A sad return to Rome for the cardinals

From Michael Wilson in Rome and John Carey in London AS Pope John Paul was laid to rest on Wednesday, the world's 700 million Catholics began, reluctantly and painfully, to look once more to the future and to pray again for a worthy successor.
It was a death which stunned the world, coming just 33 days after his unexpected election, and it was greeted with incredulity and then dismay.
The outpouring of popular grief that followed showed what a deep impression Pope John Paul had made in that short time, not only on those who had met him personally but to those countless millions — Catholic and nonCatholic who had watched him on television or heard him on radio.
Tributes poured in to the Vatican from religious and political leaders, and for the second time in two months the Cardinals made their way to Rome for a Conclave, which starts next Saturday, to elect a new Pope. Cardinal Basil Hume flew out from London on Wednesday, the day of the Funeral.
The previous day Cardinal Gordon Gray of St Andrews and Edinburgh had left Scotland with Bishop Charles Renfrew, auxiliary bishop of Glasgow. In Rome they joined Archbishop Tomas O'Fiaich, Primate of Ireland and Archbishop Dermot Ryan of Dublin, who were representing the Irish Church.
Archbishop Derek Warlock of Liverpool, who had gone last week for meetings of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Committee for the Family, was already in Rome.
News of the Pope's death was heard first of all in Canale d'Agordo, the tiny mountain village where he was born. In the confusion that broke out when his body was discovered, Vatican officials did not forget the simple human courtesy of informing the family.
After a phone call from a papal secretary. Pia, the Pope's niece rushed to the church where Mass was in progress: "E morto lo zio" (Uncle is dead).
Only then did the Vatican turn its attention to the official duties of announcing the news to the world and stating the preparatoins for the funeral and the Conclave.
On Saturday evening, the Pope's body was carried from the Clementine Hall to St peter's Basilica, where it was to lie in state before the altar of confes sion.
A weekend crowd, thronged the square as the dead pontiff was carried in solemn procession from the Clementine Hall in an open bier on the shoulders ot IU sediari, his personal bearers.
Members of the chapter of St Peter's followed the cross of the Basilica and clergy. Then came the Sistine Chapel choir, chanting the 129th psalm De Profundis. After them came the bishops. of neighbouring sees and a large number of the 29 cardinals present in Rome, carrying flickering candles.
As the Pope's body was carried out through the' bronze doors of the Apostolic Palace into St Peter's Square, the crowd broke into applause.
As the Pope's body passed through the portals of the
Basilica, the choir intoned the Litany of the Saints, asking each to pray for the dead Pontiff. The Pope was then placed on a low catafalque in front of the altar.
After the blessing by Cardinal Samore, the reading of the Gospel and the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, the Basilica emptied quickly, leaving the Pope alone in its cavernous splendour until the next morning, when a crowd of tens of thousands stretched more than a quarter of a mile to file past him. The Vatican later estimated that more than 500,000 had viewed the body.