Funeral of Pope John Paul II - Requiem Mass

Requiem Mass

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the Mass of Requiem on April 8 at 10:00 a.m. CEST (08:00 UTC), by virtue of his office as Dean of the College of Cardinals. He was also one of Pope John Paul II's closest friends and carried out most of the Pope's duties during his final illness. Concelebrating in the Mass of Requiem were the College of Cardinals (the number of members that were present has been variously given as 157 and 164) and the patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

As the pope must be buried between the fourth and sixth day after his death, Friday was chosen as the last possible date. The Mass at St. Peter's Basilica was the first Mass of Requiem for a pope to be televised live in almost every nation in the world.

The event had an estimated viewership of over 2 billion people; the Catholic Church claims only 1.3 billion among its members. The funeral of John Paul II was by far the largest funeral in the history of the world. In lieu of a public viewing at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, as was tradition, immense digital screens instead broadcast the Mass of Requiem and subsequent Rite of Interment to those in the pope's cathedral church outside the confines of Vatican City. The same digital screens were hoisted at several sites in Rome, including the Circus Maximus, and at specially designated campsites outside the city for the millions of pilgrims who descended on the city.

The funeral was perhaps the most-watched live event in the history of television. Because people in North America understood that the service took place during the early morning hours on their side of the Atlantic, many awoke to view the funeral, and others taped it for a historical record. In addition, several television networks in the Americas rebroadcast the funeral later in the day.