Among 11h00 (09h00 GMT) on Wednesday and noon this Friday, some 150,000 people gave their last goodbye to the Jesuit. The burning chapel will remain open until 7:00 p.m. (18h00 GMT) and its funeral will take place on Saturday.
A “more intimate” goodbye
Midnight in the city of the Vatican. Hundreds of people join the long lines to say goodbye to Pope Francis, a trance that becomes “more intimate”, “something surreal.”
The coffin of the Argentine pontiff will close on Friday night for his final trip, so faithful and tourists take advantage of the last hours of burning chapel to say goodbye when most in Rome sleep.
“The night is also the most intimate moment, at night the Lord always manifests,” Nicoletta Tomassetti, a 60 -year -old Italian who goes with her husband Ivano Tiberius, tells AFP. “It was very exciting, in prayer I asked the Pope for some things and I know he will grant them.”
The Vatican said that more than 128,000 people visited the wake among the 9h00 GMT on Wednesday, when it began, until 6:00 p.m. on Friday.
“Neither hunger nor thirst”
“Is this the row to enter?” The last ones ask to reach the Civil Protection volunteers who, within chaos, try to organize two rows from the Via della Coniliazione.
The San Pedro Square is cordoned off, workers prepare the structures for the funeral mass and its final goodbye.
With great patience and some with energy drinks, the human tide progresses slowly towards security controls under the monumental colonnade of San Pedro to access the square.
They talk about work or family, others of Pope Francis and the conclave who will choose his successor, few pray … The atmosphere is agitation before the historical moment they are living.
“We have traveled hours and hours, but we do not feel tired or hunger or thirst. All that is the emotion of being in a place like this, living this moment,” says Fray Wando, a 40 -year -old Brazilian capuchin monk.
“No photo, no video!”
Julio Valencia, a 28 -year -old Mexican, traveled to Rome with his mother and his three sisters for the canonization of Carlo Acutis, the first Millennial Holy, who was suspended.
Among the crowd that progresses, they are the only ones to which the rosary is heard.
“We were having dinner” shortly after arriving in Italy, “and we said, at once,” explains the young man.
Silence bursts when the crowd enters the largest church in the world through the holy door, exceptionally open in 2025 on the occasion of the jubilee.
The row slowly travels the imposing central nave of the illuminated basilica, under the watchful eye of the sculptures of potatoes and saints that adorn it. Many cannot resist taking photos.
“Keep the cell phones!”, “No photo, no video!”, Vatican employees shout when faithful and tourists are preparing to flee the coffin where Francisco lies, escorted by four Swiss guards and Bernini’s baldaquino.
“I felt cold”
Peruvian Delia Saravia takes advantage of the fact that Friday is a holiday in Rome, where she has lived for 18 years, to say goodbye to her two children and two minor nephews. “They are the ones who wanted to come,” says the 42 -year -old woman already two in the morning.
And what have they told him after seeing the coffin? “They think it is not the Pope, because he is very sucked, very ‘sequito’,” he smiles.
“I felt cold,” Valencia agrees. “But as I saw a lot on TV, because I remembered the good times.”
“Francisco represents disruption,” he adds. “Many of the changes in the church seemed very good to me.”
Lina Moro, a 45 -year -old Argentina, tries to position himself from several meters before at the best site in the row to be able to see his late compatriot.
When he passes before him, he sneels without being able to stop. “It was very exciting, very emotional. At night even more,” he confesses.
For Fray Wando, even “something surreal.”
