Fifty heads of state and 10 monarchs, including US President Donald Trump, expected to arrive in Rome today
\n Vatican City
\nThe Vatican will make final preparations Friday for Pope Francis\u2019 funeral as the last of the huge crowds of mourners file through St Pete\u2019s Basilica to view his open coffin.
\nMany of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending Saturday\u2019s ceremony in St Peter\u2019s Square, who include US President Donald Trump and Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky, are expected to arrive on Friday in Rome.
\nItalian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter\u2019s under tight security ahead of the funeral, with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby.
\nFurther checkpoints will be activated Friday night, police said.
\nTens of thousands of people have already queued for hours to pay their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00pm in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.
\nCardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo who is running the Vatican\u2019s day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected, will preside over the so-called \u201cRite of the Sealing of the Coffin\u201d.
\nThe Catholic Church\u2019s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.
\nVeronique Montes-Coulomb, a tourist from Toulouse in France, who attended the lying-in-state Thursday at St Peter\u2019s, said she had been at the mass on Easter Sunday, the pontiff\u2019s last public outing.
\n\u201cWe saw the pope passing by in the \u2018popemobile\u2019; he seemed relatively healthy, and we were surprised to learn that he had died on Monday morning,\u201d she told AFP.
\nThe Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors\u2019 orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.
\nCondolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world\u2019s 1.4 billion Catholics.
\nHe used his last speech to rail against those who stir up \u201ccontempt… towards the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants\u201d.
\nAt least 130 foreign delegations are expected at his funeral and a no-fly zone will be in force.
\n\u2018Brief but intense\u2019
\nThe pope\u2019s coffin was set before St Peter\u2019s altar for his three days of lying-in-state, with Francis dressed in his papal vestments \u2014 a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes.
\n\u201cIt was a brief but intense moment next to his body,\u201d Italian Massimo Palo, 63, told AFP after his visit.
\n\u201cHe was a pope amongst his flock, amongst his people, and I hope the next papacies will be a bit like his,\u201d he added.
\nItaly\u2019s civil protection agency estimates that \u201cseveral hundred thousand\u201d people will descend on Rome on what was already set to be a busy weekend due to a public holiday on Friday.
\nAfter the funeral, Francis\u2019s coffin will be driven at a walking pace to be buried at his favourite church, Rome\u2019s Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
\nThe pontiff was a champion of underdogs, and a group of \u201cpoor and needy\u201d, will be there to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.
\nHe will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus.
\nPeople will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning.
\nFollowing that, all eyes will turn to the process of choosing Francis\u2019 successor.
\nCardinals from around the world have been returning to Rome for the funeral and the conclave when a new pontiff will be elected.
\nIn the absence of a pope, the cardinals have been meeting every day to agree on the next steps, with another meeting due on Friday at 9:00am.
\nThey have yet to announce a date for the conclave, but it must begin no fewer than 15 days and no more than 20 days after a pope\u2019s death.
\nOnly those under the age of 80 \u2014 currently some 135 cardinals \u2014 are eligible to vote.
\nItalian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was number two to Francis, is the favourite, according to British bookmaker William Hill.
\nThey put him ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, followed by Ghana\u2019s Cardinal Peter Turkson, and Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fifty heads of state and 10 monarchs, including US President Donald Trump, expected to arrive in Rome today Vatican City The Vatican will make final preparations Friday for Pope Francis\u2019 funeral as the last of the huge crowds of mourners file through St Pete\u2019s Basilica to view his open coffin. Many of the 50 heads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-474768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n