VATICAN CITY — Thousands of people continued to pour into St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday to pay their final respects to Pope Francis, whose body is lying in state for three days ahead of his funeral on Saturday.
The Basilica reopened its doors on Thursday, after a brief pause in the early hours of the day, to welcome thousands of worshippers from around the world.
Over 170 delegations, including heads of state and government, are expected in St. Peter’s Square for the funeral ceremony, with millions more watching on television across the globe.
Vatican media said almost 50,000 people have flooded the basilica to pay homage to the late pontiff, laid out since Wednesday in an open coffin ahead of his funeral on Saturday,
Given the size of the crowds, the basilica, which was initially scheduled to close at midnight, was kept open until 5:30 a.m. (03:30 GMT), before it reopened at 7 a.m.
The body of the 88-year-old pope, who died on Monday in his room at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse after suffering a stroke, was brought to St. Peter’s in a solemn procession on Wednesday.
Francis was dressed in red vestments, his hands clasped together holding a rosary, and a white miter on his head.
Francis’ body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica until Friday evening.
In the first 8-1/2 hours of viewing, some 19,430 people filed in front of the coffin, with thousands more waiting patiently in a line that snaked around the security barriers across the cobbled esplanade outside the church.
The head of Francis’ medical team, in interviews published on Thursday, said the pope died quickly on Monday morning from an unexpected stroke without suffering undue pain, and there was nothing that doctors could have done to save his life,
Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, oversaw the pope’s treatment there during a five-week stay when Francis was fighting double pneumonia earlier this year.
Alfieri said he got a phone call at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Monday morning to come quickly to the Vatican and arrived about 20 minutes later.
“I entered his rooms and he (Francis) had his eyes open,” the doctor told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “I ascertained that there were no respiratory problems. And then I tried to call his name, but he did not respond to me.”
“In that moment I knew there was nothing more to do,” said Alfieri. “He was in a coma.”
In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Alfieri said some officials who were present with the pope suggested moving him immediately back to the hospital.
“He would have died on the way,” said the doctor. “Doing a CT scan we would have had a more exact diagnosis, but nothing more. It was one of those strokes that, in an hour, carries you away.”
Francis was 88 and had nearly died while fighting pneumonia, but his death came as a shock. Just the previous day he appeared in St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday, suggesting his convalescence was going well.
After Francis returned to the Vatican on March 23 after a 38-day hospital stay, Alfieri and the pope’s other doctors had prescribed him a two month period of rest to allow his ageing body to heal.
Francis, known to push himself hard, kept working. He met briefly with US Vice President JD Vance on Easter Sunday, and had visited a prison in Rome on April 17, Holy Thursday, to offer well wishes to the inmates.
Alfieri said the pope listened to his doctors’ advice and didn’t push himself too hard. “He (was) the pope,” the doctor told Corriere. “Going back to work was part of his treatment and he was never exposed to danger.”
The doctor said he last saw Francis on Saturday afternoon. “He was very well,” said Alfieri, who said he gifted the pope some pie, in a flavour he knew the pontiff liked.
He recounted the pope saying, “I am very well, I have started working again, and I like it.”
“We knew that he wanted to go home to be pope up until the last moment,” said the doctor. “He didn’t let us down.”
In the Repubblica interview, Alfieri said Francis had shared one final regret with him. While he was happy to have visited the prisoners on April 17, he wished he had been able to perform a foot-washing ritual for the Church’s celebration of Holy Thursday.
“He regretted he could not wash the feet of the prisoners,” said the doctor. “’This time I couldn’t do it’ was the last thing he said to me.”
