Pope left no instructions on burial: Vatican

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II did not leave instructions concerning his burial, spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Monday.
"He did not state any wishes, and so we will follow tradition (and bury him in the crypt of St Peter`s Basilica)," Navarro-Valls said following the first general congregation of the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church since the pope`s death on Saturday.
Speculation preceding the meeting of the cardinals -- who are solely empowered to open any temporal or spiritual testament left by a pope -- focused on the possibility that he would ask to be buried in his native Poland, or even that his heart would be interred there.
Absent any instructions, popes are traditionally buried in St Peter`s.

04/04/2005 12:29 GMT