Pope Francis lies in state at Saint Peter’s Basilica as thousands pay respect
Tens of thousands of mourners began saying their last goodbyes to the Pope.
Tens of thousands of mourners began saying their last goodbyes to the Pope.
Tens of thousands of mourners began saying their last goodbyes to the Pope.
Pope Francis's body arrived at Saint Peter's Basilica on Wednesday to lie in state before his weekend funeral.
The late pope's open wooden coffin was carried by pallbearers the 500 metres (yards) from the Casa Santa Marta where he lived and died, behind a procession of red-robed cardinals.
Tens of thousands of mourners began saying their last goodbyes to the Pope as a long line of pilgrims and tourists stretched across the sprawling St Peter's Square before the doors opened at 11.00 am (0900 GMT), when the public were allowed inside to file past the open coffin.
"I came to say a last goodbye to a great man. He stood for the people," Simonetta Marini, 67, a Roman pensioner, told AFP.
Francis, an energetic reformer who took over as leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics in 2013, died on Monday, aged 88. He had recently been hospitalised for five weeks with pneumonia.
Dressed in his papal vestments -- a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes -- and with a rosary laced between his fingers, the pope's body has been laid out in a red-lined wooden coffin.
For the next three days, it will rest on a low bier before the Altar of the Confession underneath the soaring dome painted by Michelangelo, before being closed at 8.00 pm (1800 GMT) on Friday evening ahead of Saturday's funeral.
Vincenza Nocilla, a 67-year-old retired nurse, left her home in Formia, south of Rome, at 4.00 am to be among the first to see the pontiff.
"It was really moving," she said after exiting the basilica, adding: "They don't let you stay long, you walk by, say a quick goodbye and go."
A retired Irish couple in their 60s said that despite being on holiday in Rome, it was a "priority" to come see Francis, whom they said had made efforts in their country to address the problem of clerical sexual abuse.
"He was a great man, a great advocate for the poor, the underprivileged and those who suffered at the hands of his flock," said Cliodhna Devlin.
Many world leaders have announced they will travel to Rome for Pope Francis's funeral on Saturday, which is expected to draw a huge crowd in the square in front of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.