Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe also attended despite a ban from entering the European Union, which does not apply in the Vatican City, the smallest sovereign state in the world.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had been due to come but was forced to cut short his trip after meeting with Pope Francis on Saturday because of the spiralling tensions in his country.
Among the attendees was also Floribeth Mora, the Costa Rican woman whose healing from a brain aneurysm has been declared the second miracle in John Paul II’s name required for sainthood status.
She carried a reliquary containing John Paul II’s blood onto the altar. A piece of John XXIII’s skin was also brought to the ceremony as a relic.
There were 10,000 police on patrol along with 3,500 official volunteers on hand, including 25 Polish cultural guides and 20 psychiatrists trained in dealing with panic attacks.
A Vatican smartphone app entitled Santo Subito! (Sainthood Now) the phrase chanted by the crowd at John Paul II’s funeral provided practical tips for pilgrims and quotes from the two pontiffs.
The Polish pope (1978-2005) became a media superstar and survived an assassination attempt by Turkish extremist Mehmet Ali Agca in 1981.
He was known as the “Pilgrim Pope” and was the first to pray in a synagogue, to enter a mosque in an Islamic country and to preside a meeting of leaders of all the world’s main religions.
But he drew sharp criticism for his clampdown on leftist movements in the Church and his failure to tackle child sex crimes by priests which became a wave of scandals at the end of his pontificate.
The acceleration of his sainthood, which has been the fastest since the 18th century when the current rules were adopted, has been controversial.
Francis also sped up John XXIII’s sainthood cause, granting it with only one supposed miracle to his name instead of the two usually required.
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