Funeral of the pope Jean-Paul II

Following the Died of the pope Jean-Paul II the April 2nd 2005 with 21:37 (19h37 GMT) in its private apartment, the the Vatican organized six days of ceremonies to pay homage to him.

April 2nd

Taken care

One taken care of prayers started of 21:00, to which close to 60 000 people took part, was held under the apartments of the pope in order to return his “passage in the other least painful possible world”.

Announces of its death

It is the spokesperson of the the Vatican Joaquin Navarro-Valls which announced the death of the pope to the journalists and the Vicaire of Rome in made in the same way with the pilgrims gathered on the place Saint-Pierre.

Conservation of the body

The mortal remains of the pope Jean-Paul II was not embaumée, announced to Tuesday the spokesperson of the the Vatican, Joaquin Navarro-Valls during a press conference. The preparation of the body was entrusted to a team of specialists in the institute of legal medicine of the polyclinic of Tor Vergata, to Rome, was directed by professor Giovanni Arcudi. The tradition entrusted until now the preparation of the skins of the late popes to a Roman family, Signoracci, specialists in the techniques in embalming. The work of the experts of Tor Vergata is very criticized. the pope is unrecognizable, with the émacié face and the skin color waxes , thus commented on the Corriere daily newspaper beyond Will be in its publication of the Tuesday, April 5, 2005.

Night gathering

Just as at the beginning of evening, the night proceeded, for tens of thousands of people, under the pontifical apartments. Environment was with the meditation and the relief of knowing that the pope did not suffer any more.

April 3rd

Mass of the mercy

Wanted by Jean-Paul II, this mass of the divine mercy was celebrated by the cardinal Angelo Sodano Sunday April 3rd 2005 in midmorning on the Saint-Pierre place of Rome, where more 100 000 faithful had met.

A posthumous message of the pope was read on this occasion: With the humanity, which seems sometimes stray and dominated by the capacity of the evil, selfishness and the fear, the Lord ressuscity offers in gift his love, which forgives, reconciles and reopens the heart with the hope. It is the love which converts the hearts and gives peace.

Exposure of the mortal remains to the Curia

The members of the Curie, more the Italian high ranking authorities and the diplomatic corps ravelled in front of the skin, in the Clémentine room of the apostolic palates, followed by an uninterrupted file monks, nuns (in particular of the Polish nuns who surrounded the pope in his last moments), police officers, Swiss guards or privileged civilians. This ceremony continued the following day.

Events in France

A special mass in the church Notre-Dame de Paris is given by Monseigneur André Vingttrois to 18:30 for the last homage to Jean-Paul II. One also notes the presence of the President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac, of the Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and their wives, but also that of many representatives of the French political community, without speaking about many faithful anonymities.

All the bells of the churches of France resounded with 18:30 and even the large bumblebee of Notre-Dame de Paris, which sounds only at the time of very special occasionss, rang the knell. The April 3rd is also day of mourning in France and the flags of the public corporations were put in Bern.

April 4th

Determination of the date of the funeral like that of the conclave

A meeting of the whole of the cardinal proceeded with 10:30 in order to determine the date of the funeral. It was agreed that its funeral would take place Friday April 8th with 10:00, that it would be buried in the Crypte under the Basilique Saint-Pierre and of the instructions were addressed to the cardinals as for the organization conclave which will begin Monday April 18th.

Transfer of the body

To the neighborhoods of 17:00 (15h00 GMT), the skin of Jean-Paul II is transferred from the Clémentine room, which is located on the second floor of the apostolic palate, to the Basilique Saint-Pierre by 12 men while crossing the crowd joined together on the Saint-Pierre place. This transfer of the mortal remains proceeded under the applause of the faithful ones.

Exposure of the mortal remains to the Saint-Pierre basilica

The exposure to the public of the body took place starting from 20:45 and will still proceed during 3 days. The basilica was open all the day of Monday (except one hour and half in the night in order to clean it instead of the four initially envisaged) in order to make it possible very many faithful to collect itself a short moment in front of the skin of the pope. According to certain sources, 2 million faithful and pilgrims came to pay a last homage between the 4 to him, April 5th, 6th and 7th. During this only day more 500 000 people ravelled in front of her skin. The Italian Civil protection accommodated them in order to ensure their safety.

Jean-Paul II appears the features of the face slackened, vêtu of a white chasuble and a red cape, the hands folded up on the body and holding its stick with the hollow of the arm on the left side. It carries a white miter and its head rests on several cushions.

April 5th, 6th and 7th

Last homages

The pilgrims tributary of the 4 corners of the world by the stations and the airports and flow in the streets, which mênent with the the Vatican, invaded by a compact crowd. The Civil security, the Armed Italian, voluntary present on the spot as well as an important security service, in all more 10 000 men and women, ensure the good progress of the funeral of the pope. Vis-a-vis the exceptional surge pilgrims, tents were set up in periphery of the city but the many faithful ones were satisfied to sleep in bags of bed to very the ground! The Airspace with the top of Rome was interdict in a preventive way, the roadway system is covered with thousands of bottles out of plastic, pirns, papers and packing in any kind in spite of the efforts made by the services of cleaning. Lastly, the telecommunication networks (as those of the cellphones) are in extreme cases of saturation. It is the same for the restaurants and the hotels which do not make any more vis-a-vis this “great flood of people”.

