A sea of faithful filed past Pope John Paul's body in St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday as the Roman Catholic Church prepared for his funeral and the choice of a successor to the third-longest reigning pontiff.
As a chilly day broke, tens of thousands lined up to pay their respects to the Polish Pope whose crimson-robed body lay in state inside the cavernous basilica where he had presided for 26 years before his death on Saturday.
"He showed us so much affection during his long papacy. The least we could do is to show his affection back," said 16-year-old Francesca Illiano of Naples, who kept an all-night vigil to the sound of prayers over a loudspeaker.
Up to 2 million people are expected for the funeral on Friday as well as almost 200 world leaders in an unprecedented salute for a pontiff who helped bring down the Iron Curtain and stamped a uncompromising orthodoxy on his own faith.
Later this month, 117 cardinals -- almost all hand-picked by John Paul -- will gather to elect his successor, with white smoke from the Sistine Chapel marking the decision.
The Pope left his Apostolic Palace for the last time on Monday, carried on a red velvet litter through the Vatican's frescoed hallways, into a packed St. Peter's Square and the basilica.
Pilgrims stretching for as far as the eye could see waited hours in line through the night for the chance to take a last look at the Pope who traveled more than any other in two millennia to reach out to the masses.
"It was extremely cold during the night, but we were warm toward each other. People were lending each other blankets and praying together," said Lina Cardella, who traveled from Naples with her husband and two daughters and lined up for five hours.
RED-EYED PILGRIMS
Cardinals decreed on Monday that he should remain on view for three days and nights until a funeral on Friday attended by President Bush and scores of other dignitaries, followed by his burial in the basilica's grottoes.
Four Swiss guards in ceremonial uniform stood to attention around the raised platform where the Pope lay, a silver crucifix tucked under one arm, a rosary in his hands.
Many of the onlookers took photographs with their mobile phones before being whisked on by the uniformed attendants.
Only hours after the basilica was opened to pilgrims, almost half a million people had turned up, Italian state TV said.
At dawn, red-eyed pilgrims, many wrapped in blankets, stretched the length of the broad avenue leading from St. Peter's Square to the Tiber River. Some held national flags or the yellow and white Vatican banner, others wooden crosses.
SECRECY
John Paul's death has brought cardinals rushing to Rome and it is they who must elect a successor when they are called into conclave no sooner than April 17.
Some 65 of the red-capped princes of the Church met on Monday to finalize the funeral details and swore an oath to maintain strict secrecy about the election of a new pontiff.
But before vanishing inside the high walls of the secluded Vatican, many of them openly discussed the vote.
Some hinted that they would welcome a pontiff from the developing world. Others have said the next leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics should be a doctrinal conservative like John Paul.
"I don't know who I'll be voting for, but it's possible for an African pope to be chosen," Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson told Reuters before leaving Accra for Rome.
South African Cardinal Wilfred Napier said: "It would be great, of course, if it were somebody from the vibrant south where the faith is lived with a great deal of enthusiasm and not simply as a custom that one feels one has to carry on."
"INDEFATIGABLE WARRIOR"
Three days after the death of 84-year-old Pole, tributes continued to pour in for a man who defied dictators, fought for the dispossessed and denounced dissent within his own Church.
"Rest in peace indefatigable warrior for friendship between peoples, enemy of war and friend of the poor," Cuban President Fidel Castro wrote in a book of condolences in Havana.
Cuban officials said Castro would not attend the funeral.
But many other world leaders planned to come, including President Bush, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Britain's Prince Charles announced that he was postponing his marriage to long-time lover Camilla Parker Bowles from Friday to Saturday so that he too could be at the Vatican.
Thousands of grieving Poles were also expected to flood into the eternal city and Italy was laying on extra trains to ensure that as many members of the public as possible could be present.
But critics of his strict policies on birth control, women priests, homosexuality and abortion were undeterred.
"This papacy was a profound disappointment for those who believe that Christ's message of liberation, human freedom and more democracy should apply not just to the world, but to the church itself," said Frances Kissling, president of Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice.
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