Pope Francis latest: Pope Francis's coffin moved to St Peter's Basilica for public mourning
This translation - or transference of Pope Francis's coffin to St Peter's Basilica - is almost over.
The public will be able to come and view the Pope lying in state in a little over an hour's time.
Coffin reaches St Peter's Basilica
Pope Francis's body and the accompanying procession have just entered St Peter's Basilica.
Each of the saints are now called, by song, to pray for Pope Francis.
There will be a prayer service before the public are allowed to enter to pay their final respects.
The mood is sombre, quiet and reflective - in stark contrast to yesterday
Our correspondent Lisa Holland is in St Peter's Square watching the procession.
"The mood is sombre, quiet, reflective," she says.
"Yesterday, this square was full of hustle and bustle - today couldn't feel more different."
The gathered faithful are being respectful, she says, with many craning their necks to get a better view of the coffin as it enters the basilica.
Many are taking photographs.
"This is a square that has said its goodbyes to so many popes over the years, but every one feels different," Holland says.
Speaking to people queuing to see Pope Francis lying in state, the overwhelming message is one of gratitude.
"Everyone I've spoken to says they came to say thank you," she says.
Procession reaches St Peter's Square
The Pope has just been carried under the great tower of the bells, with the procession now moving out directly in front of those gathered in St Peter's Square.
The crowds remain silent, with the only sounds remaining singing and the bells tolling.
Pope's coffin carried out
We've just seen the coffin of Pope Francis outside Casa Santa Marta for the first time.
He is carried by pole bearers and escorted, as he was in life, by the Swiss guard.
Bells continue to ring out, with Psalm 115 also being sung by an assembled choir.
Cardinals led out to St Peter's Square
The gathered cardinals have now been led outside to the sound of singing and bells tolling.
Pope Francis's coffin will follow shortly.
Procession begins
With the opening prayer finished, the procession accompanying the Pope's coffin is now officially under way.
Pope Francis will be moved from Casa Santa Marta to St Peter's Basilica via the Piazza Santa Marta and Piazza dei Protomartiri Romani.
Psalms will be read aloud as his coffin is moved.
Prayer read ahead of translation
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo, is now leading prayers before the Pope's coffin is moved.
Before he started the prayer, he blessed the Pope's body with holy water.
The Vatican published the prayer ahead of today's service:
"Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, we now accompany the mortal remains of our Pope Francis to the Vatican Basilica.
"As we now leave his home, let us thank the Lord for the countless gifts that he bestowed on the Christian people through his servant, Pope Francis.
"Let us ask him, in his mercy and kindness, to grant the late Pope an eternal home in the kingdom of heaven, and to comfort with celestial hope the papal family, the Church in Rome and the faithful throughout the world."
Procession about to begin
The Swiss guards are preparing to transfer Pope Francis's coffin from Casa Santa Marta to St Peter's Basilica in the next few minutes - a process known as translation.
Here's the view inside the Casa Santa Marta...
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo, will lead a prayer before Pope Francis's body is moved.
A large congregation is seated outside in St Peter's Square to observe the procession...
A reminder you can watch events live in the stream at the top of the page.
Briton queuing to say 'thank you' to Pope
Our correspondent Lisa Holland has been speaking to mourners in St Peter's Square this morning - with public viewings of the Pope's coffin to begin at around 10am UK time.
One of those gathered is John from Stockport, who is lining up to pay his respects.
He says he came to "say thank you" to a great pope.
Watch his interview here:
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
Does Canopus have a connection with canopy?
