VATICAN CITY — The body of Pope John Paul II, his face placid, his pale hands clutching rosary beads, went on televised display Sunday as the Vatican began the long goodbye of a ritual-filled interregnum that will end with the election of his successor.
Fifteen hours after the pope's death, images from his private wake in the Apostolic Palace flashed around the world from Vatican cameras. Outside, a requiem Mass drew 100,000 worshipers to St. Peter's Square, where 2 million pilgrims are expected to converge for the Roman Catholic leader's public wake and funeral this week.
"He died with the serenity of the saints," Cardinal Angelo Sodano said in his homily at the Mass, recalling his final visit to the 84-year-old John Paul's deathbed in the papal apartment.
The crowd applauded and some fought back tears when Archbishop Leonardo Sandri read a posthumous appeal he said the pope had prepared -- perhaps one of the last written messages of John Paul's 26-year reign.
"To humanity, which sometimes seems lost and dominated by the power of evil, egoism and fear, the risen Lord offers as a gift his love that pardons, reconciles and reopens the soul to hope," it said.
The Vatican released a report Sunday by the pope's personal physician stating that John Paul had died of septic shock and irreversible cardio-circulatory collapse. It also said he had suffered from Parkinson's disease, acute breathing problems, heart disease and a benign enlarged prostate complicated by a urinary infection.
Dr. Renato Buzzonetti said he pronounced John Paul dead Saturday night after more than 20 minutes of tests with electrocardiograph equipment.
The prompt release of the report and decision to televise the private wake characterized a pope attuned to the needs of round-the-clock television news programs and the Internet, both born on his watch.
His death had been announced by e-mail from papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls to news organizations 15 minutes after the doctor certified it.
"Normally you don't see the pope's body until he is laid out in state in St. Peter's for everyone to see," said Father Thomas Reese, a Vatican specialist and New York-based editor of the Jesuit magazine America. "Even in death, John Paul was a pope open to the most modern media coverage."
The College of Cardinals is expected to approve a tentative plan to send the pope's body to St. Peter's Basilica for public viewing starting this afternoon.
