Search for new pope begins
As the official mourning for John Paul II continues, Catholic cardinals are beginning the process of choosing a new pope.
When they meet today, they will also decide arrangements for the late pontiff’s funeral, which is expected to take place at the end of this week. It is not yet known where he wanted to be buried.
The pope’s body is due to be taken to St Peter’s Basilica later today, where hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to visit to pay their respects.
It has been held in state at the Vatican, where Italian officials and Vatican clerics have been filing past over the weekend.
The Polish-born pontiff died at 21:37 local time (20:37 BST) on Saturday following two months of serious illness. The 84-year-old finally died of septic poisoning and heart failure.
He had presided over the billion-strong Catholic Church since 1978, the first non-Italian pope for 500 years and the longest serving pontiff after St Peter and Pius IX.
Yesterday, tens of thousands of mourners attended an open-air mass in St Peter’s Square in Rome, marking the start of nine days of official mourning in the Vatican.
Millions more are expected to travel to Rome in the coming days as the Catholic church’s 117 cardinals, many of whom were appointed by Pope John Paul II, will today meet at the Vatican to decide upon the start-date of the conclave that will choose the next pontiff.
Conservatives who followed the late pope’s hardline views on abortion, women priests and contraception will be keen to appoint a successor who continues his legacy.
But liberals are gearing up for a battle for a more moderate pope who would bring many alienated Catholics, mostly in Europe and North America, back into the fold.
South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has suggested that the newly appointed Pope should be African.
“I hope the cardinals will follow the first non-Italian pope by electing the first African pope,” said Archbishop Tutu.
The Anglican cleric, who won the 1984 Nobel peace prize for his anti-apartheid activities, is among a growing number who have highlighted Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria. The Catholic church has a huge following in Africa and the appointment of Arinze would be seen to represent a progressive step in the continent.
Cardinal chamberlain Eduardo Martinez Somalo will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the Vatican’s affairs until a successor is chosen.
Tributes flowed in at the weekend from international leaders, with US president George Bush describing the pope as a “champion of human dignity”.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “Throughout a hard and often difficult life, he stood for social justice and on the side of the oppressed, whether as a young man facing the Nazi occupation in Poland or later in challenging the Communist regime.”
Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said: “With his death, mankind has lost a first-class moral beacon both for Christians and non-Christians.”
