Pope John Paul II in grave condition (29 Viewers)
- Thread starter Bjerknes
- Start date
Q: What happened immediately after the pope died?
The Vatican camerlengo, or chamberlain, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, formally verified the death. According to tradition, when the pope's body is discovered, his baptismal name is called out three times. If there is no response he is judged to be dead.
In a small ceremony, the Pope's Fisherman's Ring and papal seal were broken. It is a symbolic act today, but one originally designed to prevent impersonation and forgery.
There is a strict Vatican protocol for dealing with the death of a pope. Word is passed through the Church's civil service - the Curia - and foreign ambassadors and heads of state are informed officially. But it is Vatican Radio that flashes news of his death around the world.
Q: What is the procedure for the funeral?
Each pope is able to specify their own funeral arrangements. This time, the Vatican will be working to a blueprint drawn up by Pope John Paul II in 1996.
According to, Dr John Pollard, a Cambridge University historian, the Pope's body is likely to be embalmed and then exposed for the veneration of the faithful - usually in a major chapel of St Peter's Basilica.
Dr Pollard says various requiem services are held over a maximum period of nine days. Pope John Paul II must be buried within four to six days of his death - in this case, between Wednesday and Friday.
The funeral will take place in St Peter's Square and heads of state and government and religious leaders from around the world will be invited.
Church services will also be held all over Poland, which has declared national mourning until the Pope's funeral.
Q: Where will the Pope be buried?
The Pope is expected to be buried alongside his immediate predecessors in the crypt under the main altar of Saint Peter's Basilica. There have been rumours that he wanted to be buried in Poland, but experts say this is unlikely.
Other reports say officials in Poland want the Pope's heart to be extracted and buried in Krakow, where the Pope was once a cardinal. Dr Pollard says this is unlikely, although it was the custom until the late 19th Century to bury the pope's heart separately.
Q: How is a successor chosen?
Cardinals from around the world elect the successor in a centuries-old ritual called the conclave. This is supposed to begin 15 to 20 days after a pope's death.
Before the conclave, coalition-builders will have been forging alliances. Senior cardinals who may themselves have little chance of becoming pope can still exert a considerable influence over the others. It is therefore a crucial stage in the election process and a time when every public remark by the cardinals is picked over by Vatican-watchers.
On the day the conclave begins, the cardinals will move in procession into the Sistine Chapel. They will have the option of holding an initial ballot - but only that first ballot - on their first afternoon in conclave. This would give them an opportunity to gauge the level of support for various candidates, before retiring for the night to contemplate their choice. Or they could follow the normal practice of waiting until the following morning to begin the election and the voting.
From this point, there will be four ballots a day until a new pope is chosen. The ballot papers are burned after every second vote, so black smoke is likely to be seen twice a day - at around midday and in the late afternoon or early evening. When a new pope has been chosen, white smoke emerges.
The new pope will then appear on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica.
Q: Where is the next pope likely to come from?
The election is genuinely wide open but it is possible to identify some key players.
For 455 years before the election of Pope John Paul all Popes had been Italian. One of the big questions this time round is whether Italy will get the papacy back. Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan is a strong candidate.
But many Vatican watchers are far from convinced they will, for the simple reason that the proportion of Italians in the electoral body has declined in recent years.
Much more likely, they believe, is that the next pope will be from the developing world - and most likely from Latin America, whose cardinals now form a powerful voting bloc. One name that is being talked about is Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Archbishop of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Nearly half of the world's baptised Catholics live in the Americas, and more live in Brazil than in any other country in the world.
There is a chance that an African pope could emerge from the conclave. Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Nigerian who has long been regarded as a serious contender.
The Vatican camerlengo, or chamberlain, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, formally verified the death. According to tradition, when the pope's body is discovered, his baptismal name is called out three times. If there is no response he is judged to be dead.
In a small ceremony, the Pope's Fisherman's Ring and papal seal were broken. It is a symbolic act today, but one originally designed to prevent impersonation and forgery.
