The world has been paying its respects to Pope John Paul II, who died Saturday, aged 84, from septic shock and irreversible heart failure after a series of long and public illnesses.
The Pope`s body is now lying in state in the Vatican palace`s Clementine Hall, dressed in a crimson robe with a white mitre on the pontiff`s head and a bishop`s staff under his left arm.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated on Sunday that Pope John Paul II`s demise is not just a loss for the Catholic world but the whole humanity.
Erdogan sent a message of condolence to Camerlengo Eduardo Martinez Somalo:
``I have learned the demise of the Pope with great sorrow. Pope was a leader in the Catholic world and made efforts to promote peace and tolerance across the globe. I offer my deep condolences to you and the whole Catholic world on behalf of my government,`` Erdogan said.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was among officials and clerics who filed past the body to pay their respects.
Thousands of mourners attended an open-air Mass in St Peter`s Square in Rome in honor of the Pope. An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in the square following the announcement of the Pope`s death the previous evening.
The Pope`s body will be moved to St Peter`s Basilica on Monday for a public viewing ahead of a funeral, expected to be held on Wednesday.
Italy has declared three days of public mourning.
Brazil, which has the largest Catholic population in the world, has declared seven days of national mourning. In the Pope`s native Poland, bells rang out across the country and all-night vigils were held in churches.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he postponed plans to announce on Monday afternoon a general election in the U.K. so that he could attend a service in memory of the Pope.
Media around the world praised the Pope`s role in the fall of Communism and his advocacy of mutual acceptance among religions. They also paid tribute to his widely travelled papacy but noted that his tilting of the Church to a more conservative doctrinal stand on moral issues was at times divisive.
The Church`s cardinals are now gathering in Rome to elect a successor to John Paul, whose 26-year papacy was one of the longest.
The cardinals, all but three of whom of voting age (under 80) were appointed by Jean Paul, must meet within three weeks.
With no clear front-runner emerging within a body that widely shares John Paul conservative moral views, the electoral fault lines are seen falling across the question of whether the next pontiff should be a European or whether he should come from the developing world where the Catholic church is experiencing its fastest growth and greatest challenges from other religions.