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MOURNERS at the Pope’s lying in state on Wednesday blasted ghouls snapping selfies next to his open casket.
Pallbearers had earlier carried Francis’ body into Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City for the solemn three-day ritual.
Around 20,000 paid respects — with pilgrims draping blue and white football shirts in honour of the Argentine pontiff.
Officials released photos of Francis laid out in red robes while clutching a rosary, and did not ban public pictures. But church guards stopped some ghouls using camera phones.
Catholics Martin and Catherine Gilsenan, both 59, from Wimbledon, South West London, were among the mourners.
Catherine said: “I was very moved coming so close to Pope Francis but it was awful seeing so many people taking pictures.
“Around half the people near us wanted to pay respects at the coffin, but the other half were all taking photographs.
“We kept our phones very firmly in our pockets and would never dream of doing something so distasteful.
“People had been told not to use selfie sticks but lots ignored the warning.
“I saw the Queen lying in state in London and there was no comparison — this really detracted from the moment.”
Financial services executive Martin added: “We were staying 100 miles from Rome when we heard he’d died and felt obligated to join the queue.
“Francis was a great Pope and we admired him for changing the direction of the Church and shifting its appeal to young people.
“It was sad to see such disrespectful behaviour.”
Argentine Matheus Silva, 27, admitted taking pictures of “the first Pope who spoke up for gay people like me”. He added: “Others were doing the same and I’m happy to share them.”
At least 250,000 people are expected at tomorrow’s funeral.
Meanwhile, following the death of Pope Francis on the morning of Easter Monday, attention turns to the question of his successor.
Francis led the Catholic church for 12 years, right up until his death at 88 – as is tradition.
After the nine days of mourning have been observed – during which time Francis will be buried – the papal conclave will begin in order to select a successor.
All 252 cardinals from around the world will travel to Rome for the secret ballot, in which a maximum of 115 can vote.
When a candidate has two-thirds of the vote, they will be appointed Pope through a pontifical coronation.
Here are some of the front-runners:
Cardinal Luis Tagle
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Cardinal Wim Ejik
Cardinal Raymond Burke
Cardinal Peter Erdo
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi
Cardinal Mario Grech —Sun.
EVERY time Pope Francis came back to Rome after a trip abroad, he made sure to pay a visit to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
It was a fitting choice: Francis was particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary, and Santa Maria Maggiore was the first church to be dedicated to her when it was built in the 4th Century.
It is one of Rome’s four major basilicas and one of the oldest in the city.
Tomorrow, it will also become Francis’s final resting place.
It is a short walk from some of Rome’s most recognisable landmarks like the Colosseum, and a stone’s throw from the city’s endlessly bustling and chaotic central Termini station. The diverse Esquilino neighbourhood is close by.
Santa Maria Maggiore feels steeped in the “real” Rome — despite technically being a part of the Vatican state.
The square it stands on — lined with bus stops, cafes and shops — certainly seems a world away from the awe-inspiring St Peter’s Square and its imposing basilica, under which Popes are usually buried in centuries-old crypts.
And yet the chapels, mosaics and gilded wood of Santa Maria Maggiore remain stunning. Seven other popes are buried here.
The basilica also hosts what is said to be a relic of Jesus’s crib and an icon of Mary, to whom Pope Francis would pray asking for protection before a journey.
Santa Maria Maggiore’s senior priest, the Lithuanian Rolandas Makrickas, gave Italian newspaper Il Messaggero his account of how the Pope’s decision to be laid to rest there came about.
He said: “In May 2022… I asked him if he wasn’t by any chance thinking about being buried in [the basilica], given how often he came.”
Francis smiled and said that Popes are buried in St Peter’s — “and that was that”, Makrickas thought.
The priest continued: “A week later he called me and said, ‘the Virgin Mary has told me to prepare my tomb’.
“Then he simply told me, ‘find a place for it, because I want to be buried in this basilica and you’ve been a bit of a prophet’.”
The place Mackrickas found is next to the icon of Mary that the Pope so loved. It is now cordoned off and obscured by plywood.
A security guard who wished to remain anonymous told BBC News stories of Pope Francis visiting the church on many occasions.
“Yes, we used to see him all the time when he came here,” he said, interrupting himself to sternly invite tourists to put their phones away or cover their shoulders.
“After a few times of seeing him, one time he looked at me and asked me, ‘why are you always here?’
“And I said, ‘Holy Father, I’m working just as you are’.”
As the security guard spoke, people continued to stream in from the blazing sunshine into the quiet shade of the basilica.
Several queued outside wooden booths, each topped with a sign indicating in which languages the priests inside could hear confessions.
Every few minutes, the chatter would be momentarily quietened by a voice hissing over the loudspeaker: “Silenzio.”
Outside, a woman called Pat from Manchester was squinting at the sun and gathering her thoughts.
“I came here because this is where the Pope used to come before any journey,” she told the BBC, raising her voice over the sound of the midday bells tolling.
“That’s why I’ve always wanted to come and it hasn’t disappointed.”
After a pause, she said: “Beautiful isn’t the word. It’s just vast, it’s enormous.”
Apologising for not being able to put her emotions into words, she said she was “particularly impressed” that many of the six chapels hold different masses at different times, “so if you’re late for one, you can go into another”. —BBC.
