Crowds of Thousands Enter Vatican Basilica to View Pope Francis in his Coffin - Interesting Details of the Pope's Attire - VIDEO

On April 23rd, 2025, the rite of transfer of the Pope's body from Santa Marta to the Vatican Basilica. A solemn but intimate ceremony presided over by the camerlengo Farrell: "With great emotion we accompany the mortal remains of our Francis". Present in the procession were about 80 cardinals and patriarchs, then bishops, priests, nuns, lay people. Over 20 thousand faithful in the square greeted the passage of the coffin by clapping their hands, numerous people lined up to pay homage to the Pontiff

Today, the day of Saint George, his name day, it is a wooden coffin that moves in front of 20 thousand people lined up in a sunny square, in tears, often the Rosary in one hand and the smartphone in the other to capture the moment.
Pope Francis' body is dressed in red vestments, with a miter on his head, and a black pearl rosary that he always carried in his pocket woven between his fingers, along with a small image of Therese of Lisieux and a holy card by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran. The pallium was around his neck - something that Pope Benedict XVI did not have since he had resigned before his death. Pope Francis was carried in procession to the Basilica. The solemn ceremony, presided over by Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, but at the same time intimate with about 80 cardinals and patriarchs in the front row, then bishops and archbishops, priests and nuns, and finally the lay people "further back", as ordered by the cobblers and gentlemen of His Holiness.
The prayers and singing began even before the open coffin, carried by the pontifical sedan chairs, exited the automatic door of the Vatican Domus, which for over twelve years was the residence of the Argentine Pontiff. The body passed through the corridor created by the penitentiaries with the red stole and the halberdiers of the Swiss Guard around 9:10, shortly after the evocative ringing of the bells and the singing of the Schola Cantorum. Behind them were the secretaries: the Italian Don Fabio Salerno and the Argentines Don Daniel Pellizzon and Don Juan Cruz Villalón. Then the personal health assistant Massimiliano Strappetti, the chamber aides Piergiorgio Zanetti and Daniele Cherubini. Everyone was visibly moved and in these last two days they had watched over the enormous flow of people who had come to pay homage to the Pope in the chapel of Santa Marta.
“Dearest brothers and sisters, with great emotion we accompany the mortal remains of our Pope Francis to the Vatican Basilica, where he often exercised his ministry as Bishop of the Church in Rome and Pastor of the universal Church,” Farrell says in Latin into the microphone. “As we leave this house, let us thank the Lord for the innumerable gifts that, through his servant, Pope Francis, he has bestowed on the Christian people, and let us beseech him to grant him, merciful and benign, an eternal dwelling in the kingdom of heaven and to give the comfort of supernal hope to the papal family, to his holy people who live in Rome, and to all the faithful scattered throughout the world.”
On a small red platform
" Procedamus in pace " , the deacon invites. The procession then unfolds in a single long line, moving in the shadow of the walls and statues, the dome and the trees that line the route to the Piazza. From there, the first spontaneous applause breaks out as the procession appears. The Swiss at attention, the gendarmes in uniform – some even moved -, women with black veils, children in their parents' arms, and many priests from the Diocese of Rome accompany the procession towards the churchyard. Another round of applause at that moment seals the entrance of the remains of Jorge Mario Bergoglio from the central door and the route towards the central nave to the altar of the Confession, the place where Peter professed his faith with martyrdom.
The coffin is placed on a small, slightly inclined red platform, on a carpet on the ground. No catafalque, as has always happened in the past, according to Francis's wishes. The body of the deceased Pope is sprinkled with holy water and incensed. The Gospel is proclaimed, the assembly is arranged in a semicircle and follows the singing of psalms and litanies. The atmosphere continues to maintain a tone of strong intimacy; the first rows of cardinals and bishops who go to greet the Pontiff are orderly. He is there, above the tomb of the apostle, with a serene expression that resembles a vague smile like the many he has dispensed in his public appearances.
The person who caught the most attention was Sister Geneviève Jeanningros, the little sister of Jesus in her eighties whom the Pope called an " enfant terrible " in their continuous meetings every Wednesday in St. Peter's Square at the general audience. Sister Geneviève is in a corner, small, with her very blue eyes filled with tears in front of the coffin.
Outside the basilica, meanwhile, whose doors open to the public at 11 a.m. sharp, long lines of faithful have been forming for hours. The first groups wait behind the gates reciting the Mysteries of the Rosary, running as soon as they receive the go-ahead from the gendarmes and volunteers. They take out their smartphones once they reach the barrier and stop for a few moments to look at the Pope, making the sign of the Cross. The line reaches all the way to Via della Conciliazione, where it is even difficult to get through. The Basilica will remain open until midnight and the same will happen tomorrow after the opening at 7 a.m. On Friday, the rite of closing the coffin will take place at 8 p.m. Finally, on Saturday, April 26, at 10 a.m., in St. Peter's Square, the last farewell to the Pope.
This evening at 21.00, and every day until Saturday, a Rosary for the Holy Father Francis will be held in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
According to the competent authorities, between 11.00 and 19.30 today, almost 20,000 faithful came to pay their respects to the Holy Father Francis.
In addition, so far there are over 2200 journalists and media operators accredited for these days’ events.

Source: Vatican News IT and https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/comunicazioni/2025/04/23/250423a.html