KBC Channel 1

Tag: Pilgrims

  • Pilgrims gather as Pope Francis begins lying in state

    Pilgrims gather as Pope Francis begins lying in state

    Pope Francis’s coffin will be transferred to St Peter’s Basilica Wednesday for three days of lying in state, with scores of Catholics and well-wishers expected to pay their respects to the beloved spiritual leader before he is laid to rest.

    The body of the Argentine pope, who died on Monday aged 88 after a stroke, will remain there until his funeral on Saturday in the majestic Baroque plaza in front of the basilica.

    Francis died in the Casa Santa Marta, the modest residence where he lived during his 12-year papacy, and his body was moved to its chapel on Monday evening.

    On Wednesday, it will be taken to the ornate St Peter’s at 9:00 am (0700 GMT) in a procession accompanied by a liturgy, psalms and prayers.

    His simple wood coffin will enter through the central door of the basilica before being placed before the Altar of the Confession, where Bernini’s bronze baldacchino soars up towards Michelangelo’s famous dome.

    The public will be allowed in from 11:00 am until midnight. Thursday hours are 7:00 am to midnight, with Friday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.

    Saturday’s funeral is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, as well as world leaders including US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as Britain’s Prince William.

    Afterwards, Francis’s coffin will be transported to his favourite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his coffin will be interred in the ground and marked by a simple inscription: Franciscus.

    He will become the first pope in more than 100 years to be laid to rest outside the Vatican.

    – Come back to Rome –
    Italy is preparing for a major security operation for the funeral, with the weekend already due to be busy because of the public holiday on Friday April 25.

    Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said authorities were expecting between 150 to 170 foreign delegations, and tens of thousands of people.

    Italy has declared five days of national mourning — longer than the three days observed for Polish pope John Paul II in 2005, but less than the week declared for Francis by his native Argentina.

    After the funeral, all eyes will turn to the process to choose Francis’s successor as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

    Cardinals around the world have already been sent letters from the Holy See, instructing them to return to Rome to select a new pope.

    Only those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote for a pope in the conclave, which should begin no less than 15 days and no more than 20 after the death of the pope.

    About 60 cardinals of all ages already in Rome met Tuesday to choose the funeral date, in a so-called “general congregation”.

    A second meeting is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, led by the camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is charged with running the day-to-day operations of the Holy See before a successor to Francis is chosen.

    Francis’s death came less than a month after he was discharged from the hospital, where he spent five weeks battling pneumonia in both lungs.

    Despite doctors calling for two months of rest, Francis continued to make appearances in public during his convalescence, where he appeared short of breath and without energy.

    On Easter Sunday, the day before his death, he circled St Peter’s Square in his popemobile following mass and his traditional address to greet the crowds, stopping to kiss babies along the way.

    The next morning, he died at 7:35 am after having suffered a stroke, a coma and heart failure, according to his death certificate.

    Images of Francis from Monday night lying in his open coffin inside the Casa Santa Marta chapel were published by the Vatican Tuesday.

    The unassuming pope, who eschewed pomp, was dressed in red papal vestments, with a mitre on his head and a rosary laced between his fingers.

    Sister Maria Guadeloupe Hernandez Olivo, from Mexico, said it was “very hard, very sad” to hear news of his death.

    “I did not expect it,” she told AFP in St Peter’s Square, adding: “I believe he’s in a better place, no longer suffering, but I do feel this emptiness for our pastor.”

  • Pilgrims in Italy flock to tomb of first millennial saint

    Pilgrims in Italy flock to tomb of first millennial saint

    Assisi has long been a place of pilgrimage, but these days the faithful come not for Saint Francis but for a tech-savvy teen soon to become the first millennial saint.

    Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, will be canonised in a mass at the Vatican on April 27.

    Dubbed “God’s Influencer” or the “Cyber Apostle”, he spent much of his short life spreading the Catholic faith online. In death, he is drawing a new generation of pilgrims to his resting place.

    The medieval hilltop town of Assisi is famous as the 12th-century birthplace of Saint Francis, who founded the religious order of the Franciscans.

    But among the stone streets and bell towers, the image of a smiling boy in a red polo shirt has joined the portraits of Francis in his sackcloth robe.

    Pilgrims flock to pray before Carlo’s body in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Sanctuary of the Spoliation, where it has been on public display in a glass tomb since 2022.

    His remains have been embalmed and his youthful face and jet-black hair are astonishingly lifelike. He is clothed as he once dressed, in jeans and trainers.

    US teenager Monica Katreeb, who visited with a group of students, told AFP he was more “relatable” than the medieval martyrs and their austere daily lives.

    “To see someone that looks like you and is wearing the clothes that you would wear… how cool is that?” she told AFP.

    She planned to attend the canonisation mass later this month at the Vatican, which she said she expected to be a “spectacular moment”.

    – ‘Sign of hope’ –
    Carlo was born in London to Italian parents on May 3, 1991, but mostly brought up in Milan. He spent holidays in the family’s second home in Assisi, and eventually died in Monza, northern Italy.

    His family was wealthy and not religiously observant, but from a young age, Carlo was imbued with a precocious and ardent faith, attending mass every day.

    His mother, Antonia Salzano Acutis, remembered a well-behaved and generous boy who “gave away all his toys, always with a smile”.

    “I felt he was a special, extraordinary boy,” she told AFP in the garden of the foundation dedicated to her son located on the hills above Assisi.

    At nine years old, he was helping homeless people on the streets, bringing them food, she recalled.

    “He said, ‘I have everything, these people have nothing, is that fair?’”

    The teenager had a gift for computers and spread the teachings of Jesus Christ online, notably creating a digital exhibition on miracles.

    “We live in a complex society where technology sometimes seems to absorb everything,” Salzano Acutis said.

    “Why is Carlo a sign of hope? Because he passed through all these things unscathed, he showed that we must be masters of these things, and above all he used them for good.”

    Katreeb agreed, saying many young people were swept away by “doom-scrolling” on social media, which led sometimes to darker online content such as pornography.

    Carlo had shown an alternative, that “we just flood it with God’s message”, she said.

    – Icons and towels –
    The Vatican has recognised two miracles associated with Carlo, which under Catholic rules are a prerequisite for his canonisation.

    It claimed in 2020 that he had posthumously interceded in 2013 to cure a Brazilian boy suffering from a rare pancreatic disease.

    Then last year, the Vatican attributed to him the healing of a Costa Rican student seriously injured in an accident.

    “Every day we receive news of miracles, healings, and conversions,” his mother said.

    Word is spreading, with Carlo’s tomb attracting increasing numbers of pilgrims and curious visitors.

    The diocese last year welcomed nearly a million people, and more than 400,000 so far this year.

    In souvenir shops, merchants are seeing a growing interest in items bearing Carlo’s image, from statuettes, icons, rosaries to T-shirts and bath towels.

    The bishop of Assisi, author of a book on the links between Carlo, Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi — one of the first followers of Francis — said he hoped the canonisation would attract a “new flow” of faithful.

    Carlo walked the streets of Assisi while he was alive, he “has breathed many things that belong to the spirituality of Francis, and has translated them into a contemporary spirituality”, bishop Domenico Sorrentino told AFP.