The atmosphere right now is one of anticipation and probably quite heavy excitement. The focus of the world now is drawn to the Vatican, drawn to Rome.
The crowds are gathered into St Peter’s Square – all of the access ways to the square were choked with people who got into the square, hoping to be able to watch this service.
Some 200,000 are said to be in attendance. At the wings, there will be those delegations of VIPs, world leaders and monarchs.
The funeral is being attended by a host of world leaders, including President Droupadi Murmu, US President Donald Trump, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among others. The open-air ceremony, which will be con-celebrated by 220 cardinals, 750 bishops and more than 4,000 other priests, is due to last 90 minutes.
When the service ends here in a couple of hours, after it begins at 10am, there will be a 30-minute procession through the streets of Rome.
Pope Francis will be the first pope in over a century not to be buried inside St Peter’s; he has chosen instead to be buried in another basilica across Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the four papal basilicas in Rome, close to an ancient icon of the Virgin Mary, to whom, in his will, he dedicated his life.
So there will be thousands of people lining the route on the way to Santa Maria Maggiore, as well.
News agencies are reporting that Trump, the president of the US, paid his respects to Pope Francis at his coffin after arriving at the Vatican for the funeral.
Television footage also showed the arrival of Lula, the president of Brazil.
Italian media outlets are reporting that the late pope’s coffin will be driven through Rome in a converted popemobile.
The vehicle, which the pontiff used during one of his trips abroad, will allow onlookers to see Francis from the roadside.
A quick reminder that after the funeral service in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Pope Francis’s coffin is to be transported along a 6km (3.7km) route to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, where the pontiff is to be laid to rest.
The Catholic Church is breaking with recent tradition with prisoners and migrants expected to bury him in St. Mary Major Basilica, near Rome’s main train station, where a simple underground tomb awaits him.
