c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church decided Wednesday (April 6) to open their conclave on Monday, April 18, to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II as leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics, the Vatican announced.

The cardinals also heard the pope’s will, but the Vatican said its contents would not be made public until Thursday once it is translated from its original Polish.

Church officials said the will did not unveil the name of the so-called “mystery cardinal” named by John Paul in 2003 but whose identity goes with him to the grave.

The announcement of the date for the start of the conclave came as mourners poured into St. Peter’s Square by the hundreds of thousands for the third straight day to pay their final homage to the pope, whose body was lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Civil protection authorities said people joining the line late Wednesday would face a 24-hour wait. They said the lines were to be cut off at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT) Wednesday in order for officials to close the basilica for funeral preparations Thursday evening.

The elaborate funeral for John Paul is set for Friday at 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EDT) with burial following immediately after in the grotto below St. Peter’s.

Italian authorities said an estimated 600,000 mourners converged on the Vatican on Tuesday, and at least 1 million more were expected Wednesday. The Vatican said they filed past the catafalque bearing the body at a rate of 15,000 to 18,000 an hour.

Reports from Warsaw said as many as 5 million Poles may travel to Rome in a pilgrimage of biblical proportions for the funeral of history’s first Polish pope. President Bush will become the first American president to attend a papal funeral, leading one of 200 official delegations that will begin arriving in Rome on Thursday.

Italian authorities mobilized a 15,000-member security force to guard the dignitaries and 5,000 police, guards, paramilitary Carabineri and civil protection volunteers to maintain public order. They reserved the Celio Military Hospital near the center of Rome to provide emergency medical treatment if needed by members of official delegations.

The Italian Air Force began placing missile batteries at strategic locations around the Vatican. Pairs of fighter-interceptors will patrol air space over Rome and the Vatican starting Thursday while helicopters provide lower altitude surveillance.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said 122 of the 183 cardinals are now in Rome, and 116 took part in Wednesday’s meeting. He said some cardinals were delayed by requests from their flocks to celebrate Mass for the pope in their dioceses.

The conclave date was set by members of the College of Cardinals at their fourth meeting in three days to make funeral arrangements and prepare to choose the new pope. Voting will be restricted to the 117 cardinals who are under the age of 80.

“The date of the start of the conclave was fixed for Monday, April 18,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said at a briefing in the Vatican press room. “In the morning the votive mass pro eligendo papal (for electing a pope) will be celebrated in the Vatican Basilica. In the afternoon the cardinals will enter into conclave in the Sistine Chapel.”

Rules on the papal election, which were revised by John Paul in 1996, permit the cardinals to hold their first vote that Monday afternoon. After that, they will vote twice a day.

Navarro-Valls said the cardinals also heard a provisional Italian translation of the will John Paul left at his death Saturday (April 2) at the age of 84. He said the document, known as the pope`s “spiritual testament,” will be made public Thursday after a definitive translation is completed.

John Paul wrote the will in Polish and dated it 1979 on the first of 15 pages, the spokesman said. He said that some of the pages were only partially covered.

Navarro-Valls said the pope did not reveal the name of the cardinal he chose in secret in 2003, so the appointment died with him. Choosing a cardinal but keeping his name “in pectore” _ Latin for “in the breast” _ usually is done to protect the prelate from persecution.

“I can confirm that the Holy Father John Paul II before his death did not communicate the name of the cardinal that was reserved in pectore in the consistory of October 2003. Therefore it is no longer an issue,” the spokesman said.

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Navarro-Valls said the cardinals rejected a request “from many sides” that the pope’s body be moved to the Basilica of St. John Lateran between the funeral and the burial “to permit the veneration by the Roman faithful who were unable to reach St. Peter’s Square.” The basilica is the cathedral of Rome, and the pope, in addition to being the Roman Catholic pontiff, is the bishop of Rome.

The cardinals considered the request but “concluded that this hypothesis is not technically practicable,” he said. He said the pope would be buried in the grotto under St. Peter’s Basilica immediately after the funeral Mass.

With the crowds of mourners heading to St. Peter’s Square growing by the hundreds of thousand each day, Italian civil defense authorities sent out a text message to all cell phones in Italy saying that pilgrims should use public transportation and be prepared for long lines and for warm days and cold nights.

Sofia Gambelli, a Red Cross official, said on Italian state television that some 800 people were given emergency treatment at seven first aid tents Tuesday after they collapsed from stress and exhaustion. She said the elderly and the very young were the worst affected, and she warned against bringing babies.

By late Wednesday the line of pilgrims stretched back across the Vittorio Emanuele II bridge across the River Tiber and down the wide street of the same name. Other lines formed in both directions on streets beside the river.

KRE/PH END POLK