c. 2005 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ A solemn procession of cardinals and candle-bearers accompanied the body of Pope John Paul II into St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday (April 4), where some 2 million mourners are expected to pay him homage before his funeral on Friday.
Hours before the scheduled start of public viewing at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. EDT), an estimated 200,000 people formed a dense mass that stretched for about one mile along the Tiber River and up Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square.
Several thousand more had spent the night in the square to be sure of a place near the head of the line.
The throngs of mourners _ some collapsing after waiting hours for the viewing to begin _ prompted Vatican authorities to open the doors of the basilica an hour ahead of schedule.
Many broke into tears as 12 white-gloved men, who hold the archaic title of “sediari,” or throne bearers, carried John Paul’s body through the square on a velvet-covered pallet in a procession that displayed all the pomp of the Holy Roman Church.
The pope wore vestments of dark red, the papal mourning color, and a white miter, or pointed bishop’s hat.
Scores of cardinals in brilliant red vestments and priests in black cassocks with red stoles carrying long white candles accompanied the body as a choir in the basilica sang the Litany of the Saints.
The Vatican said the massive Basilica would remain open except for a three-hour period beginning at 2 a.m. (8 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Sixty-five members of the College of Cardinals held their first meeting on Monday morning to approve the transfer of John Paul’s body from the Apostolic Palace, where he died on Saturday, to the basilica.
The cardinals also agreed to hold the pope’s funeral on Friday at 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EDT), with burial in the basilica’s crypt immediately following. German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside at the Mass concelebrated by cardinals and Eastern Rite patriarchs.
The cardinals have yet to decide when they will open their conclave, which must be held 15 to 20 days after a pope dies, to elect his successor. A total of 117 cardinals are eligible to sit in the Conclave, but some have not yet arrived in Rome.
The pope will be entombed in the grotto below St. Peter’s Basilica where many of his predecessors have been laid to rest. He will take the place vacated by Pope John XXIII whose body was moved to a glass coffin in the basilica proper four years ago.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said at a Vatican briefing that the cardinals, who will meet again on Tuesday, have not yet opened John Paul’s “spiritual testament.”
Rejecting speculation that the Polish-born pope, the former archbishop of Krakow, asked in the will to be buried in the Krakow cathedral, the spokesman said, “The pope never manifested this desire.”
Navarro-Valls did not comment on reports that the pope wanted his heart sent to Krakow while his body remained in the Vatican.
Some 200 religious and political leaders are expected to attend the funeral, including President George W. Bush, the first U.S. leader to travel to a papal funeral while in office, and former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Prince Charles of England postponed his wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles by one day (Saturday) to represent his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had been scheduled to attend the wedding, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, who had been scheduled to bless the union, also will attend.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Lech Walesa, the Solidarity labor union leader who was given crucial support by the pope in his struggle with communist authorities, will come from John Paul’s native Poland.
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The pope’s body was transferred from the Sala Clementina, an audience hall in the Apostolic Palace, to the basilica with great ceremony. The hall was the scene of private viewing for Italian and church dignitaries and Vatican employees on Sunday and part of Monday.
The transfer started with prayers in Latin intoned by Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, a Spanish prelate who holds the title of camerlengo (chamberlain) and will oversee day-to-day church affairs until a new pope is chosen.
Martinez Somalo, wearing a great cape of red and gold brocade, led the long procession escorted by Swiss Guards in stripped red, blue and yellow Renaissance uniforms. Altar boys swung an incense burner and carried a crucifix.
The procession wound its way down marble staircases and through a loggia and two halls of the richly decorated Renaissance palace. Emerging from the palace’s bronze doors, it crossed St. Peter’s Square to the main doors of the basilica.
Inside the basilica, which was crowded with priests and bishops, the pope’s pallet was placed on a catafalque draped in gold brocade in front of the main altar, and Martinez Somalo presided at a short service.
KRE/RB END POLK
