Viewing tomorrow ahead of Vatican funeral Saturday
A few meters from the obelisk at the center of St. Peter’s Square that symbolizes the eternal power of the church, visitors to the Vatican make their way out of St. Peter’s Basilica and approach staff from L’Osservatore Romano, who are distributing special editions of the Vatican’s daily newspaper.
The special issue, released yesterday, commemorated Pope Francis on the day of his death.
Among those picking up a copy is Milwaulk Anthony Navarrosa, a student priest from the Archdiocese of Cadiz in the Philippines. He came to the Vatican to see the body of Francis: “It wasn’t possible today, but I’ll return tomorrow,” he says as he rolls up the newspaper in his hands.
Navarrosa, who is currently writing his thesis on the pope’s 2016 encyclical “Amoris Laetitia,” recalls meeting Francis in 2021 and says he had hoped to meet him again. “I’m not worried about the future of the church, because it is guided by the Holy Spirit,” he says.
Less concerned about the future of the church but more about that of the entire world are William Koziel and John Whitehouse, 67 and 64, who have just come out of the Vatican post office on the side of the square.
“My wife sent a postcard home,” says Whitehouse, who is from Chicago, “to remember these days in the Vatican.”
He adds that their trip to the Vatican had been long planned, “but we’re very grateful to be here at such an important moment.”
At a time that Whitehouse says is filled with hatred and politics that seeks consensus by dividing humanity, Francis “instead sought to unite people,” he says, adding, “that’s why we’re worried about the future of the world now that he’s gone.”
