The priests, pilgrims and cardinals dressed in black dresses and red falls mixed in the Vatican streets on Thursday while tens of thousands of Catholics paid tribute to Pope Francis and preparations for accelerated funeral.
The conclave to select the next pope has not yet started – the Vatican has not announced the date of the start of the vote – but the cardinals held their third congregation meeting in the Saint -Siège apostolic palace on Thursday morning since François’ death on Easter Monday.
During the gatherings, the cardinals decide the logistics of the mourning period, but the Vatican experts say that they can also define the agenda of the conclave and put their priorities in private while they are preparing to choose the next Pope. More cardinals have arrived in Rome in recent days before Francis’ funeral on Saturday.
As they escaped from a door to the Vatican near the Sant’anna church on Wednesday, after their second meeting since the death of Francis, some cardinals described subjects on which they wanted the church to be concentrated.
“The central point is the preaching of authentic faith as it is,” said a conservative cardinal, Mauro Piacenza.
Most of the decisions of the cardinals that have been publicly disclosed were linked to the arrangements for funerals and commemorations of Francis, but the men of church will also have to choose a date for the conclave.
During one of the meetings of the congregation before the 2013 conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio delivered a speech which underlined the duty of the Church to touch those of the “peripherals”. The speech made an important mark and Cardinal Bergoglio was elected in the conclave that followed, becoming Pope Francis.
Since Wednesday, around 50,000 people have paid tribute to Francis, whose body was in the state of the Saint-Pierre basilica, said the Vatican. Thousands of others were line up on Saint-Pierre square Thursday morning.
“Pope Francis looks at us from up there,” said Bruna Donato, 70, one of the people in mourning. “He knows who is going and who doesn’t.”
