Some of Pope Francis’ relatives paid their respects to the late pontiff Thursday at St. Peter’s Basilica, where thousands of faithful are pouring in for a last goodbye.
So many mourners lined up to see Francis lying in state in a simple wooden coffin inside the Basilica that the Vatican kept the doors open all night due to higher-than-expected turnout, closing it for just an hour Thursday morning for cleaning.
The basilica is bathed in a hushed silence as mourners from across the globe make a slow, shuffling procession up the main aisle to pay their last respects to Francis, who died Monday after a stroke.
The hours spent on line up the stately via della Conciliazione through St. Peter’s Square and through the Holy Door into the basilica has allowed mourners to find community around the Argentine pontiff’s legacy of inclusion and humble persona.
The last numbers released by the Vatican said more than 50 000 people had paid their respects during the first 12 hours of the public viewing , starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
A funeral mass on Saturday, followed by the “conclave”
After three days of public viewing, a funeral mass including heads of state will be held Saturday in St. Peter’s Square.
The pope will then be buried in a niche within the St. Mary Major Basilica, near his favourite Madonna icon.
Following two weeks of morning, the Catholic Church’s cardinals will then elect a new pope in a tradition known as “conclave”.
Cardinals arrived Thursday morning at the Vatican gates for their second “congregation” meeting since Pope Francis died.
“We are getting ready but we still have not entered into the more intense phase we are in the organisational phase,” explained Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi.
Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the Archbishop of Algiers who became a Cardinal in December, told reporters “We have not yet opened the Conclave.” He added “for the moment we are here completely for Francis.”
