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The Vatican's Official Web Site
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The
world's most powerful leaders joined an ocean of humble pilgrims
to say goodbye to Pope John Paul on Friday at the biggest funeral
in modern times
As dawn broke, hundreds of thousands of faithful who had spent
the night on the streets rushed to fill St. Peter's Square, choked
all surrounding roads
The Pope's simple wood coffin will be carried out of St. Peter's
Basilica at 10.00am (0400 EDT), the same church where more than
26 years ago Karol Wojtyla first emerged as pontiff to stun the
world with his vitality and charisma
Police struggled to hold back the pilgrims as they surged forward,
and every few minutes the barriers were opened, letting a stream
of faithful charge over the cobblestones and up to the edge of
the colonnaded square
Four kings, five queens and at least seventy presidents and prime
ministers took their seats for the open-air service in front of
the basilica, in the largest such gathering of international leaders
Around two million pilgrims were expected to cram the streets
around the Vatican while many more will watch the service on giant
television screens around Rome - pictures that will be broadcast
to a potential world audience of billions
According to a Vatican schedule, the Pope's body was placed in
the first of three coffins two-and-a-half hours before the public
funeral, in a private ceremony inside the basilica attended by
senior clerics and friends of the Pope
The body was put in a simple cypress coffin and a white silk cloth
placed over his face
A brief history of his life was read and sealed in a tube and
placed in the casket along with coins minted during his pontificate
Rome shutdown
The Polish Pontiff died on Saturday after a decade of suffering
and sickness, unleashing a worldwide outpouring of grief within
the Roman Catholic Church and beyond
His crimson-robed body lay in state in St. Peter's Basilica for
four days, bringing millions of pilgrims streaming through the
Vatican in an epic vigil that almost paralyzed Rome
A huge crowd inched its way up Via della Conciliazione leading
up to St. Peter's in the early light, with a forest of red-and-white
Polish flags shimmering in the dawn sun
Several pilgrims, overcome by emotion, fainted near a gate leading
into St. Peter's Square
Police repeatedly yelled at people to stop pushing
Among the 2,500 dignitaries of all faiths and races due to flood
into the Renaissance square are President Bush, U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan, Britain's Prince Charles and an array of Arab
leaders
Alphabetical seating may force sworn enemies to sit side-by-side,
with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami facing the prospect of
being placed next to Israeli President Moshe Katsav
Cuban President Fidel Castro, who will not be present, accused
Bush of "hypocrisy" for attending the funeral, saying
the Pope had been a fierce critic of capitalism's abuses
Italy closed the airspace over central Rome and called in extra
forces, anti-aircraft missiles and patrol boats to guard the funeral
of a man who was hailed for his role in ending communism but criticized
by some for his strict orthodoxy
Away from Vatican City, Rome was quiet on Friday as authorities
ordered all public offices, schools and museums to close and banned
cars from the roads
Last journey
In his last will and testament released on Thursday, the Pope
revealed his anguish in 2000 over the long length of his papacy
as he entered the new millennium stricken by ailment
"I hope He (God) helps me understand until what moment I
have to continue in this service to which he called me on October
16, 1978," he wrote, referring to the date of his election,
asking God for strength to carry out his duties
He also revealed that he had contemplated being buried in Poland,
but later changed his mind and asked only to be buried under the
ground
That wish will come about on Friday
For a Pope who traveled the equivalent of thirty times the circumference
of the earth during his reign, his last journey will be the shortest
After the funeral mass, his coffin will be carried back into St.
Peter's Basilica and laid to rest in a crypt after first being
enclosed in a zinc coffin and finally an oak casket
Roman Catholic cardinals have decided to open a conclave to elect
a new Pope on April 18
John Paul's successor faces the daunting task of leading 1.1 billion
Catholics in an era marked by tension between religions, between
science and ethics, between doctrine and social pressure to change
and open up to contraception, women, married priests
"This Pope has had a problem, and it will be the problem
of the future, to have unity in diversity," said Belgian
Cardinal Godfried Danneels, seen by some as a possible pope candidate
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