Pope Francis’ body lies in state ahead of Saturday funeral

The body of Pope Francis was moved this morning to lie in state at St. Peter’s Basilica. A choir sang and cardinals chanted in Latin as Pope Francis’ body was carried, in a red velvet-lined open casket.

For three days mourners will be able to pay their respects.

People stood in a long line that snaked across St. Peter’s Square. Some held umbrellas to shield them from the sun as they waited for their moment to enter St. Peter’s Basilica.

“I wanted to see him alive,” said Margarita Harvey from El Salvador, who lives in Pennsylvania. “But I would love to at least see his body. I’m praying for him. My soul is with him.”

When Harvey enters the basilica, she’ll find Francis lying in a single wooden casket, dressed in red robes, holding a rosary and wearing the papal mitre — the ceremonial head dress.

For past papal funerals, the pontiff was laid inside three nested coffins: one of cypress wood, one of elm and one of lead. It was part of a display of the pope’s dual role as a global figure and spiritual leader. They would be covered with a gold cloth and lie in state on a raised pedestal in front of the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis tried to strip away the more ornate aspects of the role, trying to keep a little of the ordinary even in his very extraordinary job. Shunning much of the wealth and frills that come with the role. He chose to remain in the Santa Marta apartment where he stayed when he came as a cardinal to Rome, rather than move to the traditional papal residence at the Vatican. He chose simpler outfits and kept his plastic watch.

 A few weeks after he became pope aids at the Vatican urged him to wear white trousers to match his white cassock, Austin Ivereigh, Pope Francis’ biographer told NPR. “He said: No thanks. I don’t want to look like an ice cream seller.”

Francis like to with ordinary people. This was evident as he moved through the crowds in St. Peter’s Square this past Easter Sunday, the very day before he died. He was in his popemobile without a bullet proof glass barrier, hugging members of the public in the crowd of some 50,000.

The Vatican now says Francis was so weak he’d worried about whether he could cope with the appearance. But afterwards he reportedly said to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal healthcare assistant: “Thank you for bringing me back to the square.”

His funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square, in front of the 16th century basilica. It will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals.

It could become a significant political event too, with the possibility for some sensitive meetings on the sidelines.

President Trump has confirmed he will attend. As will Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — which sets up the potential for them to meet for the first time since that tense public exchange at the White House in February.

This will be Trump’s first foreign trip of his second term and the first time he’s in the same space as other key leaders, like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, since he caused widespread tumult and chaos in the financial markers, which his decision to place high import taxes on goods including from countries allied to the United States.

The Italian government says over 100 foreign delegations are coming. And it estimates as many as 200,000 people may attend overall.

Many popes are traditionally buried in the Vatican Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. But Francis has chosen to be laid to rest outside the Vatican, at a church in a part of Rome that has a bigger immigrant community.

The Basilica of Saint Mary Major is where he’d pray to the Salus Popoli Romani, an icon of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus before and after each trip out of Rome, and during difficult times, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Preparations are now underway at the church to receive Francis’ casket. On Tuesday wooden chipboard covered the niche where he will be buried, beside the chapel that houses the Virgin Mary icon. In his will, Francis called for his tomb to be “in the ground; simple, without particular decoration, and with the sole inscription: Franciscus,” or Latin for Francis.

At the church, crowded with visitors, Ruben Martinez, a Spanish priest spoke of the sense of anticipation that weighs in the air. He’d arrived to Rome just an hour before, and headed straight to the church.

“Another journalist asked me if this is a sad moment,” he said. “And I told him no, this is a moment of hope.”

As Christians, he said, this is about Pope Francis’ ascent to heaven.