Word: pontiff
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...massive popularity with around-the-clock news coverage has created a spectacle that will go down with the ages. Today alone some 600,000 people have filed slowly, step by step, waiting as long as 14 hours, for just a brief glance at the body of the pontiff lying in state in St. Peter's Basilica. Meanwhile, new details are emerging about the elaborate plans for the Pope's funeral and burial on Friday, and even a word or two about the Conclave that will choose a successor. For those of us assigned to cover this momentous and mind-boggling...
...spent an hour yesterday lining up with scores of journalists, clerics and diplomats to view the pontiff's body lying in state at the Clementine Chapel, before it was moved across to St. Peter's Basilica - John Paul II will have his final resting place in the crypt below. As the line moved very slowly up the staircase to the third floor, and then as we moved through the Chapel, the atmosphere was very somber. The rosary was being recited as we moved slowly past the pontiff's body, and I was struck by the presence of Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz...
...couldn't help thinking that the look on the pontiff's face, lying in state, suggested that his final hours might not have been quite as serene as we've been told. He looked as if the suffering was weighing on him until his very last moment...
...reopen. And they appear to be deeply moved by the experience of being part of this history unfolding before them. They chant the rosary, and sometimes just the name "Giovanni Paolo" in a rhythmic chorus, as they wait for hours to get a few seconds glance at the pontiff as they pass by his body...
...interred in the crypt, that his body would be brought back to Poland. But that proved unfounded. The rumor was another reminder that this man seemed to have two sides. He was a devoted patriot of his native Poland, but at the same time a supremely Roman pontiff, who saw himself as the rightful successor of Peter. He was a firm believer in tradition, but infinitely curious about other cultures. Ultimately, John Paul II opted for continuity in his choice of burial, and his body will be placed in the same part of the crypt where the body of Pope...