Vatican City, (EFE) .- More than 90,000 people have passed from Wednesday until Thursday at 7:00 p.m. local time (11:00 hours in central Mexico) through the burning chapel of Pope Francis in the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano to give his last goodbye to the late Pontiff, according to the Holy See.
The drip of faithful has remained constant throughout the day, after last night the open wake was maintained despite the initial plans of closing it at midnight so that everyone who wishes could say goodbye.
Civil Protection of Italy provides that this number will continue to increase considerably in the next few hours until at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, the doors of San Pedro are closed to proceed to the coffin closing ceremony, before the funeral and burial planned for Saturday.
The mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, told the media that he hopes that the 100,000 visitors in the burning chapel will be reached.
“The influx to the coffin is going very regularly (…). We will soon exceed 100,000 people,” Gualteri said at the end of the Provincial Committee meeting for order and security in the Prefecture.
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The mayor highlighted the proper functioning of municipal services, which is allowing “everyone to have the opportunity to pay tribute to an extraordinary Pope like Francisco.”
The Italian authorities estimate that around 200,000 faithful will attend the funeral on Saturday by the Pontiff, after which the coffin will be transferred in a funeral procession to the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, where Francisco left stipulated that he would receive funeral.
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