So many mourning people have lined up to see Pope Francis Lying in a simple wooden coffin inside the Saint-Pierre basilica that the Vatican kept the doors open all night due to higher participation than expected, closing the basilica for only one hour Thursday morning for cleaning.
The basilica is bathed in muffled silence while mourning people around the world make a slow and mixed procession in the main aisle to pay tribute to Francis, who died on Monday after a stroke.
The hours spent aligned themselves with the majestic via Della Concilaazione through Saint-Pierre square and through the holy door of the Basilica allowed the mourning people to find a community around the heritage of inclusion of the Argentinian pontiff and his humble character.
Emiliano Fernandez, Catholic of Mexico, was line up around midnight, and after two hours, had still not reached the basilica.
“I even don’t care about the time I expect here. It’s just an opportunity to (show) how I admired Francisco in his life,” said Fernandez, whose admiration for the Pope grew up during his visit in 2016 in Mexico. “I think that because of the respect I have for him and the big person he was, it is worth waiting.”
The latest figures published by the Vatican declared that more than 50,000 people had paid tribute during the first 12 hours of the visualization of the public, from 11 a.m. on Wednesday. The basilica closed for only one hour Thursday morning, from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., the scheduled opening time.
Among the mourning people of the first day, there was a religious group of 14 years near Milan who arrived for the canonization in suspension of the first Saint Millennium, as well as a woman who prayed the Pope for a successful operation and an Italian family who brought their grandchildren to see the body of the Pope.
“We came because we did not bring them when he was alive, so we thought we will bring them for a last farewell, ” said Rosa Scorpati, who came out of the basilica with her three children in strollers.” They were good, but I don’t think they really understood because they haven’t faced death yet. “”
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Like many others, the Scorpati family of Calabria was in Rome on Easter vacation, for having met Francis’ death on Easter Monday.
By devotion to the Pope and his message of inclusion, the faithful in mourning joined the procession of mourning people who walked from the Saint-Pierre square through the holy door of the basilica, repentant among them winning an indulgence, a form of expiation grants during the holy year jubilee. From there, the line extended into the central aisle of the basilica to the simple wooden coffin of the Pope.
Wednesday evening, the wait seemed to be three or four hours and growth. A person doing crowd management estimated that the wait was closer to five hours. The mourning people extended to the center of Via Della Concilaazione, in a path reserved for pilgrims in the jubilee.
After three days of public viewing, a funeral mass comprising heads of state will be held on Saturday on Saint-Pierre square. The pope will then be buried in a niche in the Saint-Mary Major basilica, near his favorite icon of Madonna.
People queue to see Pope Francis lying in the state inside the Saint-Pierre basilica, in the Vatican, Thursday April 24, 2025. (AP photo / Markus Schreiber).
The death of Francis, who was 88 years old, crowned a 12 -year -old pontificate characterized by his concern for the poor and his message of inclusion, but he was also criticized by certain conservatives who felt distant by his progressive perspective.
A procession of priests, bishops and cardinals accompanied the body of Francis Wednesday in his trip with a private vision inside the Vatican in Saint-Pierre square. The apparatus contrasts with the human interactions of basic mourning people during public vision.
Francis is lying in an open coffin, perched on a ramp in front of mourning people, with four Swiss guards resting for attention. While the crowd reached the coffin, many raised their smartphones to take a photo.
A nun accompanying an elderly woman with a cane walks sobbing: “My pope left.”
The nuns pray inside the Saint-Pierre basilica where Pope Francis is located in the state, at the Vatican, Thursday April 24, 2025. (AP photo / Alessandra Tarantino).
Such despair was rare. The atmosphere was more a gratitude for a pope who had, for example, taught many people to open their minds.
“I am very devoted to the pope,” said Ivennes Bianco, who was in Rome de Brindisi, Italy, for an operation. “It was important to me because it gathered a lot of people by encouraging coexistence.” She cited Francis acceptance of the Gay community and her insistence to help the poor.
Humbeline Coroy came to Rome de Perpignan, France, for the canonization scheduled for Sunday by Carlo Acutis, 15, who was suspended after the Pope’s death. She stayed to pay tribute to Francis, appreciating exchanges with people in Japanese mourning whom they met while waiting under the sun on Saint-Pierre square.
For me, it’s a lot of things. In my work, I work with disabled children, and I have traveled to Madagascar to work with poor. Being here, and close to the Pope is a way to integrate these experiences and make them concrete, “she said. Coroy also made prayers for her father, who is sick in cancer.
For Alessandra Nardi, the Pope’s death brought back memories of death three years ago from his beloved uncle Luigi, who called him from Saint-Pierre when he came to see Pope Francis say mass. He “let me hear the toll of the bells. It was a beautiful thing.
Riccardo Ojedea of Colombia said that his experience by queuing for two hours to pay tribute to the Pope had shown him how “humanity loves the pope”.
“He left a very important heritage for everyone,” he said, “to make this world happier.”
–App contributed video journalist Isaia Montelione.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press