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• NORWAY’S HISTORIC REQUIEM MASS | 5:50 p.m. ET
Roman Catholics celebrated the first requiem Mass since the 16th century in Norway’s oldest cathedral on Wednesday in a tribute to Pope John Paul II and his work to unite Christians.
“This is a historic event,” Bishop Finn Wagle of Norway’s Lutheran state church told Reuters of the evening service in the 12th century Nidaros Cathedral in the city of Trondheim.
“No Catholic requiem Mass has been held here since the Reformation,” Wagle said. Denmark, which used to rule Norway, introduced the Reformation in 1537 by dissolving monasteries, confiscating church property and appointing Lutheran bishops.
Since 1993, Catholics have been allowed back to use Nidaros Cathedral for an annual service in July commemorating Norway’s Viking-era patron St. Olav, believed to be buried on the site after his death in 1030.
Roman Catholic Bishop Georg Mueller celebrated Wednesday’s Mass, attended by about 400 people, including Wagle.
Pope John Paul II visited Norway in 1989 and, as part of his work to reach out to other Christians, attended a service in Nidaros Cathedral with Lutheran church leaders.
• ENSURING CONCLAVE SECRECY | 4:35 p.m. ET
In an age of media leaks and cell phones, the Vatican is determined to keep the secret deliberations for electing a new pope just that — secret.
Pope John Paul set out the instructions in a 1996 document. It gives the cardinals who will chose his successor a set of detailed guidelines to ensure the centuries-old process of choosing a pope remains safe.
In it, the late pope calls for a clean sweep by “trustworthy” technicians of the Sistine Chapel and adjoining rooms to prevent bugs and other audiovisual equipment from being installed.
The document says whoever breaks the oath of secrecy will face “grave penalties,” such as excommunication.
Despite such measures, John Paul also changed the rules to allow the cardinals greater freedom while the conclave is under way.
Previously, cardinals were literally locked up inside the Apostolic Palace. This time, they will be allowed to come and go.
• POPE'S AIDE OF 40 YEARS PACKS UP | 3:45 p.m. ET
The pope’s faithful Polish servant is packing his bags.
Before Friday’s funeral, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz will place a silk veil over the late pontiff’s face and recite a prayer before the coffin is closed. It will be the last public act for the man he served as private secretary for more than 40 years.
Then he will gather up his belongings and move out of the papal apartments, along with the five Polish nuns who attended the pontiff. New rules, drawn up by John Paul II in 1996, require the quarters to be emptied of all personnel and sealed until the new pope moves in.
Dziwisz (pronounced “gee-vish”) is known at the Vatican simply as Don Stanislaw.
Bishop Szczepan Wesoly, a longtime Polish friend, said Dziwisz was sorting through his books and personal possessions Wednesday. After the funeral, he will be living in a residence for Polish pilgrims on the outskirts of Rome, Wesoly said.
“He’s very, very sad and feels a little lost. Forty years together is a long time,” Wesoly, rector of the Polish church in Rome, told The Associated Press. “But he knew the end was nearing, so he was prepared for the day.”
By tradition, papal secretaries fade from the scene when a papacy ends.
The Polish nuns who attended to John Paul’s personal needs during his papacy also have to move out by Saturday.
They and Dziwisz were looked on as the family of John Paul, who had lost all his immediate family members and other close relatives by the time he became pope.
The nuns helped the pope with his private correspondence, cooked his favorite Polish dishes and cared for him in his illnesses.
• U.S. PRESIDENT SCHEDULES VIEWING | 2:40 p.m. ET
U.S. President George W. Bush will view the body of Pope John II immediately upon his arrival from Washington, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
Bush and a U.S. delegation that includes two former presidents were flying to Rome late Wednesday to attend Friday's funeral, along with kings, presidents and government leaders from some 100 countries.
• MORE THAN 1 MILLION STILL IN LINE | 1:33 p.m. ET
More than 1 million pilgrims have filed past Pope John Paul’s body since it was moved to St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday, but another 1.2 million people remain lined up in streets around the Vatican only hours before police cut off the procession at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni tells Reuters.
• PHILIPPINE CARDINAL AILING | 12:31 p.m. ET
Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines is ill and will be unable to attend the conclave to elect the next pope, the Philippines Embassy to the Holy See says.
The absence of Sin, 76, one of only three cardinal electors who also took part in the 1978 enclave to elect John Paul II, means that 116 cardinals will participate in the secret balloting.
• PROTESTS IN WISCONSIN | 11:29 a.m. ET
A group in Wisconsin is objecting to the lowering of flags to honor the pope.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle ordered flags lowered to half-staff at public buildings this week in honor of Pope John Paul. President Bush has done the same.
That doesn’t sit well with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison. Foundation co-president Annie Gaylor says the order appears to endorse Roman Catholicism over other religious viewpoints.
Gaylor says she respects the private mourning of Catholics --but says grieving endorsed by the state is wrong.
• POLISH LAWMAKERS HONOR POPE | 10:48 a.m. ET
Lawmakers in Pope John Paul II’s homeland honored him as a national hero on Wednesday with prayers, eulogies and praise for his support of the pro-democracy opposition that peacefully ended communist rule of Poland in 1989.
On the parliament chamber’s podium, a black sash was draped across the white-and-red banners of Poland’s national colors. A portrait of the pope and an ornamented armchair from which he addressed lawmakers in June 1999 stood nearby.
“Poland is crying over the loss of her most outstanding son,” parliament speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told an assembly of the upper and lower houses attended by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Marek Belka and senior Roman Catholic clergy.
“United by sadness and pain, Poles honor the memory of a wonderful, clever man and an outstanding pope,” he said. “The man is gone, but his ideas and thoughts remain.”
• 'WHERE WOULD JESUS SIT?' | 9:55 a.m. ET
The "Princes of the Church" are getting a great deal of scrutiny these days as they prepare for the conclave on April 18.
But all the publicity may not be welcome. Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez asked Wednesday "Where would Jesus sit," after noting a photograph of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney traveling to Rome in a first-class seat, accompanied by his press officer Tod Tamberg.
He added, "Generally speaking, it's always better for a man of the cloth to sit with his flock than with his flack."
• SHUTTING THE LINE | 9:29 a.m. ET
The line of pilgrims waiting to view Pope John Paul’s body has grown so long that starting at 10 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), no more faithful will be allowed to join it, Italian authorities said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the civil protection agency said that some 1.2 million people had massed near the Vatican and that pilgrims were waiting in line for between 12 and 14 hours before entering St. Peter’s Basilica to see the pontiff’s body.
Those in the line at the shutoff time tonight will be allowed to file past John Paul’s body, but after they have all passed through the basilica, the doors will be shut to permit preparations for his funeral on Friday, the spokesman said.
• WILL OF THE POPE | 8:03 a.m. ET
The Vatican will release Pope John Paul's last will and testament on Thursday, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the document was about 15 pages long. It was read to cardinals on Wednesday.
Navarro-Valls told a news briefing the Pope, who died last Saturday, had written the will over the course of his pontificate, starting in 1979, the year after his election.
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