There is a strict Vatican protocol for dealing with the death of a pope. Word is passed through the Church's civil service - the Curia - and foreign ambassadors and heads of state are informed officially. But it is Vatican Radio that flashes news of his death around the world.
Q: What is the procedure for the funeral?
Each pope is able to specify their own funeral arrangements. This time, the Vatican will be working to a blueprint drawn up by Pope John Paul II in 1996.
According to, Dr John Pollard, a Cambridge University historian, the Pope's body is likely to be embalmed and then exposed for the veneration of the faithful - usually in a major chapel of St Peter's Basilica.
Dr Pollard says various requiem services are held over a maximum period of nine days. Pope John Paul II must be buried within four to six days of his death - in this case, between Wednesday and Friday.
The funeral will take place in St Peter's Square and heads of state and government and religious leaders from around the world will be invited.
Church services will also be held all over Poland, which has declared national mourning until the Pope's funeral.
Q: Where will the Pope be buried?
The Pope is expected to be buried alongside his immediate predecessors in the crypt under the main altar of Saint Peter's Basilica. There have been rumours that he wanted to be buried in Poland, but experts say this is unlikely.
Other reports say officials in Poland want the Pope's heart to be extracted and buried in Krakow, where the Pope was once a cardinal. Dr Pollard says this is unlikely, although it was the custom until the late 19th Century to bury the pope's heart separately.
Q: How is a successor chosen?
Cardinals from around the world elect the successor in a centuries-old ritual called the conclave. This is supposed to begin 15 to 20 days after a pope's death.
Before the conclave, coalition-builders will have been forging alliances. Senior cardinals who may themselves have little chance of becoming pope can still exert a considerable influence over the others. It is therefore a crucial stage in the election process and a time when every public remark by the cardinals is picked over by Vatican-watchers.
On the day the conclave begins, the cardinals will move in procession into the Sistine Chapel. They will have the option of holding an initial ballot - but only that first ballot - on their first afternoon in conclave. This would give them an opportunity to gauge the level of support for various candidates, before retiring for the night to contemplate their choice. Or they could follow the normal practice of waiting until the following morning to begin the election and the voting.
From this point, there will be four ballots a day until a new pope is chosen. The ballot papers are burned after every second vote, so black smoke is likely to be seen twice a day - at around midday and in the late afternoon or early evening. When a new pope has been chosen, white smoke emerges.
The new pope will then appear on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica.
Q: Where is the next pope likely to come from?
The election is genuinely wide open but it is possible to identify some key players.
For 455 years before the election of Pope John Paul all Popes had been Italian. One of the big questions this time round is whether Italy will get the papacy back. Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan is a strong candidate.
But many Vatican watchers are far from convinced they will, for the simple reason that the proportion of Italians in the electoral body has declined in recent years.
Much more likely, they believe, is that the next pope will be from the developing world - and most likely from Latin America, whose cardinals now form a powerful voting bloc. One name that is being talked about is Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Archbishop of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Nearly half of the world's baptised Catholics live in the Americas, and more live in Brazil than in any other country in the world.
There is a chance that an African pope could emerge from the conclave. Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Nigerian who has long been regarded as a serious contender.
Believe it or not, but when there's a thread open about the Pope on the verge of death and people post things like "why do we have this thread? I don't give a damn about the Pope", people do get offended, among those myself. It's a blatant lack of respect and as Greg already explained at length, if you don't care, why don't you grace us with your absence from this thread.
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Sir, with all due respect, I don't disrepect the man. He touched too many people on too many continents to be called anything short of important or amazing. The man spoke 28 languages, fluently, so I would respect anyone with those capabilities. I feel for the majority of the population which happen to be Catholic. I even went to a Catholic high school. I can also see for you, since he is not only an authority figure to all, but a countryman to you. I apologise if those happen to be my posts you are referring to.
