Pope Francis’s coffin left the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta on Wednesday and was carried across St. Peter’s Square into the basilica, where the public can file past it for three days before the funeral.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is running the Vatican administration until a successor is elected, presided over the ceremony. A choir sang. Cardinals in red cassocks stood in prayer. Pallbearers then took the plain wooden coffin on their shoulders through the archway gates, with cardinals and Swiss Guards following at a slow pace. Bells tolled during the 40-minute procession, and the crowd broke into applause, the BBC reported.
Viewing opened at 11:00 local time. By mid-afternoon tens of thousands of people lined the square. The basilica was due to close at midnight, but police told the BBC it would stay open all night so the people still waiting could pass the open coffin.
The Vatican said more than 50,000 people queued in the 24 hours that followed. On Thursday morning the line ran out of the square and down the street, the longest yet. Viewing stopped at 05:30, resumed at 07:00, and some people turned back because of the crowd. “It looks like five or six hours, so we’ll come back later,” said Catherine, a visitor from Birmingham.
Thirteen-year-old Edoardo waited past midnight with his parents. “I think the Pope was an amazing man, so I wanted to see him,” he told the BBC.
Funeral and burial
The coffin will be sealed in a liturgical rite at 20:00 on Friday, the Vatican said. The funeral is set for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square. Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Javier Milei are among the leaders expected, along with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Prince William.
Francis left instructions for a smaller ceremony, in keeping with his simpler tastes, and arranged for a benefactor to pay for it. Unlike most of his predecessors he will not be buried in St. Peter’s. His will names the basilica of St. Mary Major, outside the Vatican, home to his favorite icon of the Virgin Mary. The tombstone will carry only his name.
His final weeks
Francis died on Monday morning at 88, after a stroke that put him in a coma and ended in heart failure. He had been pope for 12 years, the 266th, and the first Latin American to hold the office. In February he spent 38 days in Rome’s Gemelli hospital with a respiratory crisis that became double pneumonia. His last public appearance was on Easter Sunday, when he gave a blessing from a wheelchair in St. Peter’s Square, then rode through the crowds in a car and blessed babies. He also met U.S. Vice President JD Vance that day.
Cardinals are meeting this week to plan the conclave. The papal apartments have been sealed, which opens the Sede Vacante, the “empty seat” period that lasts until a new pope is chosen.
Sources
- Tens of thousands queue to see Pope Francis's body
- Pope Francis’ body is transferred to St. Peter's Basilica for public viewing
