United States President George Bush will lead a US delegation to the pope’s funeral likely to include two former presidents and his brother, the governor of Florida, adding to the security and logistical problems already facing the authorities in Rome.
”It is my great honour on behalf of our country to express our gratitude to the almighty for such a man,” Bush said on Monday. ”We look forward to the majesty of celebrating such a significant human life.”
The planning for Bush to become the first serving president to attend a papal funeral began several months ago.
He and his wife, Laura, are to lead what officials called a ”small delegation” of Americans, with numbers severely limited by the crush expected on Friday.
Speculation grew on Monday that Bush would invite his father, the first president Bush, as well as his brother and Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, who is a convert to Catholicism. The former president Bill Clinton might also be asked to attend.
The US delegation will form part of the largest influx of visitors to Rome in modern times. As many as two million pilgrims are expected to arrive to pay their respects along with 200 heads of state.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela will also attend the pope’s funeral, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported.
The Vatican confirmed that Mandela will be among the world leaders at Friday’s mass.
”We know that millions more people of all persuasions and backgrounds join us in this shared sense of loss and bereavement,” an earlier statement from the Nelson Mandela Foundation read.
”At the same time, we celebrate the life of one of the great spiritual leaders of our time, one who gave moral direction and guidance in an age which scientific and technological progress was not always matched by equal progress in compassion and universal caring.”
St Peter’s Square, which is too small to hold all the mourners who would like to be there, does not have a high reputation for security. It was there on May 13 1981 that a Turkish gunman shot and wounded the pope.
Heads of state, monarchs and religious leaders are expected to be seated around the altar on the steps of St Peter’s when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger celebrates the funeral mass.
With the eyes of the world’s media focused on the scene, the event could prove a powerful magnet for the ill-intentioned. The Italian authorities are expected to mobilise 10 000 police and security personnel, with more than half that number responsible for protecting the monarchs, and heads of state and government.
Surveillance of airports and train stations has been stepped up in Italy, and airspace in Rome is expected to be closed on the day. Fighter jets, helicopters and a Nato Awacs plane will enforce the ban.
Police marksmen will be posted on nearby buildings and plainclothes officers, some possibly disguised as monks, will mingle with the crowds.
In response to the Vatican’s request to the Italian authorities to refrain from militarising the area, spot searches and hand-held metal detectors will be used instead of the fixed detectors in the square.
No decision has been taken on the tricky issue of transporting the VIPs past the crowds into the square.
Guido Bortolaso, the civil protection chief appointed to oversee the event, said the city will cope with the challenge.
”Rome has been welcoming visitors for 2 000 years. I am sure everything will go smoothly,” he said. ”It’s the task of the government to transport the visiting dignitaries punctually to where they have to go and to accompany them safely back to their aircraft’s gangway. We are quite capable of dealing with major events.”
The event is likely to run smoothly only if the authorities persuade large numbers of visitors to stay clear of St Peter’s and follow the ceremony on the giant screens that are being erected outside Rome’s other three basilicas and in the Circus Maximus.
The scale of the logistical task facing the authorities on Friday became apparent on Monday when police officers were struggling to control the thousands of mourners queueing to pay their last respects to the pope as his body was being transferred to St Peter’s Basilica.
The crowds out on Monday are only a fraction of the size of the invasion expected for the funeral.
As well as the safety of the pilgrims and the VIPs, the working conditions of the press were also causing a headache for the authorities on Monday.
The barriers intended to control the flow of pilgrims and leave a channel open for emergency vehicles have cut off the Vatican press office from the vantage point on the other side of the street from where many television journalists file their reports.
Guido Bortolaso also announced that the television vans occupying the square at the bottom end of the Via della Conciliazione will have to move because they are blocking a crucial access route for pilgrims who will be flooding into the square on Friday.
A two-storey viewing stand will be erected to accommodate the television cameras on Friday, he said.
Guest list
Expected at the funeral are:
Former South African president Nelson Mandela
Belgium’s King Albert II and Queen Paola, and the Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles and Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams
European Union Commission president José Manuel Barroso
Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Horst Koehler
Ireland’s President Mary McAleese and the Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern
Italy’s President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, and the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi
Poland’s President Aleksander Kwasniewski, the ex-president Lech Walesa and the Prime Minister, Marek Belka
US President George Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush Snr
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
— Guardian Unlimited Â