James Sturcke and agencies
Monday April 4, 2005
The funeral of Pope John Paul II will be held at 10am (0900 BST) on Friday April 8, a Vatican official said today.
Cardinals agreed the date and time at a meeting today at the Vatican. The "princes of the Catholic church" were meeting today to plan the Pope's funeral and begin the long process of finding his successor.
The members of the college of cardinals gathered in the Bologna Hall of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace at 10.30am (0930 BST). It was the first time they had met since the pontiff's death on Saturday evening. Among their first tasks, after taking an oath of secrecy, was to open John Paul II's will and any other final documents he may have prepared for them.
The papers are likely to reveal whether John Paul wished for his remains to be interred in the crypts beneath St Peter's Basilica, where most popes are buried, or in his native Poland.
The funeral will be held before the cardinals begin the process leading to the secret election of the Pope's successor. Under church law, the election cannot begin until at least two weeks after the Pope's death.
This afternoon, the body of John Paul is expected to be taken from an inner sanctum of the Vatican, where it was displayed yesterday for prelates, ambassadors and other dignitaries, to be laid in state in St Peter's. This morning Vatican employees filed silently past the body to pay their last respects.
Later, the prime minister, Tony Blair, attends vespers at Westminster Cathedral in London to commemorate the Pope.
Up to 2 million mourners are expected in Rome to pay tribute to John Paul, who reigned for 26 years. Rome authorities were scrambling to make preparations for the huge influx of visitors. Police were putting up crowd control barriers in the city centre and medical tents had been erected. With most accommodation booked up, camp beds were being set up in sports halls across the city for pilgrims.
John Paul is understood to have set detailed instructions regarding his funeral for the college of cardinals in papers he drafted in 1996. The cardinals must also arrange the destruction of John Paul's fisherman's ring and the dyes used to make lead seals for apostolic letters - formal gestures meant to symbolise the end of his reign and to prevent forgeries.
As they begin a series of preparatory meetings, the cardinals will be quietly sizing each other up for the task of electing the 265th successor to St Peter, the first pope. The so-called conclave, held in utmost secrecy with all cardinals confined to the Vatican until a decision is reached, must begin 15 to 20 days after a pope's death.
John Paul was 58 when the cardinals elected him in 1978, as the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. He appointed all but three of the 117 cardinals entitled to attend the conclave, but there is no guarantee his legacy of conservatism will continue into the new reign.
The Pope died on Saturday of septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse, but he had been struggling with declining health for many years. He was 84.
Yesterday, his body lay in state in the Vatican's frescoed Apostolic Palace, dressed in crimson vestments and a white bishop's mitre, his head resting on a stack of gold pillows. A rosary was wound around his hands and a staff was tucked under his left forearm.
"Today, while we weep for the departure of the pope who left us, we open our hearts to the vision of our eternal destiny," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's "prime minister", said in his homily yesterday.
"For a quarter century, he brought the gospel of Christian hope to all the piazzas of the world, teaching all of us that our death is nothing but the passage toward the homeland in the sky."
Yesterday, officials in Rome held an emergency meeting, while the civil protection department and the city hall were working at full speed to discuss preparations for the expected influx of mourners.
"We are expecting from 1 to 2 million pilgrims in Rome, but we can't really predict how many will arrive," a cabinet minister, Roberto Calderoli, said afterwards.
Some measures are already in place. The large boulevard leading to St Peter's has been closed off to private traffic for days. Police have been patrolling the area rigorously, while ambulances have been on standby to aide the pilgrims.
Security measures are expected to be stepped up, with news reports saying that as many as 10,000 police might be deployed. Leonardo Da Vinci airport is expected to be partially closed to private aircraft when world leaders start arriving for the funeral.
