On last day of Pope Francis lying in state, huge crowds flock to Vatican

Tens of thousands of mourners have waited hours in line to bid farewell to Pope 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.

The Vatican said Friday morning that more than 128,000 people had already paid their respects to Francis, filing past past his open coffin, which was placed in front of St. Peter’s Basilica’s main altar. Some were praying, and some were holding smart phones aloft for a photo of the late pontiff, who is laid out in red robes with a bishop’s pointed miter and a rosary entwined in his hands.

The basilica stayed open until around 3 a.m. local time Friday and closed for just a few hours before reopening for mourners who started arriving before dawn. The three days of public viewing are scheduled to end at 6 p.m. Friday – an hour earlier than previously announced – after which Francis simple wooden coffin will be sealed.

Heads of state and royalty will start converging on Rome on Friday for Saturday’s funeral in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square.

President Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei are among the leaders arriving Friday, the last day Argentine pope will lie in state in the basilica before his coffin is sealed in the evening in preparation for the funeral.

The Vatican said 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs.

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 113 meeting Thursday morning to discuss church business. They will meet again Friday before taking a break for the weekend.

“We are getting ready, but we still have not entered into the more intense phase. We are in the organizational phase,” Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni said Thursday.

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.

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.

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”

Mr. Trump, who is traveling with first lady Melania Trump, is scheduled to arrive after Francis’ coffin has been sealed.

Former President Joe Biden, who maintained a close working and personal relationship with Francis dating back to his visit to the United States in 2015, intends to attend the funeral, according to multiple people with knowledge of his plans.  

Among 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 President Viktor Orbán and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Israel will send its Vatican ambassador, Yaron Sideman, a lower-level diplomat.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t offer condolences on behalf of the Jewish state until Friday.

Relations between Israel and the pope had been strained since the war in Gaza broke out.

The pontiff decried Hamas’s attack on Israel, but also often criticized Israel’s actions during its military operations in Gaza.