Rome braces as foreign leaders arrive for Pope’s funeral

More than 100,000 mourners filed into St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday to pay their respects to Pope Francis, viewing his open coffin in the final visiting hours ahead of his funeral on Saturday.

Soon after 7pm (1700 GMT) the Vatican ended a TV broadcast of the visits that had been running nearly continuously, ahead of a private ceremony to seal his casket.

As Italian and Vatican police prepared to close the long queue through the central nave of the church, the last visitors shuffled in.

The Vatican said on Friday it is expecting 160 foreign delegations to attend Saturday’s funeral, among them dozens of world leaders including US President Donald Trump and 10 reigning monarchs.

There had been speculation that foreign leaders might have diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of the funeral to discuss the war in Ukraine, but the Elysee Palace said on Friday that French President Emmanuel Macron would not host any such meetings.

Authorities began ramping up security ahead of the ceremony, with snipers on rooftops, drones watching from the sky and an army device readied to neutralise hostile flying objects.

The 88-year-old pope, who had led the Church since 2013, died on Monday in his rooms at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse after suffering a stroke as he was recuperating from weeks of pneumonia.

About 250,000 people from all over the world have lined up to say farewell since his body was brought to St. Peter’s on Wednesday to lie in state, the Vatican said.

Among the last visitors were Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, who stood together at the side of the casket for a few moments. He bowed his head; she made the sign of the cross.

Long queues snaked around St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding roads all day on Friday. Some waited hours for the chance to spend a few minutes inside the basilica and pay their respects.

“It’s a very strong feeling (to be here),” said Patricio Castriota, a visitor from Argentina, the pope’s homeland. “This farewell was very sad, but I thank God that I was able to see him”.

“He’s the only pope we’ve had who came from South America, a pope who had many good intentions for the Catholic Church,” said Castriota. “He cleaned up (a lot) of the bad, maybe not all of it, but he tried.”

Francis was the first pontiff from the Americas and was known for an unusually charming, and even humorous, demeanour.

Reuters