In medium of day of the April 5th, certain media evoked a good kilometer of file before being able to enter the basilica, i.e. approximately 8 hours of waiting. The Tuesday the 5th at the evening, the the Vatican announced that more than one million faithful had been able to entrapercevoir the skin of the pope: since they are very numerous to want to pay a last homage to him, the rate/rhythm of passage is constant.

During the day of Wednesday, one estimated that the duration of waiting was 12 midnight and that these files contained more than one million people spread out over two kilometers, i.e. the pilgrims would not return in the basilica before its closing for funerals of the pope. Measures were thus taken by the Italian authorities which decided to block the arrival of new pilgrims as of 22:00, for finally reopening the access as of the next morning (latency of approximately 4 hours).

The exposure to the Basilique Saint-Pierre was completed Thursday April 7th with 20:00 in order to allow the preparations of the funeral of Jean-Paul II which were held the next day.

April 8th

Burial

The religious ceremony celebrated by the cardinal Joseph Ratzinger lasted approximately three hours and proceeded on the square of the Basilique Saint-Pierre. It was diffused on line by televisions of the whole world. Nearly a million people were present for this only day of the April 8th, including approximately two hundred high representatives of State: US president Georges W.Bush, the king Albert II and the Paola queen of the Belgians, the Henri large-duke and the Maria-Teresa large-duchess of Luxembourg, Iranian president Khatami, French president Jacques Chirac, king Juan Carlos and the Sophie queen of Spain, Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski, etc Certains Christians present at the time of the ceremony expressed their desire that Jean-Paul II is “Santo subito”.

The late pope was buried in the crypt of the Basilique Saint-Pierre with the the Vatican with 14:20. The ceremony of burial proceeded in the absence of the media and lasted two hours. It rests close to the burial of the apostle Pierre, in the vault occupied before him by Jean XXIII béatifié since. According to the the Vatican, the niche was refitted like a cell of Monastère. A large flagstone in white Marbre of Carrare recovers fall it accommodating a coffin out of wooden from Cyprès placed inside a coffin in Zinc itself deposited in a coffin in Chêne. All the coffins were sealed.

40 000 people were implied in a safety device without precedent, of which more 10 000 police officers, more 20 000 municipal employees and more 10 000 volunteers of civil protection. The town of Rome was prohibited with circulation, 1500 people and 300 vehicles were only affected with the protection of the many personalities, policies or nuns, who were present at Rome.

Statistics

The Room-of-Press and the pontifical Council for the social Communications delivered more than 6.000 accreditations (journalists, photographers, reporters of radio-television) for the cover of the event.

Radio the Vatican and the CTV allowed all the companies requiring it to reproduce their signals. To the only EUR-EBU connected 80 televisions diffusing in mondio-vision. 137 chains TV (81 countries) announced to the pontifical Council to have diffused the Mass of funeral, while Radio Vatican transmitted the ceremony in 7 languages.

For the same period, Internet site of the Holy See received 1.300.000 visits, with points of 54.000 contemporary connections (band of 9 gigabit/second).

The Mass of funeral was concélébrée by 157 Cardinals, in the presence of 700 archbishops and bishops, 3.000 prelates and priests. The communion was distributed by 300 priests. The official delegations were 169: 10 sovereigns and 59 Heads of State, 3 princes hereditary, 17 heads of government, 3 wives of Heads of State, 8 vice-chiefs of state, 6 Deputy Prime Minister, 4 presidents of Parliament, 12 Foreign Ministers, 13 ministers, 24 ambassadors, 10 leaders of international agencies.

One counted also the delegations of 23 orthodoxe and orthodoxe Churches Eastern, 8 of Churches and Western Communions, 3D' Christian organizations international, several representative the Judaism, the religions not-Christian women and the dialog inter-monk.

From April 2nd to 8th, more than 3 million people arrived at Rome: 21.000 entered per hour in the Basilica Vaticane, 350 at the minute. Waiting went from 13 to 24:00, with a maximum tail of 5 km. The day of faithful funeral 500.000 were Place-St.Pierre and Via della Conciliazione, 600.000 in the urban sites equipped with giant screens. On the square of St.Pierre were 400 handicapped.

The number of the volunteers was of 8.000, including 1.300 in Tor Vegata, 1.500 with the the Vatican, 450 in the stations, the remainder on the sites equipped with screens. More 2.000 Scouts, 11.900 Security agents including 530 frontier and 8.963 with Rome (4 500 law and order, 1.640 with the protection of the 1.800 personalities, 1.763 special agents, 2.400 in the close provinces), 1.000 firemen, 6 helicopters of the police force, 400 soldiers, 2.700 police officers municipal, 7.000 railwaymen, 4 specialists in catastrophes, 3.500 agents ecologists, 1.500 drivers of bus.

One counted 1.000 special trains (total of 800.000 passengers) starting from April 2nd for 8.000 passengers in transit by Rome, including 6 Polish transporting 5.000 people, 5.200 buses of tourism and 1.800 urban buses per day, 25 giant screens, 3 million distributed water bottles and 3.600 WC chemical, approximately 4.000 medical helps, 21 rescue stations, 100 ambulances, 1.150 tents (8 000 places) with Tor Vergata, 8 mobile canteens, 400 water points, 6.000 beds, 20.000 calls were managed by communal agents and volunteers charged the reception in the various languages, of which Chinese and Arabic.

The municipality of Rome placarded 3.500 posters on April 3rd to greet the late Pape, including two wall cupboard giants on Lungotevere (6 X 9 m): " Thank you. Rome cries and greets its Pape.

Random links: