepherd’s crook was placed on his left side and his hands were folded over a rosary.

Swiss guards in striped Renaissance uniform stood on either side of the catafalque and behind it were a Pascal candle and a crucifix. Organ music played softly.

Members of what is known as “the papal family” were there, including John Paul’s two Polish secretaries, three nuns who were his housekeepers, and Archbishop Piero Marini, the master of papal liturgical ceremonies.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the powerful German prelate who is prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and dean of the College of Cardinals, sat leaning forward with his face buried in his hands. Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the Polish-American president of the government of the Vatican city-state, also was visibly affected.

But the most obviously stricken high-ranking prelate was Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope’s secretary and close friend from his days as archbishop of Krakow. Dziwisz held a handkerchief in one hand and appeared on the verge of tears as Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi embraced him warmly.

MO/PH RNS END