the actual burial

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In accordance with Vatican tradition, John Paul II will be buried in a triple-lined coffin.

His body will first be placed in a simple coffin of cypress wood, to symbolise humility, and placed in front of St Peter's Basilica.

Before burial, it will be placed in a zinc coffin, hermetically sealed to slow down the process of decomposition. It will bear the name of the Pope and the dates of his pontificate.

This in turn will be placed in an oak coffin, before being interred beneath a marble slab.

The ceremony will take place in the crypt, deep beneath St Peter's Basilica.

The place chosen for John Paul II was previously used for Pope John XXIII, one of the Church's best-loved pontiffs.

The Polish Pope will lie close to the tombs of his two immediate predecessors, John Paul I and Paul VI, who both died in 1978.

In the days ahead, it will doubtless become a place of pilgrimage for Catholics unable to be present at the funeral.

The whole article is here.