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Tuesday, April 5, 2005
John Paul II was not embalmed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Departing from tradition, Pope John Paul II was not embalmed, only ”prepared” for viewing by hundreds of thousands of mourners, the Vatican said Tuesday. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls did not elaborate on the procedure, but an embalmer in Rome said it appeared John Paul’s remains were only touched up with cosmetics.
Massimo Signoracci, whose family embalmed three other popes, said he could not be certain what had been done without examining the body.
Signoracci said even a light embalming is necessary for a body that is exposed for several days.
John Paul died on Saturday, and his remains were put on public view late Monday on an open platform in St. Peter’s Basilica. He will be buried Friday. Historically, organs were removed to make embalming more durable. Relics of 22 popes — from Sixtus V, who died in 1590, to Leo XIII, who died in 1903 — are kept in Rome’s St. Anastasio and Vincent Church, near the Trevi fountain.
Pope Pius X, who reigned from 1903 to 1914, abolished the custom of removing organs.
Embalming usually consists of draining the blood and other bodily fluids and intravenously injecting formaldehyde and other preserving liquids. Signoracci said his family had embalmed the remains of John XXIII in 1963, and of Paul VI and John Paul I, who both died in 1978.
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Three presidents traveling to Vatican
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Presidents Bush and Clinton will accompany President Bush to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the White House said Tuesday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also be part of the small official U.S. delegation, but former Presidents Carter and Ford will not.
President Bush and his wife, Laura, will lead the group representing the United States at the funeral on Friday, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
McClellan said the White House “reached out” to Carter, but he would not explain why Carter was not going along.
A spokesman at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Jon Moore, said Carter — relishing the memories of two visits as president with the pontiff — had told the White House he wanted to go to the funeral. Upon learning that the Vatican was limiting the U.S. delegation to five people and that “there were also others who were eager to attend,” Carter was “quite willing” to withdraw his request, Moore said.
“He and his wife Rosalynn are very pleased with the official delegation,” Moore said of Carter.
Former President Ford, who lives in California, is 91 and no longer travels extensively.
Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy said the former president’s doctors had given him clearance to fly to Rome. Clinton had surgery a month ago in New York to deal with a rare complication from a heart bypass operation six months earlier. His doctors originally told him he would need four to six weeks at home, but he traveled by train to Washington last week to collect an award for his work on AIDS.
Bush is leaving Washington for Rome on Wednesday, and was to spend Thursday meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. The president planned to leave Italy immediately after the funeral to spend the weekend at his ranch in Texas.
Bush will be the first sitting president to attend a pope’s funeral. The pontiff died on Saturday, ending more than a quarter-century as leader of the Catholic Church.
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Archbishop of Canterbury going to funeral
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said Tuesday he will attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, becoming the first serving leader of the Church of England to attend a pontiff’s burial.
At the funeral, he would be wearing a ring presented by Pope Paul VI to a previous archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, Williams’ office said. Ramsey, who was then retired, attended Paul VI’s funeral.
Pope John Paul II visited Canterbury Cathedral during his trip to Britain in 1982, and Williams has described the late pontiff as a ”faithful and prayerful friend of the Anglican Church.”
England’s national church split from Rome more than four centuries ago when the pope refused to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon.
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Italy calls off Friday sports events
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Italian sports events will be suspended Friday as a mark of respect for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
The Italian Olympic Committee’s decision on Tuesday means that the Italian swimming championships at Riccione and a world tourism car championship practice session at the Monza circuit will be stopped.
All horse racing and a golf tournament at San Remo also will not proceed.
The Serie B soccer match between Venezia and Catanzaro has been moved from Friday to Saturday.
All Italian sports were suspended last Sunday — Serie A matches were postponed for one week — because of the death of the pope.
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Bells will announce election of new pope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The ringing of bells will accompany the traditional signal of white smoke to announce to the world that a new pope has been elected, a top Vatican official said Tuesday.
Archbishop Piero Marini, master of ceremonies for liturgical celebrations, said the bells were being added to avoid confusion over the color of the smoke coming from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
Black smoke signals no decision has been made, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.
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Castro calls John Paul a ‘tireless fighter’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Fidel Castro praised Pope John Paul II for his support of world peace and defense of the poor before joining other communist leaders, diplomats and church officials at Havana’s cathedral for a funeral Mass in the pontiff’s honor.
”Rest in peace, tireless fighter for friendship among peoples, enemy of war and friend of the poor,” Castro wrote Monday afternoon in the condolences book at the Papal Nunciature, the Vatican’s mission in Havana.
Accompanied by his younger brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro, President Castro also recalled John Paul as an ”unforgettable friend” who would be remembered on the island for speaking out against the U.S. trade embargo during his January 1998 visit.
”This earned you the gratitude and the affection of all Cubans forever,” Castro wrote.
The Cuban president, dressed in a dark suit and tie, later traveled to the Havana cathedral for the Mass on Monday celebrated by the island’s highest ranking Roman Catholic prelate, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
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Farewell Mass today in Warsaw
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Poles filled churches, lit candles and gathered in Warsaw on Tuesday for a farewell Mass for Pope John Paul II in a square where he once rallied the nation against communist rule.
Authorities said 200,000 people were expected at the afternoon Mass on Pilsudski Square in downtown Warsaw. Among the dignitaries expected were President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Marek Belka.
Workers busily decorated an altar on the square with flowers in the Polish national colors — red and white — and the papal banner’s yellow and white.
Across Warsaw, national and papal flags with black ribbons fluttered everywhere, signs of an official period of mourning to last until the pontiff’s funeral at the Vatican on Friday.
John Paul celebrated a Mass on the square in 1979 that is credited with giving courage to the anti-communist opposition, which brought about the peaceful end of communism 10 years later.
”We wanted to be with other people in this sorrow,” said Anna Plewa, 35, a teacher planning to attend the Mass. In the morning, she and her two young children lit candles and placed flowers at the site.
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Pope’s death generated thousands of articles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Major news media around the world devoted 10 times as many stories to Pope John Paul II’s death as they did to the re-election of President Bush, according to an analysis released Monday.
The Global Language Monitor, which scans the Internet for the use of specific words or phrases using Roman characters, found 35,000 new stories on the pope in the 24 hours after his death Saturday.
That compares with about 3,500 new stories on Bush within a day of his re-election and 1,000 new stories on former President Reagan within a day of his death last year.
The count includes stories at news Web sites as well as printed stories and transcripts of broadcasts found in electronic repositories such as LexisNexis.
About 3,000 newspapers and 1,000 broadcasters around the world were tracked. Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language, said the jump reflected the Roman Catholic pontiff’s influence.
”He was tied in history, probably more than any pope in contemporary time,” Payack said. ”Because of his extensive travels, he’s well known in many more countries.”
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