Cardinals set date for next papal election

VATICAN CITY -- The College of Cardinals on Wednesday set April 18 as the date for the historic start of the conclave to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II, as the Vatican made final arrangements for the funeral that is expected to draw millions of pilgrims and world leaders to Rome.\nThe decision came after the cardinals read John Paul's spiritual testament during a pre-conclave meeting Wednesday, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said, adding that the text would be released on Thursday.\nNavarro-Valls said the cardinals would celebrate a morning Mass on April 18, then be sequestered in the Sistine Chapel in the early afternoon to start the conclave.\nAccording to church law, prelates are expected to hold at least one ballot on the first day of a conclave. If no one gets the required two-thirds majority after about 12 days, cardinals may change procedure and elect the pope by simple majority.\nThe date was set on the third day of preparatory meetings of cardinals who have converged on Rome ahead of Friday's funeral and burial of John Paul.\nPilgrims continued to flock to St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, jamming up streets as they waited to pay their final respects to John Paul, who has been lying in state in St. Peter's Basilica since Monday afternoon.\nPresident Bush also arrived in Rome to attend Friday's funeral and immediately went to St. Peter's Basilica to view the pontiff's body.\nBush, his wife, Laura, former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and chief of staff Andrew Card knelt before the pope's bier in St. Peter's Basilica for about five minutes, their hands clasped in prayer, after being ushered in by a side door.\nThe general public filed past the crimson-robed body on the other side of the bier during Bush's visit.\nMore than 1 million pilgrims will have filed solemnly by the crimson-robed body by the end of Wednesday, according to calculations by the Italian civil defense department.\nOverwhelmed Italian officials warned people face a 24-hour wait to see the body and said they will cut off the line, which snaked down a wide boulevard, through ancient alleyways and onto a bridge Wednesday evening.\nThe civil defense department was flashing messages on highway panels and sending out text messages on cell phones to warn people of the closure, which will allow officials to clear the basilica on time and prepare it for Friday's funeral, spokesman Luca Spoletini said.\nJohn Paul's spiritual testament, read Wednesday, was a 15-page document written in his native Polish over the course of his pontificate starting in 1979, a year after he was elected.\nIt did not name the mystery cardinal he created in 2003, Navarro-Valls said, ending speculation that a last-minute cardinal might join in the April 18 start of the conclave.\nJohn Paul, who died on Saturday at 84 after a 26-year term as the leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics, created the "in pectore" or "in the heart" cardinal in his last consistory. The formula is used when the pope wants to name a cardinal from a country where the church is oppressed. Some observers said the cardinal might be a prelate from China, where the authorities only recognize a state-sanctioned church.\nCopies of John Paul's testament will be released in Polish and an Italian translation, Navarro-Valls said.