The ceremonyThe princes of the Church said goodbye to a pope who was also their friend, writes Paddy Agnew
In Rome, when the wind blows through St Peter's Square, there are those who say that it is the Holy Spirit at work. If that is the case, then He did a good job yesterday as the blustery, grey April day provided a fittingly solemn backdrop to the funeral service for John Paul II, a service that was both stunning in its choreography and moving in its content.
This was a Vatican ceremony that was much more than a display of institutionalised Petrine primacy. Behind the pageantry of a ceremony sung in Gregorian chant and spoken in Latin, there was the palpable sense that the princes of the church, the political shakers and makers, and the 300,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican, had all come together to mourn the loss of a dear friend.
For the 200 or so world leaders gathered to the right of the altar, it may well have been edifying to find themselves back about 800 years in a service that owed nothing to the post-Vatican Council II vernacular but more to Byzantine and medieval rites. Edifying, too, to find so many friends and foes clustered together into the same small space. One unnamed member of a delegation from an Islamic country said: "He [John Paul II] is still at work amongst us. Look at the atmosphere of dialogue and listening around us here today."
The service began in truly dramatic fashion. As the Requiem aeternam, sung by the Sistine Chapel choir, sounded across the square, and as the Sant'Andrea bell tolled, more than 165 cardinals filed on to the steps after emerging from the red-curtained main doorway to the basilica.
Following the cardinals was the cypress-wood coffin of John Paul II, carried by 12 Vatican sediari and escorted by two Swiss Guards. Its emergence was greeted by sustained applause as the pallbearers carried it slowly round to the front of the altar.
Throughout the service the coffin lay on a carpet in front of the altar, with a book of the Gospels on top. The wind blew first the pages, then finally shut the book. Behind the steps of the basilica, a tapestry portraying the resurrection of Christ hung from the closed curtains at the door.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, deacon of the College of Cardinals and Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, presided, and his solemn opening words, In Nomine Patri, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, set the tone for the next three hours.
Throughout his homily, spoken in Italian, he had to stop several times as applause swelled from the square, usually prompted by the mention of the name John Paul. He spoke of the sense of "sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope" with which "we bury his remains in the earth".
He also spoke of a Holy Father who was "a priest to the last". He concluded: "None of us can ever forget how in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing Urbi et Orbi. We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us."
Following Vatican tradition, the Swiss Guards dipped their halberds, got down on one knee and saluted with the left hand during the Eucharist. As 320 priests from the parishes of Rome went out among the crowd to offer communion, they were confronted with banners saying "Santo Subito" (Make Him a Saint, Now).
Two of the most poignant moments came after the Eucharist when the Litany of the Saints boomed across St Peter's Square as the cardinals paid their last respects.
Minutes later the patriarchs of the oriental churches recited their Greek prayers for the dead, in solemn but ancient tones: "For you, oh Christ, oh God, are the resurrection, the way and the repose for your servant John Paul, Pope of Rome who has gone to sleep."
The service climaxed with the pallbearers carrying the body back up the steps of the basilica, accompanied by the Magnificat; the lugubrious tolling of the Sant'Andrea bell; and by a crescendo of applause. At the threshold of St Peter's, the pallbearers turned to face the crowd, holding the coffin aloft for one last salute.
The ceremony then passed out of the public eye and down through the "door of death" on the left-hand side of the main altar, down to the crypt where John Paul II now lies buried alongside John XXIII and two pious women, Queen Christiana of Sweden and Queen Carlotta of Cyprus.