Papal condolence letter to be read at Havel´s funeral in St Vitus

Prague - A letter of condolences on Vaclav Havel´s death, that Pope Benedict XVI has sent to Czech President Vaclav Klaus, will be read out at the beginning of Havel´s state funeral that begins in Prague´s St Vitus Cathedral at noon on Friday.

The funeral, including a mass, will be attended by many former and present world leaders including U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, British PM David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The presidents of Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, the Baltic states and Georgia will be also present, as will the EC and EP presidents, Jose Barroso and Jerzy Buzek, respectively.

About 50 delegations from all over the world will attend the funeral, the Foreign Ministry has told CTK.

The ceremony will begin with a minute of silence.

At the same time, church bells all over the country will be ringing for three minutes to pay tribute to Havel. Sirens of mourning will sound off and a 21-gun salute will be fired from a cannon on Prague´s Petrin hill, too.

The mass will be concelebrated by Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka and other Czech Catholic dignitaries along with the Vatican´s former nuncio to Prague Giovanni Coppa and the present nuncio, Giuseppe Leanza, Prague Archbishop´s Office told CTK today.

Apart from Klaus, speeches will be given by Duka, Foreign Minister and Havel´s former aide Karel Schwarzenberg, Czech-born former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright and Prague auxiliary bishop Vaclav Maly, an old friend of Havel.

Czech actor Josef Abrham, who played major roles in Havel´s plays, will read from the Book of Job.

The Czech Philharmonic orchestra with conductor Jiri Belohlavek will play Antonin Dvorak´s Requiem.

After the state funeral, the family and friends will bid their last farewell to Havel at the Prague-Strasnice crematorium on Friday afternoon, Havel´s office told CTK today.

Havel´s urn will be later placed at the Prague-Vinohrady cemetery where the Havel family tomb is.

Several hundreds of people are expected to attend the private ceremony at the crematorium.

Havel, playwright and dissident, was Czechoslovak president after the collapse of the communist regime from December 1989 to 1992 and Czech president in 1993-2003. After he left the post he primarily focused on the promotion of human rights in the world.

He died at his country house in Hradecek, east Bohemia, on Sunday aged 75 years. Author: CTK
www.ctk.cz

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