The College of Cardinals met for a second day of talks yesterday to prepare for the conclave to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II as tens of thousands of mourners streamed past the late pontiff's crimson-robed body as it lay in state in St. Peter's Basilica.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said after the meeting that the cardinals hadn't decided on a date for the conclave, which must occur between 15 and 20 days after the death of a Pope.
He also said John Paul's body hadn't been embalmed, as those of recent popes have been, but that it had been "prepared" for public viewing.
The cardinals have not yet read John Paul's spiritual testament, he said. They spent yesterday continuing to work out details of Friday's funeral, in which John Paul will be laid to rest with regal pageantry near the tomb which is traditionally believed to be that of the first pope, St. Peter.
Navarro-Valls said 91 of the 183 cardinals were in Rome as of yesterday. Only 117 of them -- those under the age of 80 -- can vote in a conclave.
As the cardinals met, buses unloaded huge groups of students, pilgrims and clergy who joined a line stretching for kilometers along the wide avenue leading to St. Peter's Square and through the streets of the neighborhood that surrounds the Vatican.
Civil-protection officials handed out tea and croissants to those who had waited overnight in unseasonably cold temperatures to view John Paul's body and pay their final respects.
"It's an extraordinary day," said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa, who was greeting pilgrims in line yesterday morning, flanked by a camera crew and security personnel. He said the crowds were there "to give back to the pope all the love the pope gave to the world."
Rome is bracing for an unprecedented flow of pilgrims -- some predict their numbers may match the city's own 3 million residents -- in the days leading to Friday's funeral, which will be attended by kings, presidents and prime ministers.
The cardinals -- who are sworn to secrecy on their deliberations -- are to review any papers the Pope may have left for them.
They may reveal to the college the name of a mysterious cardinal John Paul said he had named in 2003 but had never publicly identified. The name of the cardinal was held in pectore, or "in the heart" -- a formula that has been used when the Pope wants to appoint a cardinal in a country where the Church is oppressed.
Navarro-Valls yesterday said he didn't know if the Pope had included any mention of the in pectore cardinal in any documents given to the cardinals to read.
He also confirmed yesterday that John Paul would be buried in an underground tomb where Pope John XXIII lay before he was brought up onto the main floor of the basilica.
Meanwhile, Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who attempted to assassinate John Paul in 1981, has asked Turkish authorities to briefly let him out of jail so he can attend the pontiff's funeral, his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag said yesterday.
Agca, 47, said in a handwritten letter in Italian on Monday that he was mourning the death of the Pope, whom he described as a "spiritual brother."
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