Late Pope John Paul II died in 2005 and was buried in one of the crypts under the St. Peter’s Basilica church building.
His body has been exhumed ahead of his Beautification ceremony on Sunday May 1st, 2011.
After the public viewing session closed, the Late Pope will be re-buried in another tomb under an altar in a side chapel near Michelangelo’s statue of the Pieta, while the marble slab that covered his first burial place will be sent to his native land, Poland.
