Pope Francis’s coffin transferred to St Peter’s Basilica

Pope Francis’s open coffin was transferred on Wednesday, April 23 to the Basilica of San Pedro for three days of lying in the state, and thousands of people met to respect the leader of the world’s Catholics.

The Basilica bells are classified when the wooden coffin was a procession transported crowds in the Plaza de San Pedro, accompanied by cardinals with red drums and the Swiss guards of the Vatican. The pilgrims and tourists took photos, and some applauded when the procession passed from the residence of Santa Marta, where the 88 -year -old Argentine pontiff died Monday after a stroke.

Francis’s body had been a hero in the Santa Marta chapel, where his 12 -year -old papacy lived, but now he will be in the state in the basilica until Saturday’s funeral. Francis’s coffin was placed before the altar of the confession of San Pedro, where Bernini’s bronze baldacchino rises to the famous Michelango dome. It was placed in a low beer, unlike the highest and most adorned platforms or their predecessors.

The funeral is expected to attract hundreds of thousands or pilgrims, as well as world leaders, including the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, as well as Prince William of Great Britain. Subsequently, Francis’s coffin will take his favorite church, the papal basilica of Rome or Santa Maria Maggiore, where he will be buried on the ground and marked by a simple registration: Francisco.

Italy is an important security operation for the funeral, and the weekend must already be busy due to a holiday on Friday. Interior Minister Matteo Piantredosi said the authorities waited from 150 to 170 foreign delegations and tens of thousands of people. The barriers have already installed the leg inside and outside the basilica to control the crowds, the security controls have increased and the personnel have distributed water bottles due to the warm climate.

Italy has declared five days of national mourning, longer than the three days observed for the Polish Pope John Paul II in 2005, but less than the week declared for Francis by his native Argentina.

Cardinals meeting

After the funeral, all eyes will resort to the process to choose Francis’s successor as leader of the 1,400 million Catholics in the world. Cardinals from all over the world have already received letters from the Holy See that instructs the issue to Rome to Rome to select a new Pope. Only those children under 80 are eligible to vote in the conclave, which begin no less than 15 days and no more than 20 after the death of the Pope.

About 60 cardinals of all ages already in Rome with Tuesday to choose the funeral date, in a so -called “general congregation”. A second meeting is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon led by Camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is accused of executing the daily operations of the Holy See before a Francis successor is chosen.

Francis’s death occurred less than a few months after he was unearthed from the hospital, where he spent five weeks fighting pneumonia in both lungs. Although doctors asked for two months of rest, Francis continued to make public appearances during his convalescence, where he looked without breath and without energy.

On Easter Sunday, the day before his death, he surrounded the Plaza de San Pedro in his “Popemobile” after the Mass and his traditional direction to greet the crowds, stopping to kiss babies along the way. He died the next morning at 7:35 am after suffering a cerebral spill, a heart insufficiency, according to his death certificate.