Pope John Paul’s coffin exhumed ahead of beatification

(April 29, 2011) Pope John Paul's coffin was exhumed from its resting place early Friday morning ahead of his beatification on Sunday as tens of thousands of people began arriving in Rome for one of the biggest events since his funeral in 2005. The Vatican said the marble slab was removed from the tomb revealing the wooden coffin which contains two other coffins – a sealed leaden coffin that houses the original wooden coffin containing the body of John Paul. Top Vatican officials and some of the late Pope's closest aides looked on and prayed during the ceremony in the crypt below St Peter's Basilica as the coffin was moved in a carriage and placed in front of St. Peter’s tomb in the crypt. Those present at the ceremony included Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, his personal secretary and right-hand man for decades, and the Polish nuns who ran the papal household for over 26 years. The coffin will be brought up in front of the main altar in St Peter's Basilica Sunday morning, where Pope Benedict XVI and all others can venerate the new Blessed after the Beatification Mass. The church will remain open until all visitors who want to view it have done so. It will then be moved to a new crypt under an altar in a side chapel near Michelangelo's statue of the Pieta. The marble slab that covered his first burial place will be sent to Poland where it will be used in a new church dedicated to the new Blessed. The pope is being beatified on the Feast of Divine Mercy, to which he has a special devotion. It is a moveable feast, celebrated on the Sunday after Easter, which this year is happens to fall on May 1.