Crowds packed St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican early this morning for the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II. Millions of people, including foreign dignitaries and world leaders, paid their last respects to the pope, making it one of the largest religious gatherings in modern times. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, a close confidant of John Paul and a possible successor, presided over the Mass and gave a homily tracing the pontiff’s life from his days as a factory worker in Nazi-occupied Poland to his final days as the head of the world’s 1 billion Catholics.

Priests walk past the wooden casket containing the body of Pope John Paul II. The funeral Mass for the pope lasted about 2½ hours and concluded with 12 pallbearers carrying the casket inside St. Peter’s Basilica, where the pope will be buried underneath the floor of the grotto, close to the remains of the first pope, St. Peter.<br></br><br></br><br></br>

A teary-eyed Filipino nun sits in front of a huge portrait of Pope John Paul II as she joins thousands of other Catholics at Manila’s Rizal Park for today’s funeral Mass.<br></br><br></br><br></br><br></br>

Poles take part in an open air Mass commemorating Pope John Paul II this morning in Krakow, Poland. Pope John Paul II was the first Polish pope and had served as a priest and bishop in Krakow earlier in his life.<br></br><br></br><br></br>

Cardinals stand around the casket containing the body of Pope John Paul II during his funeral this morning in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The pope’s plain cypress coffin was adorned with a cross and an “M” for the Virgin Mary.