I’m getting a number of requests for information regarding whether or not the pope is embalmed after his death.
Fortunately, a kindly reader provides the following:
Here is an interesting article stating that John Paul II was not embalmed — don’t know if you’ve read this yet.
http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm3603_20050405.htm
And here is another article that was in the same paper earlier in the day about the same subject, but a different angle.
http://www.freep.com/news/religion/embalm5e_20050405.htm
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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Kathy Shaidle [Relapsed Catholic blog] posted some unusual events regarding the preparation of Pius XII’s body:
http://relapsedcatholic.blogspot.com/2005/04/bizarre-papal-embalming-trivia.html
If someone is embalmed, I suppose incorruption cannot be attributed to a miracle to support a Beatification or Canonization?
Does Gregory XIV’s (I think) 1591 ban on betting on papal elections no longer stand, or somehow not apply?
The law has been integrally revised in its entirety since then. Unless a matter is repeated in a document still in force, it would have lapsed.
Oops, I commented on the wrong post, sorry 🙂 Thanks for the reply.