Pope to rest beneath St Peter's

2005-04-05 16:54

Vatican City - Pope John Paul II, his face covered by a white silk veil, will be buried in the earthen ground beneath Saint Peter's Basilica, the master of liturgical ceremonies, Piero Marini, said on Tuesday.

"The Holy Father wanted to be buried in the earth," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls added at a joint press briefing with Marini.

He said, however, that John Paul II, who died on Saturday, had left no other provisions concerning his funeral.

The Polish-born pontiff will be buried at the site left vacant by the coffin of Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963 but who was transferred to a Vatican chapel when he was beatified in 2000.

John Paul II will rest alongside his immediate predecessor John Paul I, who died after a brief 33-day papacy in 1978, and the popes Benedict XV, Innocent IX, Julius III and Paul VI.

According to Christian belief, the tomb of the first pope, Saint Peter, is located next to Paul VI's.

Three coffins

Marini would not be drawn on whether any Polish earth would be placed in John Paul II's coffin.

"There are so many requests," he said, adding that no such gesture has ever been made in centuries of Vatican tradition.

A number of Poles had requested that John Paul II - or at least his heart - be buried in his native country.

After lying in state at Saint Peter's Basilica until Thursday night, John Paul II's body will be placed into a cypress coffin, nested inside a zinc coffin and then an oak coffin.

Marini said silver and bronze medals minted during John Paul II's 26-year papacy will be placed in the coffin with him.

The eulogy honouring John Paul II and his life to be given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during Friday's funeral, will be sealed inside a lead tube and also placed inside the coffin.

- AFP