Roman Catholic cardinals imposed a media silence on themselves today as they resumed meeting to prepare to choose a successor to Pope John Paul, whose funeral resounded with calls to make him a saint.
The Vatican said the cardinals made the decision at the latest "general congregation", meetings being held until April 18th, start date of a conclave to choose one cardinal as new pope. "They have begun a period of more intense silence and prayer," spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
Cardinals at the funeral of the Pope yesterday.
"They decided unanimously to avoid interviews and meetings with the media. Journalists are invited not to ask for interviews or meetings with the cardinals.
"This should not be interpreted as a snub to the media but a gesture of great responsibility," the spokesman said. On April 18th only 115 of the cardinals who are under 80 will enter the Sistine Chapel and face the daunting task of choosing a successor to John Paul, whose effect on people's lives was shown by the massive turnout for his funeral.
The original total was 117, but the Vatican said two cardinals - Jaime Sin of the Manila and Adolfo Antonio Suarez Rivera of Monterrey, Mexico - were too ill to travel. Many of those present at yesterday's funeral chanted "Santo Subito", demanding the Church make the Pope a saint immediately.
The call was picked up by Italian newspapers on Saturday. Newspapers said the Vatican already had information on "miracles" that faithful from around the world claimed John Paul had worked on their lives. La Repubblica said the miracle stories included one from a doctor who once operated on the Pope.
The doctor was brought out of an irreversible coma, the paper said, while others had been healed of cancer, including a 4-year-old with leukaemia. Vatican rules say the process leading to sainthood cannot even start until five years after the death of a Pope. But John Paul's successor could waive the rule and let the procedure start earlier. John Paul himself did that for Mother Teresa.
"This decision belongs exclusively to the next Pontiff," Navarro-Valls said. Yesterday's funeral, watched by hundreds of millions around the world, was the first of nine daily Masses of mourning that will be held until the night before the conclave begins.
They will be held in St Peter's Basilica each day by either an archbishop or a cardinal. Some eyebrows have been raised because one of the Masses will be celebrated by Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who resigned in 2002 over the US Church's sex abuse scandal.
Law will be saying the Mass in his capacity as archpriest of one of Rome's basilicas, St Mary Major. Most of the many hundreds of thousands of people who descended on Rome for the funeral were gone by Saturday morning, but the crowds outside St. Peter's Basilica were larger than normal for a weekend, despite the rain.
Many of them were Poles who had come to Rome to say a last goodbye to the man they credit with having given them the spiritual strength to cast off communism. Before returning home, some Poles are waiting to be able to pay one last tribute to their most famous son by praying at his tomb in the crypts under St. Peter's Basilica.
The crypt area of the basilica is not expected to reopen to the public before Monday at the earliest. While the Vatican slowly returns to normal for tourists, life inside will be anything but for the cardinals preparing for the conclave.