Funeral Mass for John Paul II

The funeral Mass for John Paul II will be celebrated on Friday, April 8 at 10 a.m. in St. Peter's Square.

The funeral liturgy will be celebrated by the cardinals and the patriarchs of the Oriental Churches. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside.

At the end of the liturgy, the casket of the Roman Pontiff will be brought into the Vatican Basilica and then into the Vatican Grottoes for burial."

The body of John Paul II will rest in the same place where Blessed Pope John XXIII was entombed. The remains of the this Pope, who died in 1963, were moved from the grottos to the Vatican Basilica on June 3, 2001, nine months after his beatification on September 3, 2000.

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