Heads of state and royalty will start converging on Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square, but the group of poor people who will meet his casket in a small crosstown basilica are more in keeping with Francis’ humble persona and disdain for pomp.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei are among the leaders arriving Friday, the last day Argentine pope will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica before his coffin is sealed in the evening in preparation for his funeral Saturday.
The Vatican said 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns.
Tens of thousands of mourners have waited hours in line to bid farewell to Francis, who died Monday after suffering a stroke at the age of 88. A higher-than-expected turnout prompted the Vatican to extend the basilica’s opening hours overnight.
By noon on Friday, more than 150,000 people had filed past Francis’ open coffin placed in front of the basilica’s main altar to pay their respects — at times praying, at times holding smart phones aloft — despite instructions not to. The late pontiff was laid out in red robes, a bishop’s pointed miter and a rosary entwined in his hands.
St. Peter’s Basilica remained open most of the second night, closing for just a few hours. Mourners began arriving before dawn, and sprinted into the piazza when security reopened the flows.
Giovanni Guarino drove from Naples with his girlfriend to make their final farewells to the Francis, moved by his work to help the young and disadvantaged.
“I hope that his successor follows the footsteps of Francis,” Guarino said.
The three days of public viewing are scheduled to end at 7 p.m. on Friday, after which Francis simple wooden coffin will be sealed in a private moment.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell will preside over the closing and sealing of the coffin in his role of camerlengo, or interim Vatican administrator. A white cloth will be placed over the pope’s face, and a bag containing coins minted during his papacy will be put in the coffin along with a one-page written account of his papacy.
Roman neighbors and retired flight attendants Aurelia Ballarini and Francesca Codato came to pay respects to Pope Francis on Friday with very different motivations. Ballarini, 72, was coming to terms with her grief, and Codato, 78, was seeking forgiveness.
For Ballarini, the pope’s death leaves a hole in her life. While only 16 years younger than Francis, she considered him a grandfather figure. Every morning, she would log on to Facebook for his daily greeting, and respond “with a couple of words.”
“He gave everything, gave all of himself, up to the end,’’ said Ballarini. “I spent the last two days crying. I was not well after his passing — I can’t even say the word. For me he flew away. One day, we will see each other again.
Codato said she feels tremendous guilt toward Francis, having forsaken him out of devotion to one of his predecessors, St. John Paul II. When Francis became pope “he was an outsider to me.”
“I feel guilty, because through videos I have seen in these days, I have understood he was a man of enormous humanity, close to the simple people,” she said. “So I came to ask forgiveness, because I feel guilty towards him, like a worm.”
The work of the conclave to choose a new pope won’t start until at least May 5, after nine days of public mourning.
Cardinals have been also been arriving in Rome, with 149 meeting Friday morning to discuss church business. They won’t meet again until next week, meaning a conclave date is unlikely to be set until after the funeral.
Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, who hosted Pope Francis during his last papal trip, to Corsica, last year, remembered Francis as “a free man” who “humanized the church without desacralizing it.”
He described the atmosphere inside the meetings as “good,” but said they were not yet “at the point of decisions; we are in discussions.’’
In keeping with Francis’ embrace of the marginalized, the Vatican said a group of poor and needy people will meet the pope’s coffin to pay homage to him when it arrives at St. Mary Major Basilica for burial on Saturday. It has already become a point of pilgrimage.
The tomb is being prepared behind a wooden barrier within the basilica that he chose to be near an icon of the Madonna that he revered and often prayed before. The burial will take place in private, the Vatican said.
Photos released by the Vatican on Friday show the marble tombstone flat against the pavement, with the simple engraving in Latin that he requested in his last testament: “Franciscus”
Cardinals will visit the St. Mary Major Basilica on Sunday. Entering through the Holy Door, they will visit the Salus Populi Romani icon, which was dear to Francis, and celebrate evening prayers, the Vatican said.
Italy is deploying more than 2,500 police and 1,500 soldiers to provide security during the funeral, which is expected to gather some 200,000 mourners in St. Peter’s Square and as many as 300,000 people along the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) route from the Vatican to the pope’s burial place across Rome.
The major security operation includes stationing an armed naval vessel off the coast, and putting squads of fighter jets on standby, Italian media reported.
Trump, who is traveling with first lady Melania Trump, is scheduled to arrive Friday, after Francis’ coffin has been sealed.
Among the other foreign dignitaries confirmed for the papal funeral are:
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska
— French President Emmanuel Macron
— British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
— Prince William
— Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia
— Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
— Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
The Associated Press contributed to this report.