Huge crowds pack Vatican ahead of Pope's funeral
Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under tight security
[VATICAN CITY] The Vatican was making final preparations on Friday (Apr 25) for Pope Francis’ funeral as the last of the huge crowds of mourners filed through St Peter’s Basilica to view his open coffin.
More than 128,000 people have already paid their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8.00 pm (1800 GMT) in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.
Many of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending Saturday’s ceremony in St Peter’s Square, including US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, are expected to arrive later on Friday in Rome.
Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under tight security with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby.
Further checkpoints will be activated on Friday night, police said.
Vast crowds of people on Friday morning packed Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue leading to the Vatican, for the third and final day of the pope’s lying-in-state.
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“Whatever happens, we have to get inside,” said Ian Delmonte, 35, from the Philippines.
“We love the pope, we feel blessed to see him a last (time),” added Michelle Alcaide, 35, also from the Philippines, as she queued.
For a second night in a row, the Vatican kept St Peter’s open past the scheduled hours to accommodate the queues, only closing the doors between 2.30am and 5.40am on Friday.
“Night is the most intimate moment, the Lord always manifests himself at night,” said Nicoletta Tomassetti, 60, who visited the Basilica in the very early hours of Friday morning.
“It was very emotional. In prayer, I asked the pope for some things and I know he will give them to me,” she told AFP.
The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.
“It was like saying goodbye to a father” who “loved me and will continue to love me as and more than before,” Filipa Castronovo, 76, an Italian nun said after seeing the coffin on Friday.
The Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors’ orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.
It was his last public appearance.
Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
He used his last speech to rail against those who stir up “contempt... towards the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants”.
“It’s impressive to see all these people,” French cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo said of the queuing crowds, describing Francis as “a man of the people”.
“It’s a beautiful response, a beautiful embrace of his ministry, of his pontificate.”
At least 130 foreign delegations are expected at his funeral, including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Britain’s Prince William.
A no-fly zone will be in force.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences late Thursday, after a notable delay that some attributed to strained ties with the Vatican.
Francis had repeatedly criticised Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
The pope’s body was dressed in his papal vestments – a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes – and laid inside a simple wooden coffin.
On Thursday the Vatican banned people from taking photos inside the basilica, a move that eased the queue. It came after some mourners took selfies – deemed by many disrespectful – with the coffin.
After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be driven at a walking pace to be buried at his favourite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. AFP
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