Pope's body shown on TV
2005-04-03 19:34
Vatican City - The body of Pope John Paul II, pale hands clutching rosary beads, was shown on television for the first time on Sunday as Vatican and Italian officials filed past to pay their last respects.
The pope, his face serene, was dressed in dark red and white vestments and a white mitre. He was laid out on a raised velvet-draped dais flanked by two Swiss Guards.
A crucifix, crooked in an elbow, flanked his body to the left. His head, propped on velvet pillows, leaned slightly to the right. On his feet were brown leather shoes.
John Paul II died Saturday evening, aged 84, after years of poor health.
Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the Cardinal Camerlengo or temporary leader of the Roman Catholic Church until the election of a new pope, stepped forward to sprinkle holy water over John Paul II's body and recite: "God, our Father, has recalled our Pope John Paul II to himself. We beg the Lord to welcome him in his kingdom."
A choir filled the hall with the sound of Gregorian plainchant.
Among the first dignitaries to step before the corpse was Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Ciampi and his black-veiled wife Franka offered their condolences to the pope's private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who made no attempt to hide his tears. The Vatican said the Polish archbishop had held the pope's hand as he died in his Vatican apartment late on Saturday.
Ciampi and his wife were followed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and members of the Italian government.
Two million expected
Berlusconi convened a meeting of his cabinet earlier on Sunday to finalise arrangements as Rome prepared to greet an expected two million pilgrims and world leaders for John Paul II's funeral.
Dozens of other officials and cardinals of the Roman Curia, or Vatican government, also filed past in the frescoed Clementine Hall, a sumptuous venue where he received monarchs and presidents and promulgated decrees over the 26 years of his papacy.
Situated close to the entrance to the papal apartments, the hall, which was started in the 12th century by Pope Clement III, takes up two floors of the Apostolic Palace, with a colossal green chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
Above magnificent marble wainscoting rise bold ornamental frescoes of splendid perspective, along with Clement's coat of arms.
It was here that in 1971 then Pope Paul VI conferred the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize on the Albanian-born Mother Teresa.
John Paul II regularly held audiences in the hall, where he received the likes of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and US President George W Bush.
One of the last formal events in the cavernous hall was a ceremony February 24 to discuss new candidates for sainthood. John Paul II failed to show up for the meeting after he was hospitalised the same day for the second time in less than a month.