The devotion of the faithful for Pope Francis, the homage for three days at St Peter's

It will be a simple but moving ceremony: Pope Francis' body will be moved today from Casa Santa Marta to St Peter's Basilica for the homage of the faithful. Three days of prayers, with extraordinary opening hours, to allow all those who wish to, to pay their last respects to the Argentine Pope. Meanwhile yesterday, in a more private form, the devotion at Santa Marta began. Among the people who wanted to pay their last respects to the Pope was the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, accompanied by his daughter Laura. In the days of the president's hospitalisation at the Santo Spirito, Pope Francis had wanted to make his closeness felt with a note: 'United by the fragility that marks this season of our life, we are invited not to lose hope,' he wrote Bergoglio to Mattarella, as reported by the Vatican media.

Many countries have decided on national mourning in honour of Bergoglio. There will be mourning for five days also in Italy, with an invitation to ten minutes of recollection, in offices and schools, to coincide with the start of the funeral, Saturday 26 April at 10am. In the Vatican everything is ready, from security to logistics, to welcome the long influx of faithful who from 11am, and until midnight, will be able to pay homage to the Pontiff. It will continue also on Thursday 24th (from 7 a.m. to midnight) and Friday 25th April, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Before the arrival of the faithful, the ceremony will take place with the procession that will accompany the body of Francis through Piazza Santa Marta and Piazza dei Protomartiri Romani, inside the Vatican. Then the procession will pass through the Arco delle Campane, the one from where the Pope used to enter and exit in his popemobile; the last time it happened on Sunday. Then the procession will enter St. Peter's Square and then the Vatican Basilica through the central gate. At the Altar of Confession, Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Farrell will preside over the Liturgy of the Word, at the end of which the visits of the people will begin.

As had already been informally announced, the funeral of Pope Francis will be held on Saturday 26 April, at 10am, on the parvis of St. Peter's Basilica. The liturgy will be presided over by Cardinal Dean Giovanni Battista Re. More than two hundred thousand people are expected and at least one hundred foreign delegations are expected to arrive. Indeed, heads of state from all over the world are expected, from Trump to Zelensky, but also religious leaders of all faiths. Among the first to confirm his presence is Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, a great friend of Francis, with whom they have shared journeys and above all battles: those for migrants, the poor, the care of the common home. They were to meet at the end of May in Nicaea, Turkey, for the 1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council. Instead, it will be the Orthodox Patriarch who will board a flight from Istanbul to pay his last respects to the leader of the Catholics but above all to his 'fraternal friend'.

Meanwhile, the cardinals are beginning to get to know each other better in view of the Conclave. Yesterday there was the first congregation: an hour and a half for organisational details and the oath of confidentiality. Today they will meet again at 5pm but it will take a few days, at least enough time for all the cardinals to arrive in Rome, to get to the heart of the matter. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said it clearly: "It will be the subsequent congregations, with the arrival of cardinals from all over the world, that will give indications, as happened in 2013, in which the choices for the future Conclave will be given. Only then will they try to design together the Church they want for the future, and consequently the new Pope who will have to govern it.