Wikipedia pope john paul ii

2005 death and funeral of the 264th pope

On 2 April 2005, at 21:37 UTC, Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84. His funeral was held on 8 April, followed by the novendialesdevotional in which the Catholic Church observed nine days of mourning.^[1]

In February 1996 Pope John Paul II had introduced revisions to papal funeral ceremonies, including changes to repose and burial formalities.

These revisions were enacted through the apostolic constitutionUniversi Dominici gregis, and applied to his own funeral.^[2]

The funeral had around four million mourners gathering in Rome in the wake of his death.^[3][4]

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople was in the honorary first seat in the section reserved for churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church.

This was the first time an ecumenical patriarch attended a papal funeral since the East–West Schism.^[5]

Death

On 2 Apr