Vatican’s mile of mourners

ROME was a one-way city yesterday as all roads and bridges poured pilgrims into St Peter’s Square.

Buses ran 24 hours, visitors drove through the night and dwellers set off at dawn to join the biggest mass mourning the Vatican has ever seen. Groups held aloft the flags of their parishes as they streamed to the start of the Via della Conciliazione, the street that gives the first glimpse of the Basilica where Pope John Paul II lies in state.

People clutched flowers and banners, some mirroring Archbishop Sean Brady’s call for the Pope to be canonised by declaring him their ‘Santo Papa’.

The line snaked close to a mile from the steps of St Peter’s and was continuously replenished by new arrivals. An estimated one million people filed through the Basilica to pay their respects in the first 24 hours, meticulous management ensuring waiting times were down to an average of three hours.

Painstaking arrangements were also being made for Friday’s funeral, details of which were decided by the 88 cardinals in Rome who attended the second daily meeting yesterday morning.

Many of the traditions that go back hundreds of years will be followed, but they have been forced to change some details. The introduction of the euro means that for the first time in centuries this Pope will not be buried with copper and silver coins minted in the year of his death.

Euro coins do not have a date stamp so instead the man seen as a champion of the poor will be buried with a small sack of medallions stamped with the year.

A short biography of his life, written in Latin on a scroll, will be sealed and placed in the casket. The only personal belonging that will be buried with the Pope will be his rosary beads. He will be left in the splendid red velvet and cream silk clothing he has been laid out in, and his cross. On Friday morning the body will be placed in a timber coffin and the final act - normally performed by a member of the Pope’s family - will be carried out by the person closest to the late Pontiff, his secretary, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, when he will place a white silk veil over his face.

The coffin will be placed outside on the steps of the Basilica for the Mass and will then be brought back into St Peter’s where it will be placed in a zinc box, and finally into a timber casket before being buried in the crypt.

Arrangements for the conclave when the cardinals will choose the next Pope are also being made.

They promise that this time when the new man is chosen, there will be no confusing grey smoke.

“We will try to improve the smoke to make sure it is white,” a Vatican spokesperson said.

He said the good news would be spread through church bells ringing around the city.