http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20709-1555183,00.html Pope John Paul II April 05, 2005
Body 'was preserved' before going on display >From Richard Owen in Rome AS THE Pope's body went on public display yesterday, Vatican sources said that it had been treated, although there was no official confirmation that it had been embalmed. Officials would not say who had carried out the procedure, but for generations it has been performed by members of a single family of Rome undertakers named the Signoraccis. Massimo Signoracci, 48, the head of the company, who also teaches forensic pathology at Rome University, was as reticent as the Vatican yesterday, saying only that his family had "always been proud to preserve the bodies of the Popes". He added: "It is a huge emotion to be near and work on someone so famous and loved". Signor Signoracci's father and uncles preserved the bodies of Popes John XXIII in 1963, Paul VI in 1978 and John Paul I, also in 1978. When Pope John XXIII's body was exhumed in 2001 — 38 years after his death — to be transferred from the crypt to St Peter's Basilica, Vatican officials said that it was preserved in excellent condition. They said that this was not due to a miracle but the scientific skills of the Signoracci brothers. Pope John Paul II's body had a waxy sheen when it went on public view yesterday and commentators noted that no funereal flowers had been used to disguise the decomposition. Embalming, a practice that dates back to the Ancient Egyptians, traditionally involves not only the use of oils and herbs to preserve the bodies of their dead, but also the removal of the internal organs. The aim is partly aesthetic and partly to delay physical decay and to stop the spread of infection. The Signoraccis, like other modern undertakers, use a technique that involves removing blood and gases from the body and the insertion of a disinfecting fluid, usually through the carotid or femoral artery. In the past, the organs of dead Popes were removed and placed in jars in the Church of Saints Vincenzo and Anastasio near the Trevi Fountain in Rome, while their bodies were buried in the crypt of St Peter's.Leo XIII was the last Pope to be treated in this way when he died in 1903. Signor Signoracci confirmed that embalming techniques nowadays consisted of the intravenous injection of formaldehyde. Despite confirmation that John Paul would be buried in St Peter's, officials in Cracow, his home town, continued to hope that his heart would be buried in Wawel Cathedral alongside Poland's kings and saints. -- Cheers, Gabe Menezes. London, England
