Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II

Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II
	The body of Pope John Paul II lying in state
Date	2 April 2005 (death); 8 April 2005 (funeral);
Location	Apostolic Palace, Vatican City (death); St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City (funeral);
Participants	The College of Cardinals (led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger), various dignitaries worldwide

On 2 April 2005, Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84. His funeral was held on 8 April, followed by the novendiales devotional in which the Catholic Church observed nine days of mourning.

In February 1996 Pope John Paul II had introduced revisions to papal funeral ceremonies, including changes to repose and burial formalities. These revisions were enacted through the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, and applied to his own funeral.

The funeral had around four million mourners gathering in Rome in the wake of his death.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople was in the honorary first seat in the section reserved for churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church. This was the first time an ecumenical patriarch attended a papal funeral since the East–West Schism.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.