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| A worker sets up a giant photo of John Paul II on the colonnade of St Peter’s square at the Vatican |
Late pope John Paul II’s coffin was carried out of its resting place in a Vatican crypt yesterday as tens of thousands of pilgrims began gathering in Rome for his beatification ceremony.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul’s former personal secretary, held a brief ceremony by the coffin before it was carried in front of Saint Peter’s tomb a few steps away.
The coffin will be brought into Saint Peter’s basilica tomorrow for the ceremony that will put the Polish-born pope one step from sainthood and pilgrims will be able to file past it afterwards to pay their respects.
A phial of John Paul’s blood, taken during the last days of his illness at the end of a pontificate that re-invigorated the Roman Catholic Church and helped defeat Communism in Eastern Europe, will also be put on show for adoration.
Posters honouring John Paul’s remarkable life have been put up all over Rome ahead of the ceremony, which will be preceded today by a mass prayer vigil in the Circus Maximus – an ancient Roman arena in the city centre.
The Vatican said it expected at least 21 heads of state and government to attend the ceremony including presidents Giorgio Napolitano of Italy, Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland.
Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, who has been widely condemned for human rights abuses for decades, will also be attending under a special exemption from a European Union travel ban that will allow him to fly into Rome.
“He was invited and he will attend,” Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba told AFP, but declined to give details on his trip out of security concerns.
Some 500,000 in total are expected to come for the Vatican ceremony, which will be relayed on giant screens around the city, including around 300,000 pilgrims from outside Rome and 200,000 residents of the Italian capital.
Specially chartered buses and planes have already begun taking pilgrims to Rome and a group of hundreds of French faithful is expected to arrive from the French port of Toulon by boat today.
The solemn mass will be preceded on Saturday by a mass prayer vigil at the Circus Maximus where at least 100,000 people are expected.
French nun Marie Simon-Pierre, whose healing from Parkinson’s disease has been confirmed as a miracle by the Vatican, will speak at the vigil.
The Vatican said she was healed thanks to the intercession of John Paul II.
A second miracle is needed before the late pope can be declared a saint and the Vatican has hinted that full sainthood could come soon.
Stricken mourners who came to the pope’s funeral in Saint Peter’s six years ago had cried out “Santo Subito!” (“Sainthood Now!”). The Vatican’s complex beatification procedure was begun shortly after his death.
Thousands have sent their stories to the Vatican describing how they were helped by prayers to the late pope after his death and 270 testimonies of presumed miracles have already been selected to be examined in more detail.
But critics have spoken out against the accelerated beatification for John Paul, accusing him of ignoring progressive movements in the church and turning a blind eye for years to multiple scandals involving paedophile priests.
Abuse victims condemn John Paul II’s speedy sainthood
A support group for victims of paedophile priests has urged the Vatican to slow down the rush to sanctify late pope John Paul II, accusing him of turning a blind eye to abuse.
“The church hierarchy can avoid rubbing more salt into these wounds by slowing down their hasty drive to confer sainthood on the pontiff,” Barbara Blaine, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) group.
“In more than 25 years as the most powerful religious figure on the planet, John Paul II did almost nothing to safeguard kids,” she said in a statement, adding that “most” of the abuses happened during John Paul’s long pontificate.
John Paul is due to be awarded “blessed” status by the Vatican – one step from sainthood – at a mass tomorrow. Organisers say some 500,000 people are expected to come for the ceremony including 300,000 pilgrims from outside Rome.
The Vatican’s normally long-winded beatification procedure to honour particularly remarkable Catholic figures usually takes many years but was begun shortly after John Paul’s death in 2005 after a reign lasting nearly 27 years.
The Vatican has hinted that full sainthood for John Paul could come soon.
Church officials “can’t claim to want victims to heal, while paying massive tribute to a man whom evidence shows turned a blind eye for decades to child sex crimes and elevated corrupt clerics”, Blaine said in her statement.
SNAP said that some of its abuse victim members would hand out leaflets against child abuse outside churches in seven countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ecuador, France, the Netherlands and the United States.
John Paul II has been criticised for not doing enough when the scandal of child abuse by clergymen first emerged in the United States in 2000.