Huge crowds pack Vatican ahead of pope’s funeral

The Vatican was making final preparations on Friday, April 25 for the funeral of Pope Francis as the last of the great crowds of Mourters presented through the Basilica of San Pedro to see his open coffin. Around 128,000 people have already presented their last respect for Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8 pm local time in a ceremony attended by Senior Cardinals.

Many of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs assistance ceremony in San Pedro Square, including the president of the United States, Donald Trump and the Ukrainian leader Volodyyyr Zelensky, will arrive later on Friday in Rome. The Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around San Pedro under tight security with blocked drones, snipes on ceilings and combat airplanes. Additional control points will be activated on Friday night, police said.

The multitudes of fixed people on Friday morning filled through Della Coniliazione, the wide avenue that leads to the Vatican, for the third and last day of Pope’s Lyping in State. For a second consecutive night, the Vatican kept the San Pedro Open fits the hours scheduled to accommodate the queues, just closing the doors between 2:30 am and 5:40 am on Friday.

The first Latin American Pope of the Catholic Church died Monday at age 88, less than a month after spending the week at the hospital with severe pneumonia. The Argentine pontiff, who for a long time suffered a failed health, challenged doctors’ orders to appear in Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar. It was his last public appearance.

The condolences have flooded around the world for the Jesuits, an energetic reformer who defended those of society in his 12 years as head of the 1,400 million Catholics in the world. At least 130 foreign delegations are expected at their funeral, including the president of Argentina, Javier Milei and Prince William of Great Britain. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences to Thorsday, after a remarkable delay that some attributed tense ties with the Vatican. Francis had repeatedly criticized Israel’s behavior in Gaza.

The Pope’s body was dressed in his papal clothes, a red quasuble, white groin and black shoes, and cover inside a simple wooden coffin. On Thursday, the Vatican prohibited people from taking photos within the Basilica, a movement that relieved it. He arrived after some Mourters took selfies, considered by many disrespectful, with the coffin.

The Italian Civil Protection Agency estimates that “several hundred thousand” people will descend in Rome about what was already ready to be an occupied weekend due to a holiday on Friday. After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will lead to a rhythm to walk to be buried in his favorite church, the papal basilica of Rome or Santa Maria Maggiore.

The funeral car will pass through the Fori Imperiali of Rome, where the ancient temples of the city are located, and the coliseum will pass, according to the officials. Large screens will be established along the route on what to see the ceremony, said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.

Francis was a helpless defender, and a group of “poor and needy” will be in Santa Maria Maggiore to welcome the coffin, said the Vatican. Francis will be buried on the ground, his simple grave marked with just one word: Franciscus. People can visit the grave since Sunday morning.