The crowds have filled out St Peter place in the Vatican since the announcement of the death of the Pope on Monday, and the whole city-state is in effervescence of activity.
Many visitors have seen the body of Pope Francis, which has been located in the state since Wednesday, while others seem to be content to take a selfie in front of the imposing Tuscan colonnades who line the place.
Ambulance staff teams, mounted police officers, members of the Swiss guard – the own Vatican army – and Italian special forces, some of which wear intimidating anti -drone weapons, line up.
In St Peter’s Square, Al Jazeera spoke to people from many countries, including Morocco, Kenya and the United States.
Some had traveled to Rome by learning of the pope’s death, but many lived or aimed at Rome. Some had extended their stay so that they could attend the funeral.
Francisco Horfa, a 33-year-old student from the theology of the South-East Nation of Asia in East Timor, was in Rome to be ordered deacon on May 7.
He proudly agitated the red, yellow and black flag of the East Timor with a compatriot on the square when he described this period of mourning as “emotional and full of prayer”.
He said that the Pope had visited his country of origin in September and left a “big impression” on his people.
About half of the country’s population would have attended its mass on the outskirts of the capital Dili, while it celebrated the nation for its reconciliation with its neighbor Indonesia, from which he reached independence in 2002.
Annalia Alia, a 69-year-old woman from the Philippines and a FEV Catholic, had seen Pope Francis when he visited the Southeast Asian country in 2015.
Now, 10 years later, she had seen her body lying in a wooden coffin open to the main altar of the Basilica of St Peter.
“I have the impression that everything has completed the loop, I saw it in life and now I saw it in death,” she said. It was an “indescribable and emotional experience,” she added.
She had come to Rome for the jubilee, when pilgrims around the world go to town to seek a spiritual renewal.
During the year of the jubilee, the holy doors of the four large papal basilicas of Rome are open, allowing pilgrims to cross them to receive a plenary indulgence (a forgiveness of sins).
Flanked by her two daughters, she said that she felt lucky to have been in Rome when the pope died, but wanted to go to her hotel to rest, while she felt overwhelmed.
Ernest Damasco, a 55 -year -old pilgrim also from the Philippines, said he had come to Rome “in the hope of seeing the pope’s wave from the balcony (overlooking St Peter’s place), but I rather have the impression of having lost a father, a great leader who inspired me”.
He brought a “fresh and different approach” to its papacy, with more earth-to-terre lessons compared to his predecessors who resonated with many Catholics around the world, said Damasco.
