Before the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, tens of thousands of dignitaries, pilgrims and tourists will have had the chance to line up and pay tribute.
But in the moments before his coffin was buried in a simple grave at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome, it will be a group of people living in poverty that will have the last chance to honor it.
The Vatican says that it is an indication of the “privileged place” that people living in poverty have in the heart of God, and in Francis, who spent his pontificate to defend the marginalized.
“He is missing,” said Ciobanu Catalin Nelu, 49, who was sleeping under the bridges before taking refuge in a refuge a few steps from the Vatican.
“Whether you are Arab, Romanian or Muslim … He loved everyone, he helped them.”
A shelter in the shadow of the Vatican
The refuge, Palazzo Migliori, is on the other side of the emblematic columns bordering Saint-Pierre square.
At the beginning of Wednesday evening, while the crowds crowded in the region in the hope of a chance to pass near the coffin of the Pope, a much smaller group gathered in front of the refuge, waiting for him to open the night.
When he did it, a few dozen laid backpacks and bags full of laundry. Inside, they were given a bed, a generous meal and a warm conversation.
In 2019, Pape Francis Shot the Palazzo Miglioriwhich literally translates into “Palace of the Best”, in a house for some of the most vulnerable in the city.
On Monday, after the death of the Pope, Nelu, from Romania, said that he was looking through the window of his shared room towards Saint-Pierre square for hours.
“I couldn’t sleep,” said Nelu. “Everyone is missing.”
Pope Francis was repeatedly called a pope for the people, who has returned to the most vulnerable priority in the society of his pontificate. He visited people living in poverty, pleaded for migrants and met gay and transgender activists.
He challenged world leaders and some saw him as a regular compassionate voice in a changing political environment.
“The world is still sometimes more selfish,” said Carlo Santoro, director of the refuge who is led by the community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic association which manages several charities linked to the Vatican.
“The poor know that Pope Francis defends them … Do not abandon them, even when there are obstacles or politics.”
Papal visit
In the city of Rome, more than 22,000 people know homelessness, according to recent data Collected by the National Institute of Statistics, and it is common to see people lying on cardboard and in sleeping bags around Saint-Pierre square and under the overhangs of buildings and churches.
When the Palazzo Migliori, which had been a headquarters for an entirely female religious order in Calasanziane, became vacant in 2019, Santoro said that there had been a push by many people to transform the building into a hotel.
“”[Pope Francis] Said yes, it would be a hotel, but not for the rich – for the poor, “said Santoro.
“Because the poor deserve places like that.”
After opening the refuge, Pope Francis visited and sat with the residents during dinner.
Wednesday evening, when the 45 people who stay there ate a meal of pasta, chicken and salad, they could hear the bumblebee sound of the crowd on Saint-Pierre square which had come to cry.
On the walls of the refuge, hang photos and paintings from the Pope.
While Francis only visited the refuge once, Santoro said that residents, volunteers and the staff felt a link with him.
On March 27, 2020, at the height of locking in the cocvid pandemic, the pope delivered a blessing From Place de la Rain and empty of Saint-Pierre. The pope later wrote at the time of his memoirs, saying that he thought of all vulnerable people, including those of the “fringes of society” and “people living in the street”.
At the time, from the terrace of the refuge overlooking the Vatican, Santoro says they were just praying with him.
Pope awareness
Santoro underlines one of Francis’ last acts as his unshakable commitment to those often on the sidelines of society.
Holy Thursday, just before Easter, He visited one The most overcrowded prisons in Italy and met 70 prisoners. Normally, to mark the day, Francis would wash the feet of prisoners, including those of women and Muslims, in an act to imitate washing by Christ from the feet of his disciples before his death.
This year, the Pope’s fragile health left him unable to wash his feet, so instead, when he was sitting in his wheelchair, he met the detainees for 30 minutes. The Vatican media said he said he wanted to feel close to them and pray for their family.
Santoro, who had met Francis on several occasions, said that the Pope had a feeling of altruism and a determination to try to open people’s minds to the suffering of the world around them.
Since the Palazzo Migliori Shelter opened its doors almost five years ago, more than 100 of those who stayed there were transferred to temporary housing.
Fabrizio Salvati, 69, has arrived at the Palazzo every night in the past three years, and says that he hopes to be able to pass soon too, but admits that he has problems.
He began to cope with homelessness after falling into a depression that left him sleeping in a station in Rome before moving to the refuge.
Salvati, who wears a bit wrapped with pearls under a blue sweatshirt, smiles when he throws himself into his Penne plate, and describes how he met the pope during a lunch in 2022 and thanked him.
“The previous popes have always done something for the poor … It’s a mission for the church,” said Salvati.
“But this pope went beyond, went far, far beyond.”
He says it was the Pope who pushed the Holy See, the central director of the The Roman Catholic Church and the state of the Vatican city, to deploy a newsletter giving people like Salvati a stronger voice.
He has now found work to write for the newspaper and distribute copies to Saint-Pierre square.
“This newspaper for me in my life … it made me a role,” he said. “This is the most important thing for me.
Global lawyer
While the Pope continuously pleaded for people living in poverty, he was also a defender of migrants and called what he considered a lack of empathy.
In 2016, he went to the Greek island of Lesbos, which was overwhelmed by refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria and other conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. He brought back Three Muslim families Aboard the papal plan to reinstall yourself in Rome.
That same year, He criticized The plan of American president Donald Trump to build a wall along the American-mexic border, claiming that “a person who only thinks of building walls, wherever they are, and not to build bridges, is not a Christian”.
In his latest address on Easter SundayWho was delivered by one of his collaborators of a Vatican balcony, the Pope said that he prayed for those in conflict zones, including in Ukraine and Gaza, and he noticed “how much contempt is sometimes stirred towards vulnerable, marginalized and migrants”.
Back at the Palazzo Migliori, Santoro, who has worked with people living in poverty in Rome for decades, says that the Pope was really linked to them.
Outside the refuge, a man walking with a cane wore a transparent plastic bag filled with personal effects, including a postcard from Pope Francis.
“Long live the pope,” he cried out, moving away.
