Thousands of people begged the presentation through the Basilica of San Pedro to pay their Final respect for Pope Francis on Wednesday At the beginning of three days of public visualization before its funeral.
The crowds of the faithful reached the main altar of the 16th -century Basilica, where Francis’s open wooden coffin was perched, while the Swiss guards were in attention.
Around the next few days, the tens of thousands of people are expected to pass, and the Vatican said it can extend the spectator equally longer hours due to high participation.
In the first 8 1/2 horses, 19,430 people presented their respects to the Pope.
Francis It was presented in red tunics, A rosario aged and with the miter of a bishop, the traditional pointed headdress. The mourners waited hours to get to the coffin, which was behind a cord.
Some heroes of their cell phones on high as they approached to take photos in what has become a modern ritual.
“He gave me chills,” said Ienes Bianco, while she left. He was in Rome from the southern city of toasts for medical care, and came to give him his respect. “It was important for me because he encouraged coexistence. He brought together many people.”
Francis’s coffin was in a high beer, as was the case with past potatoes, but placed on a ramp, in front of the banks.
He agreed with his wishes so that the rituals surrounding a papal funeral were simplified to reflect his belief that the role of the Pope is that of a simple pastor, not world leader.
Cardinals, meanwhile, privately to finish preparations for Saturday’s funeral and plan the conclave to choose Francis’s successor.
Francis died Monday at age 88, Limiting a 12 -year pontificate characterized by their concern for the poor and the inclusion message, but also some criticisms of the conservatives who sometimes felt alienated by their progressiveness are.
Francis was for the first time in the state at the hotel where he lived, in a private view for the residents of the Vatican and the papal home. The images released by the Vatican on Tuesday showed the Pope in an open coffin, with his hands folded on a rosary.
On Wednesday he opened with St. Peter’s Tolling’s bells While the bearers took Francis’s body to the Basilica, in a procession through Piazza, where he had delivered his last goodbye.
Francis had made a surprise visit to Popemobile through the faithful on Easter Sunday, after his nurse assured him that despite his fragile health of an episode of pneumonia and a long hospitalization.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who runs the Vatican until a new Pope is chosen, took the procession to the altar, with incense clouds and the choir singing the litany of the anthem of the saints. In pairs, the cardinals approached the coffin, Bodde and made a sign of the cross, followed by bishops, users, priests and nuns.
Then the doors opened to the public. There was the squeak of shoes, the whisper of the kneeling nuns, the murmur of quiet sentences. A cough, a cry of a child.
“We knew there were many people, so we approached this calmly,” said Rosa Morghen de Naples, adding: “It is the feeling that one experiences when a family member dies, since he is a father, a grandfather who has left.”
Public visualization ends Friday at 7 pm, after which Francis’s coffin will close and seal.
He The funeral has been scheduled for Saturday At 10 am in the Plaza de San Pedro.
Will attend world leaders, Including the president of the United States, Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky.
After the funeral, the conclave
Francis’s death and funeral will mark the beginning of a carefully orchestrated transition period in the Catholic Church of 1.4 billion people, with the cardinals meeting in the coming days before entering a conclave, the secret ritual vote in the Sistine Chapel to choose from.
There are 133 cardinals who are under 80 years old and are eligible to vote, after two Boqued for health reasons, and the new pontiff will probably come from their ranks.
The conclave is not expected to begin before May 5.
The Cardinal of South Korea, Lázaro, Heung-Sik, who runs the Vatican office for priests, predicted a brief conclave but acknowledged that the transition is full of uncertainties.
“We will see what the Holy Spirit says,” he said on Wednesday. When asked if the next Pope comes from Asia, where the Catholic Church is growing, he insisted: “For the Lord, there is not this or west.”
The first and only cardinal of Papua New Guinea, John Ribat, prepared Wednesday to go to Rome to participate in the vote, pleased to represent the nation of the South Pacific Island or 12 million people and more than 800 languages in a Cardinal College that Francis Island.
“Having a representative here to be in the conclave is a big thing,” Ribart told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Hey said he expected the next Pope to be some who could lead to the church in “a way that is sincere and unites everyone.”
The Italian police have pressed the security for the events, making patrols of feet and horses around the Vatican, where the pilgrims continued to arrive for the celebrations of the Holy Year that Francis opened in December.
“The death of a Pope is not something small, because we have lost our leader,” said Julio Henrique from Brazil. “But still, in a few days, we will have a new leader. Then … hope remains. Who will assume Peter’s throne?”
