The Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano opened its accesses to the public to allow the participation in the funeral of Pope Francis, in which the presence of some 200,000 people and dozens of authorities is expected.
The main access, in the conciliation route, opened shortly after 6.00 hours (4.00 GMT), and the faithful began to enter little by little, in a controlled way, to occupy the first rows of the area arranged for the public, below the authorities.
The funeral will begin at 10.00 local hours (8.00 GMT), with the transfer of the coffin in which Francis rests from inside the Vatican Basilica to the sacred of the square, the highest area at the feet of the temple.
The funeral will be officiated by Cardinal Dean, Giovanni Battista Re, and will have the presence of delegations of more than 130 countries and international organizations, among these about 50 heads of state or government and a dozen reigning sovereign, such as the kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Doña Letizia.
In the front row will be the delegation of the native country of Francisco, Argentina, headed by President Javier Milei, as well as the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump; that of France, Emmanuel Macron; that of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; The German Foreign Minister, Olaf Scholz, and community institutions, led by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
On the other hand, the Italian authorities await the arrival in the Plaza de San Pedro and their vicinity of about 200,000 people, since the funeral also coincides with the jubilee, so they have established a severe security protocol.
Francisco, who died last Monday at age 88, will be fired with this funeral and then his coffin will cross Rome with a funeral procession to be transferred to the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, as he had himself in his will.