By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - A leading cardinal present when the coffin of Pope
John XXIII was opened after 38 years said Tuesday the Pontiff
looked as if he had ``died yesterday.''
``None of
the body had decomposed,'' said Cardinal Virgilio Noe, the high
priest of St. Peter's Basilica who oversaw the opening of the
coffin in order to prepare removal of the tomb to a new space
more accessible to pilgrims.
Italian media
reports at the weekend said only John's face was intact but Noe,
who attended the exhumation with other Vatican (news - web sites)
officials on January 16, said the entire body was uncorrupted
by time.
``It was as
if he died yesterday,'' he told Reuters on the sidelines of a
news conference to present a book on the papal tombs in St. Peter's.
``He looked
tranquil. His mouth was slightly open but he was certainly tranquil.
The serenity he had in life, he took with him to his death and
he still had it 38 years later,'' Noe said.
John XXIII,
who reigned from 1958 to 1963, was known as the ''Good Pope''
because of his benevolent and jovial nature.
He made ecclesiastical
history by convening the Second Vatican Council which brought
the Catholic Church up to date with modern times.
When he died,
his body was not embalmed but Italian media reports said it was
treated with the preservative formalin before it lay in state.
The body was
placed in a wooden casket inside a bronze outer coffin and both
were sealed before being buried in a grave in the narrow ancient
grottoes beneath St. Peter's, where many other popes are laid.
Now it is
to be relocated near the basilica's main altar to make access
easier for the millions of pilgrims who come to pray at his tomb.
Nearly four
decades after his death, the man born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
remains one of history's most loved popes with a particularly
devout following in Italy.
He has been
credited with curing an Italian nun of a stomach tumor. She prayed
to him and quickly recovered with no medical explanation.
Pope John
Paul (news - web sites) II beatified him last year, the penultimate
step before sainthood.
A MIRACLE?
Vatican officials
have been careful not to attribute the preservation of his body
directly to a miracle.
Noe said the
phenomenon was known to have happened in the past and declined
to be drawn into questions about miracles.
Cardinal Angelo
Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a television
interview Monday that it could be the result of a miracle but
it would be up to experts to decide.
``We were
able to see once again the contours of a face that we all loved,
the contours that not even death could erase, the same contours
present in the death mask that was made,'' Noe said earlier during
the news conference.
Noe added
that the body was now being treated by experts and might be shown
to the public before being placed in the new tomb in a few months'
time.
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