More than 250,000 people respected their last respect for Pope Francis for about three days of public visualization for common blessings, church leaders and politicians who ended on Friday, when their coffin was sealed ahead of their State funeral in the Plaza de San Pedro And burial in a basilica outside the walls of the Vatican.
The world leaders, including the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Argentine president Javier Milei, along with royalty, converged in Rome for the funeral. But the group of marginalized people who will meet their coffin in a small basilica of Crosstown are more in line with the humble personality of Francis and disdain for the bomb.
The Vatican said that 164 delegations are confirmed, including 54 heads of state and 12 reigning sovereigns. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, who will also attend the funeral, was one of those who arrived in time to present the last respect for the Pope.
Stefano Costantino / Ttl / Mega
Respect for performance
Tens or thousands or The mourners waited hours in the row for three days Say goodbye to Francis, who died rather after suffering a stroke at the age of 88.
A more anticipated participation have led the Vatican to extend the opening schedules of the basilica during the night.
Angele Bilague, a nun, was one of the last Mourters.
It was the third time that he gave him respect, even once inside the Vatican in his residence in Santa Marta Domus, where he said he spent six hours praying in his coffee.
“He was my friend, so I used for the last time to say goodbye,” he said. “I cried.”
A change of the guards in Francis’s open coffin pointed out the end of the Pontiff’s visualization period, which was presented with red tunics, the pointed miter of a bishop and a rosary intertwined in his hands.
He was buried with his widely used black shoes, including wear marks in the emblematic of the simple life he defended.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell presided over the closure and sealing of the coffin in his role as Camerlengo, or administrator of the interim Vatican.
According to the photos published by the Vatican, a white fabric was placed on the Pope’s face, and a bag containing papacy coins was fine in coffee along with a written story of a page of his papacy.
The story, called Rogito, summarized the history of his entire life, of his childhood in Argentina as the son of parents with Italian inheritance through his priesthood and promotions for the archbishop and the cardinal in Buenos Aires, and then airs.
He highlighted his “innocent defense”, his encyclicals and also his diseases.
“He was a simple and very dear shepherd in his archdiocese, who was traveling everywhere, also per meter and bus,” he read the text of the document, telling his life as a archbishop. “He lived in an apartment and prepared dinner alone, to be able to feel like an common person.”
‘We’ll see each other again’
The Roman neighbors and the Aurelia Ballarini and Francesca Codato withdrawal came to present Retains to Francis on Friday with very different motivations. Ballarini, 72, was reaching an agreement with his complaint, and Codato, 78, sought forgiveness.
For Ballarini, the death of the Pope leaves a hole in his life. While only 16 years younger than Francis, he considered him a grandfather figure.
Every morning, she started a Facebook session for her daily greeting and replied “with a couple of words.”
“The whole great, great everything, until the end,” said Ballarini. “I spent the last two days crying. I wasn’t well after his death, I can’t say the word. For me he flew. One day, we’ll see each other again.”
Codato said he feels a tremendous guilt towards Francis, after having abandoned him for devotion to one of his predecessors, San Juan Pablo II. When Francisco became Pope “He was a stranger to me.”
“I feel guilty, because through the videos I have seen these days, I have understood that I was a man of enormous humanity, near simple people,” he said. “So I came to apologize, because I feel guilty for him, like a worm.”
The cardinals are in discussions’
The work of the conclave to choose a new Pope will not begin until at least on May 5, after nine days of public mourning.
The cardinals have arrived in Rome, with 149 meetings on Friday morning to discuss the Church’s businesses.
They won the match again next week, which means that it is unlikely to be established until after the funeral.
Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, who received Francis during his last papal trip to Corsica last year, reminded Francis as “a free man” who “humanized the church without delaying it.”
He described the atmosphere within meetings as “good”, but said they are injured “at the point of decisions; we are in discussions.”
Papal burial
According to Francis’s hug from the marginalized, the Vatican said that a group of poor and needy people will meet the Pope’s coffin to pay tribute when he arrives in St. Mary Basilica for the burial on Saturday.
It has already become a pilgrimage point.
The grave is preparing behind a wooden barrier inside the basilica that he chose to be close to an icon of the Virgin that venerated often prayed before.
The burial will take place in private, said the Vatican.
The photos released by the Vatican on Friday show the marble tombstone floor against the pavement, with the simple Latin engraving that he requested in his last testament: “Franciscus”.
The cardinals will visit the basilica of St. Mary Major on Sunday. Upon entering the holy door, they will visit the Romani Salus Populi icon, which was loved by Francis, and will celebrate the night sentences, said the Vatican.
Security measures
Italy is deploying more than 2,500 police officers and 1,500 soldiers to provide the safety duration of the funeral, which is expected to gather around 200,000 Mourters in the Plaza de San Pedro and up to 300,000 people along the 2½ mile route from the Pope’s burial place.
The main security operation includes parking an armed naval ship off the coast and putting squads of combat aircraft on waiting, Italian media reported.
Real and leaders
Trump, who travels with the first lady Melania Trump, is scheduled to arrive on Friday, after Francis’s coffin has been sealed.
The press office of the Ukrainian President Volodymyrky Zensky previously contained his presence, but told journalists on Friday night at the site of a recent missile attack that will attend if time allows it, given obligations in the war related to the home.
Among the other foreign dignitaries confirmed for the papal funeral are:
– Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer
– Prince William
– King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain
– Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán
– Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
