The doors opened to St. Peter’s Basilica at 5:40 a.m. on Friday, and people immediately began to trickle in to pay their respects to Pope Francis, whose body lay beneath the vast dome designed by Michelangelo. A couple of hours later, the trickle was a river, as thousands moved through the basilica on the last day they could say goodbye to the pontiff.
Francis’ funeral is set for Saturday. Afterward he will be buried across town in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a place dear to his heart.
St. Peter’s has been open nearly round-the-clock since Francis’s body was moved here on Wednesday from the Vatican guesthouse where he had lived and died. The Vatican said that by noon Friday, 150,000 people had passed through.
Depending on the time of day, the wait to pass by the coffin could take hours. “It’s normal because so many people loved him,” said Daniela Sirigu, who lives in Rome and paid her respects on Friday. She said she’d heard dozens of languages, as well as Italian dialects, while waiting for her turn to say goodbye. “It meant a lot to me to see him, he gave us so much,” she said.
Outside the basilica, national and local agencies began to rev up their operations in preparation for the funeral. Security measures were tightened. The roads surrounding Vatican City began to be closed off in anticipation of the 162 government delegations expected for the funeral. They include 12 reigning monarchs and 51 heads of state, the Vatican said on Thursday.
Lining the streets around the Vatican were volunteer workers in lime green vests, civil protection workers, and red-vested Red Cross workers, ready to deal with immediate emergencies or offer directions — or water bottles — to flustered tourists. Garbage collectors changing plastic bags in trash cans said their work had increased substantially during the past few days.
Francis died on Monday, at 88, in a Jubilee year during which millions of faithful are expected to make a pilgrimage to the Vatican. This weekend, the Jubilee of Teenagers is scheduled, and will proceed as usual, though the beatification of Carlo Acutis, a teenager nicknamed God’s influencer, has been postponed. On Friday, it wasn’t unusual to see groups of teenagers among those filing past the coffin.
“We came for the Jubilee” said Giulia Marchelli, from Ovada, a town in Piedmont, in northern Italy, who had come with a church group. “Instead we found ourselves involved with another event.”
Francisco Martins, the group’s leader, said, “It was important to be here, even in mourning, it’s a historical moment too.”
The Vatican said 149 cardinals had participated in a congregation meeting, 36 more than yesterday, as more princes of the church, as they are known, arrive for the funeral and the conclave that will be held to elect Francis’ successor. Their next meeting will be on Monday morning.
After St. Peter’s closes to the public this evening, the wooden coffin, which is lined in zinc, will be closed during a formal ceremony.
During that ceremony, a group of cardinals, Vatican officials, the pope’s secretaries and some other guests will look on as the pope’s face is covered by a white silk veil and sprinkled with holy water. An officiant will then place into the coffin a bag containing coins minted by the Vatican during Francis’ papacy and a canister with a “rogito,” or deed, that briefly lists details of his life and pontificate. The rogito is read aloud during the ceremony, whose rules are scripted and included in a book of papal funeral rites.
Finally, the coffin, decorated with Francis’s own cross and his coat of arms, will be sealed.
Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, said the closing of the coffin would not be televised.
The former archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who was accused of covering up cases of sexual abuse by priests and was later stripped of some duties, is among the cardinals participating in the coffin-closing ceremony.
Advocates for abuse victims assailed the decision to allow Cardinal Mahony to participate. “The Catholic Church has chosen to let a known enabler of abuse perform one last act of cover-up,” Peter Isely, a founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement.
On Friday, for the businesses near to the Vatican, the influx of faithful was a blessing, even if tempered by grief for the pope’s passing.
“It’s been great, Rome’s full of people and there’s work for everyone,” said Roberto Vaccini, the owner of Antica Vineria, a restaurant and wine bar near the Vatican. “I wish it could be like this every day, not that a pope dies of course, but Rome is a tourist city after all.”
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