VATICAN CITY, April 4: Keen to pay their last respects to Pope John Paul II, some 10,000 mourners gathered in Saint Peter’s Square here on Monday hours before the body of the pontiff was to go on three days of public view. “I have come here to say goodbye to the pope,” said Elisabetta Zaoffoli, a 32-year-old Italian from the Adriatic seaside resort of Rimini. The pilgrims, Romans and tourists alike, stood in the sun-filled square in an atmosphere of anticipation after the Vatican announced on Monday that the people would be let into the basilica around 8pm.

The viewing will follow a solemn procession in which the pope’s body will be transferred from the Apostolic Palace.

Hundreds of metal and wooden barriers were lined up on the square to channel into two lines the tens of thousands expected to visit the basilica to see the pope’s body.

Black-clad Swiss guards, the traditional guardians of the Vatican, stood watch as Italian and Spanish youths continued singing tambourine-accompanied hymns and chanting under the pope’s third-floor apartment overlooking St. Peter’s.

“It is a sign that he was a man of God, to see all these people from every religion, race and country coming to see him,” Italian priest Carmine Pellegrino said.—-AFP