I spent some time looking for the connection between the ancient city of Canopus and the English canopy. Nelson won the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay. The bay was named after the city of Abu Qir, which was named after a Christian martyr, St Cyrus. Abu Qir stands on the site of the city of Canopus, to which ran the Canopic Way, from Alexandria. Canopus was said to have been founded by Menelaus, the King of Sparta who figures in the Iliad. Canopus, the pilot of his ship, was fatally bitten by a snake, and around the monument built by Menelaus grew the city. At Canopus, the Egyptian god Osiris was worshipped under the form of a jar with a human head. Modern antiquaries gave the name Canopic jars to other such jars with quite a different purpose: to hold the entrails of mummified bodies. The helmsman Canopus was also remembered in ancient times by a star in the constellation of Argo, itself named after Jason's ship, a beam of which killed him. Argo was among the 48 constellations named in the 2nd century ad by the astronomer Ptolemy in a book that we call the Almagest, from its Arabic name, deriving from Greek meaning 'the greatest'. The star Canopus is the second brightest in the sky, and it seems that the south-eastern wall of the square-built Kaaba in Mecca faces the rising point of Canopus, and the orientation of early mosques was taken from this. Mosques perhaps, but not mosquitoes. The Ancient Greek for mosquito was kōnōps, which does not come from konos ('cone') and ops ('face'), but perhaps from some pre-Greek word. Still, the Greek konopeion 'a couch with mosquito curtains' developed in two ways. One was into the French canapé 'sofa', hence a little bit of bread with something sitting on it: our party canapé. The other development, in the Middle Ages, was into canopy, a hanging, sometimes a hanging of honour. So Canopus has no connection with canopy, but I enjoyed finding that out.'
BBC News
21 hours ago
- BBC News
Wrecked English warship's cannon found on seabed off Kent coast
Cannons and coils of rope from an English warship that sank in 1703 have been discovered by Northumberland, a large 70-gun ship built in Bristol in 1679, sank off the Kent coast during high winds in what was known as "The Great Storm". The latest survey to inspect the site, held in July, also revealed wooden chests containing musket balls, swords and wooden Meara, one of the Historic England maritime archaeologists who went on the diver, said: "What we're seeing on the seabed is that big, big element of the ship structure. It's fantastic." Shifting sands means experts were able to see that The Northumberland, built for the Royal Navy by Bristol shipbuilder Francis Baylie, is more complete than previously thought."It's the exact kind of ship you think about when you think of great big warships of the age of sail," Mr Meara told BBC Radio Bristol. He said a long series of investigations and surveys will now take place to "answer more questions of the past".Mr Meara, who dived about 65ft (20 metres) to the ship, said: "On the dives we can see this great big iron cannon, there's large bits of wooden ship structure."But because it's so intact you can see a lot of the organic material you don't normally see - things like coils of rope, smaller wooden objects and organic artefacts like that. "They're all lying on that decking, exactly where they would have been when the ship went down." He added any work to lift the warship out of the sea is very expensive and would take significant restoration work."As soon as you lift it out of the water, it's at risk of decay," he said.
Metro
3 days ago
- Metro
'I tried to save doomed caver from most horrifying death imaginable - here's why
A first responder has described the final moments of John Edward Jones who went on a doomed spelunking trip to Utah's now infamous Nutty Putty cave and never returned. Jones, 26, suffered 'one of the most horrifying deaths imaginable' when he took a wrong turn and became trapped upside-down in a terrifyingly small crevice, essentially 'crawling into his own grave'. Unable to turn or move backwards, the 26-year-old father suffered 27 hours of hell as his family sent desperate messages of support by a two-way radio. Now, the man tasked with the impossible job of trying to free him has spoken of his ordeal. A devout Christian, medical student and father to a newborn baby, John Edward Jones seemingly had the world at his feet. Born into a large family, John and his brother Josh had been avid cavers when they were children, and sought to rekindle their love of spelunking with a trip to the Nutty Putty cave. The brothers arrived at the cave with a party of nine other friends and relatives of varying degrees of experience- a fairly large group by caving standards. Upon arrival, the group soon split off into two groups, with children and less-experienced adults exploring easier sections of the cave while the seasoned spelunkers went deeper. It was here that things started to go wrong. John's brother Josh was the first one to find him. Creeping forwards down the crevice just inches behind his brother, his stomach filled with dread when he saw John's feet sticking out of the tiny hole which had swallowed him. 'Seeing his feet and seeing how swallowed he was by the rock, that's when I knew it was serious.' Josh told the Salt Lake Tribune. 'It was really serious.' Josh tried to pull his brother out of the hole, but only managed to inch him up a little. As soon as he let John go, he slid right back into the crevice. 'There was this, 'I'm not getting him out,' he said. 'I don't know how anyone is getting him out.' As they waited for rescuers to arrive, they prayed together. At the end of the prayers, though, Josh could hear his own voice waiver and crack. John began to comfort him, telling Josh it would be OK and to be good to his girlfriend. 