Pope carried to St. Peter's

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II's body was carried solemnly on a crimson platform to St. Peter's Basilica, past a sea of more than 100,000 pilgrims who waited for hours Monday under a blistering sun for a glimpse of the late pontiff before his funeral and entombment.\nTwelve white-gloved pallbearers flanked by Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets gingerly marched the body from the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, where it had lain in state for prelates and dignitaries, to the basilica for display to the public. Priests chanted the Litany of the Saints.\nIncense wafted through the church where John Paul's body will be laid to rest Friday in an ancient grotto holding the remains of popes through the ages, after a heavily secured funeral to be attended by President Bush and dozens of other world leaders. Up to 2 million pilgrims are expected in Rome to pay their final respects.\nAs cardinals in their red robes and caps filed past the body, bowing and crossing themselves, a long line of faithful, tourists and Romans who had packed St. Peter's Square slowly snaked into the basilica.\nPilgrims gasped, dabbed away tears and snapped photographs as they circled John Paul's body, clad in a scarlet velvet robe, his head crowned with a white bishop's miter and a staff topped with a crucifix tucked under his left arm.\n"His face was suffering," said Sister Emma, a 76-year-old Italian nun who saw the pope's body. "I felt a sense of sadness even though I know he's in Heaven."\nChicago Cardinal Francis George said the cardinals prayed for about one hour before the procession started to St. Peter's. He said it was "quite moving" to see John Paul "laid out as if he were going to celebrate Mass." George said the pope looked "at peace, but a man who had suffered."\n"You see the face of death very clearly," he said. "This is a man for whom I'm extremely grateful."\nOn John Paul's feet were a pair of the simple brown leather shoes he favored during his 26-year pontificate and wore on many of his trips to more than 120 countries -- a poignant reminder of the legacy left by history's most-traveled pope.\n"I would like to tell him how much I love him," said Lorenzo Cardone, 9, waiting in line with his parents.\nSince the pope's death Saturday, St. Peter's Square has been transformed into an outdoor shrine of thousands of candles, farewell letters and notes scribbled on train tickets and tissues fused in puddles of melting candle wax. The scene was reminiscent of the impromptu tributes that swelled in Paris and London after the 1997 car crash that killed Princess Diana.\n"Yesterday there was almost nothing here, and now look at it," said Catherine Pech, who drove 12 hours from Switzerland with her husband and daughter to mourn the pope.\nHours before the body was moved to the basilica, the College of Cardinals -- meeting in tradition-bound secrecy -- set Friday as the date for the funeral in the first of a series of gatherings preceding their secret vote this month to elect a new pope.\nIt was not clear if they discussed other issues. Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said there were 65 cardinals attending, and the remaining cardinals were heading to Rome.\nJohn Paul will be buried immediately after the funeral, which will include pageantry reserved for the highest prince of the church. The basilica was designed by Bramante and Michelangelo and dedicated in 1626. It was built on the site where St. Peter is believed to have been buried.\nNavarro-Valls said John Paul would "almost surely" be buried in the tomb where Pope John XXIII lay before he was brought up onto the main floor of the basilica. John XXIII was moved after his 2000 beatification because so many pilgrims wanted to visit his tomb, and the grotto is in a cramped underground space.\nMany of the world's dignitaries are expected to attend the funeral.\n"It will be a moment without precedent," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni told Repubblica Radio Monday. "Rome will grind to a halt."\nArchbishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Vatican office for lay people and a former aide to top Vatican Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said not all the cardinal electors had arrived in time for Monday's first session. Asked about the atmosphere among the cardinals, he said, "Sad, but hopeful."\nNavarro-Valls made no mention of a date for the papal election, or conclave, implying that no such decision had been made. By church law, the conclave must occur within two weeks of the burial.\nMonday's procession of the body began at the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace, where John Paul had lain in state since Sunday.\nTelevised by Vatican TV, it moved slowly through the frescoed halls, giving the general public a rare view of the inner sanctums of the Vatican. Many in the huge crowd who were too distant to see the pope watched images on giant screens set up in the square.\nBefore the procession, the camerlengo, or chamberlain, responsible for running church affairs in the time after the pope's death, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, said prayers and blessed the body with holy water as chanting echoed off the walls of the ornate Vatican hall.\nEmerging through the Bronze Door, the procession moved across St. Peter's toward the basilica's central doors to applause, an Italian gesture of respect. The pallbearers paused at the top of the stairs and turned the pope's body to face the crowd briefly before entering.\nMartinez presided over a prayer service in Latin before the public viewing.\n"When I saw him, it sunk in that he's no longer with us," said Evelina Prezzo, a 43-year-old Italian postal worker. "We see only the body, not the substance of what he has been, but we have the certainty that he is with the Father"