Sober ceremony for Pope Francis, attended by world leaders

The city of Rome is preparing to receive more than two hundred thousand visitors on Saturday who want to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. The ceremony, in the open air on Sint-Pietersplein, will also be shown on large screens on different squares. The hotel prices around the Vatican rose to around 2,500 euros per night in recent days.

Earlier this week, thousands of pilgrims already brought the Pope one last greeting in the St. Peter’s Basilica. The Argentinian Pope Franciscus, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, died on Easter Monday at the age of 88.

At least 170 state and government leaders are expected at his funeral, including US President Donald Trump, Argentinian President Javier Milei, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zensky and chairman Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission. Russian President Vladimir Putin sends his Minister of Culture.

King Willem-Alexander was on Wednesday at a commemoration of the Pope in Amsterdam, but, like his predecessors, does not go to the papal funeral. Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp represent the Dutch government.

The leader of the Catholic World Church was very open to inter -religious dialogue. On his funeral there will also be a high delegation from Al Azhar, the important institution for Sunni Islam in Cairo. The main rabbi of Rome and the chairman of the Jewish community of Rome also come to the Vatican. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not send an official funeral report, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs did, but that tweet was quickly deleted. Israel was not served by the pope’s stretching criticism of the war in Gaza. In his last papal blessing, the ‘Urbi et Orbi’ on Easter Sunday, the Pope still spoke of a ‘scandalous situation’.

Rosary

Francis, who had nothing to do with luxury and display, gets a highly simplified funeral mass, led by Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals. It starts at 10 am.

After the celebration, the coffin is not added to the crypt under the St. Peter’s Basilica, but worn in the (also papal) basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the Roman district of Monti. After the ceremony, the coffin makes a trip of six kilometers through the heart of Rome. Francis chose the Basilica of Saint Mary the superior as a final resting place, because as a pope he liked to pray and the worship of Mary was important to him. There is a rosary on his body.

He also wanted to be buried in just one box of wood and zinc, and not like his predecessors in three matches, and certainly not put on an elevation. He received a red priest’s rug, the color of which stands for the love and blood that Christ sheds to all people. The deceased pope wears a white stola and a bishop’s smies. In his coffin, the Rogito are laid, a text with a short summary of his pontificate.

Franciscus’ will showed that an anonymous benefactor bears the costs of his funeral in the Santa Maria Maggiore. In that will from 2022, the Pope wrote this message: « May the Lord give a well -deserved reward to whom of me and keeps praying for me. I have sacrificed suffering in the last part of my life to the Lord for world peace and brotherhood among the peoples. »

The conclave, in which the College of Cardinals chooses a successor for Franciscus, will start between 5 and 10 May.

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