| By
Philip Pullella
VATICAN
CITY (Reuters) - A leading cardinal present when the coffin
of Pope John XXIII was opened after 38 years said Tuesday
the Pontiff looked as if he had ``died yesterday.''
``None
of the body had decomposed,'' said Cardinal Virgilio Noe,
the high priest of St. Peter's Basilica who oversaw the
opening of the coffin in order to prepare removal of the
tomb to a new space more accessible to pilgrims.
Italian
media reports at the weekend said only John's face was intact
but Noe, who attended the exhumation with other Vatican
(news - web sites) officials on January 16, said the entire
body was uncorrupted by time.
``It
was as if he died yesterday,'' he told Reuters on the sidelines
of a news conference to present a book on the papal tombs
in St. Peter's.
``He
looked tranquil. His mouth was slightly open but he was
certainly tranquil. The serenity he had in life, he took
with him to his death and he still had it 38 years later,''
Noe said.
John
XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963, was known as the ''Good
Pope'' because of his benevolent and jovial nature.
He made
ecclesiastical history by convening the Second Vatican Council
which brought the Catholic Church up to date with modern
times.
When
he died, his body was not embalmed but Italian media reports
said it was treated with the preservative formalin before
it lay in state.
The
body was placed in a wooden casket inside a bronze outer
coffin and both were sealed before being buried in a grave
in the narrow ancient grottoes beneath St. Peter's, where
many other popes are laid.
Now
it is to be relocated near the basilica's main altar to
make access easier for the millions of pilgrims who come
to pray at his tomb.
Nearly
four decades after his death, the man born Angelo Giuseppe
Roncalli remains one of history's most loved popes with
a particularly devout following in Italy.
He has
been credited with curing an Italian nun of a stomach tumor.
She prayed to him and quickly recovered with no medical
explanation.
Pope
John Paul (news - web sites) II beatified him last year,
the penultimate step before sainthood.
A
MIRACLE?
Vatican
officials have been careful not to attribute the preservation
of his body directly to a miracle.
Noe
said the phenomenon was known to have happened in the past
and declined to be drawn into questions about miracles.
Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in
a television interview Monday that it could be the result
of a miracle but it would be up to experts to decide.
``We
were able to see once again the contours of a face that
we all loved, the contours that not even death could erase,
the same contours present in the death mask that was made,''
Noe said earlier during the news conference.
Noe
added that the body was now being treated by experts and
might be shown to the public before being placed in the
new tomb in a few months' time.
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