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Pope's Funeral Draws Historic Crowd

NPR | By Renee Montagne,
Sylvia Poggioli
Published April 8, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT

The largest funeral in modern history takes place in Rome on a windy, cool morning. Friday's funeral for Pope John Paul II begins nine days of mourning for one of the Catholic Church's longest-serving pontiffs.

The homily was delivered by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, one of the pope's closest friends and advisers.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Renee Montagne
Renee Montagne, one of the best-known names in public radio, is a special correspondent and host for NPR News.
See stories by Renee Montagne
Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
See stories by Sylvia Poggioli