Pilgrims wait for hours for brief glimpse of John Paul
Huge groups of pilgrims, students and clergy poured out of buses at St Peter’s Square today, joining queues that stretched miles through the surrounding streets to wait for a brief glimpse of Pope John Paul’s body.
They waited for hours, through the chilly pre-dawn hours and into the spring warmth of the day, to reach St Peter’s Basilica, where the pontiff lay in state. Ushers sought to move the massive crowds swiftly through.
Traffic leading up to the basilica slowed to a near-halt as the buses unloaded their passengers.
Most of the square was blocked off from the public, including the pedestals of lampposts that had been turned into impromptu shrines covered with the farewell letters, candles, stuffed animals and flowers left since John Paul’s death on Saturday.
“In line, people are chatting, laughing and relaxed,” said 24-year-old Sara Milanese, one of a group of uniformed scouts who arrived on an overnight train from northern Italy and waited three hours.
“Inside the basilica there’s a lot of reflection, everyone is totally silent. I was crying,” she said, as she sat on the pavement eating breakfast.
Some were disappointed that they had to pass by the pope’s body so fast as they said a personal farewell to the pontiff.
Federica Marinucci showed off a brief video that she had taken inside the basilica, using her mobile phone camera. ”It all went very quickly. Security keeps telling you, ‘Go, go, go,”’ she said. “There wasn’t time to say a prayer.”
Francesco Conti wore his long white altar-boy gown as he climbed onto a potted plant to get a glimpse of the basilica. He and his father had come to Rome from Tuscany in central Italy, but said they didn’t have the energy to queue.
“There’s just too many people,” said 10-year-old Conti. His father, Marco Conti, said: “Instead we’re just going to stay here and pray.”
Some did wait, wrapped in blankets or sleeping bags, while the basilica was closed for cleaning for around two hours from 2am Irish time. When the massive bronze doors were reopened they rushed back into line.
Civil protection officials handed out tea and croissants to those who had persisted overnight in unseasonably cold temperatures.
Stefania Di Marco sat on the steps of a church, eating sandwiches with her 13-year-old daughter. She began waiting in line at 4.30am, after a long bus ride from the Puglia region of southern Italy.
“It’s an extraordinary day,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa, who was greeting pilgrims in line Tuesday morning, flanked by a camera crew and security personnel. He said the crowds were there “to give back to the pope all the love the pope gave to the world.”
Some predict the number of pilgrims in the days leading to the funeral may match the city’s own three million residents.
John Paul will be laid to rest in the crypt of St Peter’s, alongside popes of centuries past near the traditional tomb of the first pope, St Peter.
Hundreds of dignitaries are expected to attend the funeral on Friday in a city that will virtually shut down for all other purposes.
