Pope buried in St Peter's crypt

If anything brought home the stature of John Paul II, it was the sight of all the major networks covering his funeral live at 3:30 a.m. yesterday - and keeping their anchors off camera for almost the entire ceremony. For close to four hours, American television stayed fixed on the cardinals bowing before the pope's coffin and the huge crowd in St. Peter's Square. (New York Times)

The final commendation is meant to be the solemn climax of a Requiem Mass. But as the first cardinals processed towards John Paul II's coffin to line up four deep on either side and melodiously solicit prayers for his soul, they were greeted with a storm of applause.
Then banners were unfurled in several places around St Peter's Square demanding the late Pope be made a saint forthwith. Then came chants of "Viva il Papa" and "John Paul, John Paul". (The Guardian)

Monarchs, presidents, religious leaders and millions of people across the world paid their last respects yesterday to Pope John Paul II, who was buried in St Peter's Basilica after one of the largest funerals in history. As choirs sang in Latin and a giant bell tolled over Vatican City, 12 pall-bearers took John Paul's plain cypress coffin, adorned with a cross and the letter M for Mary, to the crypt below St Peter's Basilica. (Financial Times)

With presidents and kings looking on, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square sang, applauded and chanted for the church to declare John Paul II a saint as the pope was laid to rest Friday in an unprecedented gathering of the mighty and the meek. John Paul, who spread his message of peace to all corners of the planet, was buried among his predecessors back to the apostle Peter while tens of millions followed the funeral rites in their homes, in overflowing churches and on giant television screens set up in fields, sports stadiums and town squares. (ABC News)

In one of the largest funerals the world has ever seen, Pope John Paul II was laid to rest yesterday among the remains of his predecessors as millions around the world mourned the first global pope. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square cried for the Roman Catholic Church to declare John Paul a saint, weeping, singing and applauding a man who spread his message of peace, restraint and tolerance to all corners of the planet. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a close confidant of the late pope and a possible successor, delivered a homily that traced John Paul’s path from a factory worker in Nazi-occupied Poland to the leader of the world’s one billion Catholics. (Arab News)

Millions of people across the world today bid an emotional farewell to Pope John Paul II, one of the most influential and popular Popes of all times, in an elaborate and solemn funeral at the Vatican that was televised live around the globe. The "People's Pope" or the "Travelling Pope," who died on April 2 at the age of 84, was laid to rest alongside other pontiffs in the crypt of Saint Peter's Basilica. (The Hindu)

Pope John Paul II's funeral was as remarkable as his papacy. In New York, Wall Street stood still for a few minutes for the first time in history during the ceremony. In Rome, 300,000 pilgrims from all over the world crowded in an orderly fashion into St. Peter's Square spilling down the Via della Conciliazione to the Tiber and into neighboring streets. 200 international delegates were seated in front of the Basilica, including 60 heads of state, 5 kings, 6 queens, a Christian Ecumenical delegation, an interreligious and a Jewish delegation. No Pope before Karol Wojtyla was given such homage. (Jerusalem Post)


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http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1455709,00.html
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=654442
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1112926803687