'The way we spoke', Josh said, 'it felt like John knew what the score was.' What transpired over the next few hours was an intense brainstorming session from a rescue party, who tried every method they could to free John from his subterranean prison. In addition to pulling him, they also tried lubing the walls and drilling away chunks of rock near John, but the hard material and the awkward position made the drilling slow and painful work. After drilling over for an hour, they abandoned this approach after only managing to drill through a couple of inches of rock. Eventually, the team came up with a plan to pull John to safety using a complex system of ropes and pulleys, which they would attach around his feet. 'How are you?' one rescuer asked. 'It sucks. I'm upside down. I can't believe I'm upside down,' John responded. His eyes were red and looked tired but otherwise, had a smile on his face. 'My legs are killing me,' he added. The team decided to take a quick break to regain their strength before making the final push. John was nearly out. But as they grabbed hold of the rope for the fourth and final time, something disastrous happened. All of a sudden, the entire team fell backwards, and the rope became loose in their hands. The closest rescuer felt something hard hit him in the face, and momentarily blacked out from the impact. At the very last moment, one of the pulleys had collapsed under the strain and flown off the wall, sending John plunging right back into the crevice – even deeper than before. John himself had become unresponsive. At this point he had been trapped for over 25 hours and his body had begun to break down from the stress and strain. In a blog post, explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis spoke of first arriving when Jones 'was in and out of consciousness' and talking about seeing 'angels and demons around him'. 'I went in first', he wrote. 'As I wormed my way in I felt my feet touch something soft which ended up being John's feet. I felt them move and immediately lifted my feet and worked my way horizontally into the crack. 'After stabilising myself by jamming my body into a narrower section of the crack I began speaking to John asking him how he was and introducing myself. There was no response. 'I shifted my position a little and tapped him on the leg. I could hear him breathing a deep, gurgling breath, as though his lungs were filling with fluid. 'Then his feet shifted as though he were trying to manoeuvre his legs out of the crack he was jammed in. 'The kicking looked fairly frantic and after a second he stopped and it looked as though he had drifted into unconsciousness.' He added: 'I continued tapping him on the legs and hip to see if I could get a response, but there was no response. 'From there I spent a few minutes studying the passage, the positioning of John, and the rig that was set up, to see how we could get him out from here. It looked very bleak. I wondered if it was even possible to get him beyond this point. 'There was a request to take the radio down to John so that his family could say some words to him. I think it was his father, mother, and wife who spoke to him, telling him that they loved him and were praying for him and that his father had given him a blessing. His wife mentioned a feeling of peace, that everything would be OK. She talked to him about 5 to 10 minutes before I told her that we needed to get back to working at getting him out.' 'At that point I decided to try using the jack hammer. So we waited for it to arrive and then I carried it down to where John was located. The tool was much heavier than I anticipated and to hold it up while wedging my body in the crack took everything I had. Even then, I couldn't get a good angle on the rock because of the confined space and limitations in my own mobility and positioning.' He added: 'And even if we could get him into a horizontal position, he would then have to maneuver the most difficult sections of the passage he was trapped in. 'If he were conscious and had his full strength there was a minute chance he could possibly do it. But even if that was the case it looked grim'. He estimated it could take a week to free him using this method but now it was close to midnight and he was asked to check vitals on John. 'I didn't hear a distinct heartbeat, only some ruffling, fluttering sounds that were probably a result of me shaking as I tried to steady myself in an awkward location. I then jammed my hand between the rock and pressed as far up his torso I could go to feel for breathing. I didn't think I felt anything. 'I reported my findings to the paramedic above and then crawled out so that he could see if he could squeeze in. 'He was able to get down to the point where he could feel his feet and confirm he had passed away. John Edward Jones was pronounced dead at 11.52.' His wife Emily, still outside, refused to leave her husband's body trapped inside the cave, and the local Sheriff assured her they would recover it. More Trending But even following his death it was deemed too dangerous to attempt to recover his body, and the entrance to the passage he was trapped in was collapsed with controlled explosives. Once it became clear that John's remains couldn't be safely removed from the cave, Nutty Putty was permanently sealed off and John's family had a plaque put on the entrance of the cave in his memory. Jones's body remains entombed inside the dark cave to this day – his death becoming a cautionary tale about the dangers of spelunking. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: I died for 10 minutes — this is what it's like to be dead MORE: Trump Burger owner faces deportation from US after ICE arrest MORE: British girl,11, dies after drowning in swimming pool on holiday in Spain
