The Vatican will make the final preparations on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis as the last of the great crowds of mourners through the Basilica of St. Pete to see his open coffin.
It is expected that many of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending the ceremony of Saturday in the Plaza de San Pedro, which include the president of the United States, Donald Trump and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, arrive on Friday in Rome.
The Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under strict security ahead of the funeral, with blocked drones, snipers on ceilings and combat planes on waiting.
More control points will be activated on Friday night, police said.
Tens of thousands of people have already queued for hours to present their last respect for Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00 pm in a ceremony attended by the Senior cardinals.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Camerlengo who directs the daily affairs of the Vatican until a new Pope is chosen, will preside over the so -called “Rite of Sealing of the Carling”.
The first Latin American Pope of the Catholic Church died Monday at age 88, less than a month after spending weeks at the hospital with severe pneumonia.
Veronique Montes-Coulomb, a Toulouse tourist in France, who attended the state in the state on Thursday at St Peter’s, said he had been at Mass on Easter Sunday, the last public departure of the Pontiff.
“We saw the Pope passing in the ‘Popemobile’; it seemed relatively healthy, and we were surprised to know that he had died Monday morning,” she said. AFP.
The Argentine pontiff, who for a long time had suffered a failed health, challenged doctors’ orders to appear in Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.
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.
He used his last speech to criticize those who agitated “contempt … towards vulnerable, marginalized and migrants.”
At least 130 foreign delegations are expected at its funeral and an air exclusion zone will be in force.
‘Brief but intense’
The Pope’s coffin was placed before the altar of San Pedro for his three days of lying in the state, with Francis dressed in his papal clothing, a red quasuble, white groin and black shoes.
“It was a short but intense moment next to his body,” said the Italian Massimo Palo, 63. AFP After your visit.
“He was a Pope among his flock, among his people, and I hope that the next Papacies are a bit like his,” he added.
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 on foot to be buried in his favorite church, the papal basilica of Santa María Maggiore.
The pontiff was a helpless champion, and a group of “poor and needy” will be there to welcome the coffin, said the Vatican.
He will be buried on the ground, his simple grave marked with just one word: Francisco.
People can visit the grave since Sunday morning.
After that, all eyes will resort to the process of choosing Francis’s successor.
Cardinals around the world have returned to Rome for funeral and conclave when a new pontiff was chosen.
In the absence of a Pope, the cardinals have gathered every day to agree on the next steps, with another meeting scheduled on Friday at 9:00 am
They still have to announce a date for the conclave, but it must start no less than 15 days and no more than 20 days after the death of a Pope.
Only those under 80, currently some 135 cardinals are eligible to vote.
Cardinal Italian Pietro Parolin, which was number two of Francis, is the favorite, according to the British broker William Hill.
They put it ahead of the Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Manila, followed by Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, and Matteo Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna.
