Thousands View Body Of Pope

Tens of thousands of pilgrims have paid their final respects to Pope John Paul today after his body was carried on a crimson platform to St. Peter's Basilica.

Many wept as they walked past the bier. There was no stopping for a lingering view, or a motionless moment of reflection. Their glimpse of the pope's remains was quick at best, as police whispered "Hurry up."

Incense wafted through the church where he will be laid to rest Friday in an ancient grotto holding the remains of popes through the ages, immediately after a funeral to be attended under heavy security by President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and dozens of other world leaders.

By midnight, police say the line of mourners stretched for about two miles.

Except for a three-hour period for cleaning, the basilica will remain open to mourners.

But some still managed to snap photographs with cell phones as they passed John Paul's body, clad in a scarlet velvet robe, his head crowned with a white bishop's miter and a staff topped with a crucifix tucked under his left arm.

"I would like to tell him how much I love him," said Lorenzo Cardone, 9, waiting in line with his parents.

After a prayer service attended by cardinals, prelates and dignitaries, the doors of St. Peter's swung open, and police intervened to control the crush when the public was allowed to enter, an Italian news agency said. There was no immediate report of serious disorder or injury.

People crossed themselves as they filed past. Some took pictures of John Paul in his crimson robe and white bishop's miter.

Earlier, applause rose from the tens of thousands of mourners in St. Peter's Square as 12 pallbearers, flanked by Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets, carried the body on a crimson platform through the Bronze Door into the piazza.

Many more pilgrims were converging on Rome for the funeral, set for Friday by the College of Cardinals, which held two meetings in its first gatherings ahead of a secret vote later this month to elect a successor to John Paul.

The funeral is expected to draw up to 2 million people, including heads of state such as President Bush and his wife, Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Prince Charles, who delayed his wedding a day to attend.

The procession, to the backdrop of priests chanting the Litany of the Saints, began at the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace, where John Paul had lain in state since Sunday.

Televised by Vatican TV, it moved slowly through the frescoed halls, giving the general public a rare view of the inner sanctums of the Vatican.

Before the procession, the camerlengo responsible for running church affairs following the pope's death Saturday, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, said prayers and blessed the body with holy water, as chanting echoed off the walls of the ornate Vatican hall.

At least 60 members of the College of Cardinals, the red-capped princes of the church, accompanied the procession, along with bishops and other prelates.

Video images of the procession were shown on giant screens in the square and on the main avenue leading to the basilica, where more than 100,000 pilgrims, mourners and tourists solemnly watched.

Emerging through the Bronze Door, the procession moved across St. Peter's Square toward the basilica's central doors to applause, an Italian gesture of respect. The pallbearers paused at the top of the stairs and turned the pope's body to face the crowd briefly before entering.

Martinez presided over a prayer service in Latin before the public viewing.

At 2 p.m., police estimated the crowd stood at 100,000 waiting to get its last glimpse of John Paul in the basilica designed by Bramante and Michelanglo and dedicated in 1626. It was built on the site where St. Peter, the first pope, is believed to have been buried.

"It's extraordinary. It happens once in a lifetime," said Uwe Kunzmann, a civil engineer from Karlsruhe, Germany. "We want to be in the crowd."

"There's less a sense of mourning here than I think there is a sense of thanksgiving for the service of this man," said CBS News Consultant Father Paul Robichaud.

Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul would "almost surely" be buried in the tomb where Pope John XXIII lay before he was brought up onto the main floor of the basilica. John XXIII, who died in 1963, was moved after his 2000 beatification because so many pilgrims wanted to visit his tomb, and the grotto is in a cramped underground space.

In the first meeting Monday, the cardinals took an oath of secrecy, as called for in the Vatican document outlining the procedures following the death of a pope. In the second one, they made their decisions on the funeral rites, Navarro-Valls said. There were 65 cardinals attending.

There had been speculation that the pope might have left orders to be buried in his native Poland, but Navarro-Valls said John Paul "did not show any such wish."

Poles have hoped the heart of the pope — the first non-Italian pope in 455 years — might be placed in Wavel Cathedral in Krakow, where Polish saints and royalty are buried. Asked if this was ruled out by burial in St. Peter's, Navarro-Valls did not directly reply, saying he was merely transmitting information on decisions taken by the cardinals Monday.

The Rev. Eduard Berezowski, who was bringing 50 pilgrims from Gdansk, Poland, for the funeral, said he saw no problems with the burial in St. Peter's.

"It's only right. He was the bishop of Rome," he said.

Under Vatican tradition, Friday is the latest the funeral could have been held. John Paul will be entombed immediately after the 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EDT) service, Navarro-Valls said.

"It will be a moment without precedent," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni told Repubblica Radio on Monday.

Navarro-Valls made no mention of a date for the papal election, or conclave, implying that no such decision had been made. By church law, the conclave must take place within two weeks of the burial. Another meeting was scheduled for Tuesday.

To accommodate the thousands of faithful expected for the public viewing this week, the basilica will remain open except for three hours overnight for cleaning, Navarro-Valls said.

"This is basically a time to give thanks for his life. To pray to God for him and to pray to God for the next pope," Robichaud told CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer and The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

On Sunday, John Paul lay in state in the Apostolic Palace, dressed in crimson vestments and a white bishop's miter, his head resting on a stack of gold pillows. A Swiss Guard stood on either side as diplomats, politicians and clergy paid their respects at his feet.

"It was just a serenity about him that made all of us serene," said Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles on CBS News' Early Show.