(23 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vatican City – 23 April 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Trisha Thomas, The Associated Press:
"In an emotional and majestic ceremony this morning, Pope Francis’s body was taken in a procession, leaving the Santa Marta residence where he lives, and a whole row of cardinals followed by pallbearers, 14 of them holding the casket on their shoulders, and they were surrounded by Swiss guards, snaked through the back of the Vatican, into St. Peter’s Square, up through St. Peter’s Basilica to leave him at the altar there. Now there will be three days of public viewing of the body of Pope Francis so people can pay their last respects. On Saturday, they will have the funeral for Pope Francis and they’re expecting dignitaries from all over the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump, President Macron of France, Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Keir Starmer of the UK, Prince William and King Felipe VI from Spain. So lots of leaders from all around the world coming to the Pope’s funeral on Saturday. After that, there will be the nine days of Noven Diales when the Cardinals will get together to talk about the future of the Church. After that nine-day period of mourning ends, 135 cardinals, those who are under 80, will go into the Sistine Chapel for the Conclave to elect the next Pope."
2. Various of casket being placed before altar
STORYLINE:
The Vatican opened St. Peter’s Basilica to the general public Wednesday to pay their final respects to Pope Francis, with thousands of people filling the central aisle and Swiss Guards standing at attention.
Francis’s body will lie in state in the basilica until Saturday’s funeral and burial.
Francis died on Monday at age 88.
Earlier, the bells of St. Peter’s tolled as his body was transferred from the Vatican hotel where he lived into the basilica, escorted by a procession of solemn cardinals and Swiss Guards through the same piazza where the pontiff had greeted the faithful from his popemobile just days before in what became his final good-bye.
Pallbearers carried the simple wooden coffin on their shoulders through the Vatican’s archway gates, out into St. Peter’s Square and into the basilica, the cardinals in their scarlet cassocks, bishops in their purple robes and the Swiss Guards in their golden and blue uniforms processing slowly behind.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is running the Vatican temporarily until a new pope is elected, led the procession, with clouds of incense preceding him as the church choir began chanting the Litany of Saints hymn. In pairs, the cardinals approached the casket, bowed and made a sign of the cross, followed by small groups of bishops, ushers, priests and nuns.
Heads of state and other leaders are expected for Francis’ funeral Saturday, but the three days of public viewing in the basilica will allow ordinary Catholics to grieve the 88-year-old pope, who died Monday after suffering a stroke.
Cardinals met at the Vatican on Tuesday to schedule Francis’ funeral and burial, plan the conclave to elect his successor and make other decisions about running the Catholic Church.
AP video by Paolo Lucariello
Production by Trisha Thomas
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