Thousands queue wait hours to visit coffin of Pope Francis today
Thousands of people have queued through the night to pay their respects to Pope Francis, whose body is being displayed in an open coffin at St Peter’s Basilica.
Entry to the church in Vatican City was due to stop at midnight local time (22:00 GMT) – but opening hours were extended to accommodate the large crowds gathered outside. Public viewing continues on Thursday.
Francesco Catini, who travelled to Rome from Venice, had waited for four hours to see Francis’s body. “It was a beautiful experience,” he said. “To me, Francis was a living example of peace, of love, and especially of humility and solidarity.”
Chiara Frassine, from Brescia in northern Italy, had waited a similar amount of time. “I’m very happy to be here,” she said as she left the basilica. “Pope Francis had a pure soul. He was a humble point of reference for many people, not just Catholics.”
Not everyone waiting to pay their respects was Catholic. Standing at the end of the queue was Gunnar Prieß, from Germany, who arrived in the Italian capital on Wednesday morning.
“I booked a flight only to be here to see this,” he said. “I am not Catholic, but this is so majestic. What we’re seeing here today is the expression of a holy ritual that goes back 2,000 years. There’s an aura in the Vatican and I wanted to experience it.”
Unlike those of most of his predecessors, his coffin, which is being watched over by two Swiss Guards, has not been raised on a platform. That was one of the rituals Francis shunned when he simplified rules for papal funerals last year.
His funeral mass will take place at St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning, an event that will be attended by a host of world leaders and royals, including the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president, Donald Trump, and Prince William. He will then be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.
On Wednesday morning, mourners erupted into a prolonged but sombre applause as Francis’s coffin was carried through the square by pallbearers in a solemn procession involving dozens of cardinals and bishops, and watched over by Swiss Guards.
The bells of the basilica gently tolled as a choir chanted psalms and prayers in Latin, repeating the call to “pray for us”.
“It was the most profound moment,” said Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, the former archbishop of Toronto, who was among the procession. “But from the simple prayers to the incense, it was no different to a [funeral] ritual that any baptised person would have.”
As of Wednesday night, a Vatican official said almost 20,000 people, from all parts of the world, had joined the queue, which stretched along the road leading to Vatican City, to pay their respects to Francis, many holding umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.
Braced for a long wait, Abigail and her family, from California, brought food. “We’re happy to wait as long as it takes,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be he
The Argentine pontiff died on Monday at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke. He had spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year receiving treatment for double pneumonia.
On Wednesday, as many as 20,000 people witnessed red-robed cardinals and white-clad priests escort the coffin from the Pope’s residence, the Vatican said.
