The conservative wing of the Roman Catholic hierarchy on Sunday launched a pre-emptive strike, aimed at blocking any swing towards a more progressive stance following the death of Pope John Paul II.
The Vatican’s ”prime minister”, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, surprised church observers by describing the late pope as John Paul ”the Great”, a title only previously accorded to three of his 263 predecessors, all from the Dark Ages and all canonised.
He inserted the title in the text of his homily at a requiem mass for the pope in St Peter’s Square, although he held back from uttering the words.
His attempt to raise the late pontiff to the status of a saint within 24 hours of his death appeared to represent an effort to put Karol Wojtyla’s profoundly conservative legacy beyond dispute and freeze the terms of debate on the next pope, signalling the start of what is likely to be a battle for the soul of the world’s largest Christian denomination.
On Monday, the cardinals will meet for the first time to begin the arcane and protracted process of bidding farewell to John Paul II and finding a successor.
Most of the 117 cardinals who will elect the new pope will file into a so-called ”congregation” in the Vatican on Monday morning to fix a date for the start of the conclave that will choose the next pontiff. Under church law, it cannot begin in less than two weeks from the date of the pope’s death.
The cardinals will hear the pope’s will and finalise funeral arrangements — expected later this week — for the third-longest reigning pontiff. It is not yet known where he wished to be buried.
As tributes flooded in on Sunday, United States President George Bush described the pope as the ”champion of human freedom”, notwithstanding John Paul II’s outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq.
”The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd,” the president said. Bush will be among about 200 world leaders attending the funeral.
In London, Clarence House insisted, however, that Friday’s wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles will go ahead, even if the dates clash.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a televised statement: ”Even if you’re not a Catholic, even if you’re not a Christian, in fact, even if you have no religious faith at all, what people could see in Pope John Paul was a man of true and profound spiritual faith, a shining example of what that faith should mean.”
The Vatican said the late pontiff had died at 9.37pm local time on Saturday of septic shock and heart failure.
Officials did not resort to the traditional methods of establishing the pope’s death, which include knocking on his head with a silver hammer. Instead, they subjected his body to 20 minutes of electro-cardiograph tests.
The process was supervised by Eduardo MartÃÂnez Somalo, the Spanish cardinal who holds the title of chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church. He removed the Fisherman’s Ring from the Pope’s finger and sealed the papal apartments to ensure nothing was removed.
John Paul II’s embalmed corpse was placed on display in the Apostolic Palace on Sunday so that prelates, diplomats and Italian government officials could pay their last respects. The body will be moved to St Peter’s basilica on Monday afternoon to lie in state. The prefect of Rome said it will stay there for three to four days.
Officials in Rome said they are bracing for an influx of about two million Catholics from other parts of Italy and the world.
Perhaps the most startling of the tributes came from Cuba’s President Fidel Castro, who expressed condolences and declared three days of mourning.
Mikhail Gorbachev described the late pope as ”humanitarian number one on the planet”. Current Russian President Vladimir Putin said John Paul’s ”spiritual and political legacy had been deservedly valued by humanity”.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, called the pontiff, who died aged 84, ”one of the great Christian leaders of the 20th century and perhaps, in retrospect, one of the very greatest”.
The campaigning singer Bono described John Paul II as ”the first funky pope”.
South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu called him a champion of peace and said the cardinals should ”follow the first non-Italian by electing the first African pope”.
Monday’s meeting of cardinals will be the first at which they will discuss the issues facing the global Roman Catholic Church. But first they must see to age-honoured procedures, arranging for the destruction of the papal ring. — Guardian Unlimited Â