NEWS STORY: Vatican Sets Details for Funeral, Prepares to Roll Out the Black Carpet

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ The body of Pope John Paul II will be placed in a closed wooden coffin before his funeral on Friday, and will be buried in bare earth in the grotto below St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican officials said Tuesday (April 5). As the Vatican prepares for a grand […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ The body of Pope John Paul II will be placed in a closed wooden coffin before his funeral on Friday, and will be buried in bare earth in the grotto below St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican officials said Tuesday (April 5).

As the Vatican prepares for a grand funeral for the late pontiff, huge but orderly crowds continued to fill the streets leading to the basilica for a second day. Throngs of pilgrims up to 500,000 strong waited hours to enter St. Peter’s, where John Paul’s body will lie in state until Thursday night.


The outlines of John Paul’s funeral, which is expected to draw 200 diplomatic delegations and as many as 4 million pilgrims, emerged Tuesday as cardinals from around the world arrived in the Eternal City for the funeral and the conclave that will elect his successor.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters that members of the College of Cardinals did not read John Paul’s “spiritual testament,” or final wishes, during their second meeting on Tuesday.

Archbishop Piero Marini, the master of liturgical ceremonies, said the Roman Catholic Church requires “noble simplicity and beauty” for the rites connected with a pope’s death, lying in state, funeral and burial.

Marini said the pope’s body will be placed in a wooden coffin on the eve of the funeral, and his longtime secretary and friend, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, will put a white silk veil over his face.

Traditionally, the bodies of popes are not embalmed, and Navarro-Valls said only that John Paul’s was “prepared” for the viewing and funeral, but did not elaborate.

The coffin will be closed for the three-hour funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square, presided over by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, and concelebrated by his fellow cardinals on the steps of the basilica.

A 30-minute burial service in the grotto will follow.

Marini said the coffin will have a zinc casing and an outer shell of wood and will be laid in bare ground in a space previously occupied by the sarcophagus of Pope John XXIII, who now lies in a glass coffin in the basilica.


A flat marble tombstone will bear John Paul’s name and the dates of his birth and death. John Paul had expressed a desire to be buried in “bare earth” and not in a tomb above the ground.

Placed inside the coffin with John Paul will be a rogito, a sealed lead tube containing a scroll on which a brief biography is written in Latin, and a small sack of Vatican medals in silver and bronze bearing the year of the pope’s death. Marini said tradition calls for coins, but medals will be substituted because the euros now in use in Vatican City are not dated.

President Bush and his wife Laura will lead a U.S. delegation to the funeral. It will include former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The funeral will be a who’s who of world political and religious leaders. Scheduled to attend are the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul.

The funeral being organized by the Vatican will require unprecedented amounts of security and down-to-the-minute planning. The Italian government said it would appropriate $10.4 million in emergency funds to cover logistical expenses, including security, transportation, sanitation, first aid and camping sites for pilgrims converging on Rome and the Vatican.

Navarro-Valls said 91 of the 183 cardinals had arrived in Rome, and 88 attended Tuesday’s “general congregation” meeting. There are 117 cardinals who are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote for the next pope.


The prelates apparently are waiting for more cardinals to arrive in Rome before making other major decisions. The conclave must open 15 to 20 days after the pope’s death, which happened on Saturday, April 2.

Inside St. Peter’s, John Paul’s body lies on a catafalque in front of the basilica’s main altar, above the tomb of the first pope, St. Peter. The pope was dressed in deep red vestments and a white miter, his pastoral staff tucked under his left arm.

Four Swiss Guards in Renaissance uniform stand at attention inside the roped off area, where tall white candles give flickering light. Organ music and readings of prayer and scripture in the church are broadcast in St. Peter’s Square where giant television screens show waiting crowds the scene inside the basilica.

Once inside, the pilgrims walk slowly past the pope in total silence, allowed to pause only seconds to make the sign of the cross or take a photograph.

Because the press of mourners has been so great, the Vatican has scaled back the nightly closing time for cleaning from three hours to 90 minutes.

Authorities estimate that 4 million pilgrims _ including 1 million from the pope’s native Poland _ will have come to the Vatican for the mourning period and funeral.


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Officials said the millions of pilgrims who visited Rome during the Holy Year 2000 provided valuable experience in planning the papal funeral.

Authorities have beefed up local bus and rail service; permitted 4,000 motorcoaches to enter the city; added 99 local and long-distance trains; and put 8,500 beds and 200,000 individual campsites at the pilgrims’ disposal. They are distributing 70,000 bottles of water, 11,000 sheets and 8,500 cushions, and have set up seven first aid centers with 200 ambulances on call.

Volunteers poured into Rome from throughout Italy to help direct traffic, carry stretchers and give first aid. Many of them came from parish organizations.

A force of 1,430 agents will be deployed to guard visiting heads of state and 5,000 to keep public order. Also on duty will be 1,000 firemen and 600 doctors.

RB END POLK

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