Standing just yards away from the body of the recently deceased Pope, it is easy to lose yourself, to forget that hundreds of others are around you – and that this is a moment in history.
Inside the mesmeric St Peter’s Basilica, where Pope Francis is now lying-in-state, enormous queues that began hours earlier outside culminate here for a moment that should be spiritual, or at the very least respectful. Perhaps it is a sign of the times, or the expectation that viewing a body lying-in-state should be a moment for quiet dignity – but instead it was a moment for smartphones. It was, frankly, quite shocking to see endless arms raised aloft and in front of at least half the people who had waited for their special moment, only to then view it through a screen.
For many, there was no silent reflection for what, ultimately, were just a few brief moments in front of the Pope’s open coffin – a ritual steeped in hundreds of years of history. When crowds arrived before the body of Francis, they were asked to put selfie sticks away, but phones remained front and centre.
It made it difficult and uncomfortable for those who kept their phones in their pockets and chose moments of silence rather than souvenir pictures and videos. Martin Gilsenan and wife Catherine, both 59 and from Wimbledon in south west London, are on holiday in Italy 100 miles from Rome, and arrived this morning to pay their respects.
“I found the mobile phones very distasteful,” said Catherine. “I was very surprised there were photos.”
Both saw the late Queen lying in state in 2022 and said this could not have been more different. “People were being asked to put their selfie sticks away when they got to the front,” added Martin, a former financial services worker. “There were also many people looking around and getting upset with those on the phones. We have phones but we kept them in our pockets and afterwards found a spot inside the church for 15 minutes of quiet contemplation.”
Through the crowds of people, the selfie sticks and the smartphones, it was at first challenging to get a view of the Holy Father from our vantage point inside the basilica. Initially I could catch only brief glimpses of his iconic red robe and white papal mitre. It was difficult to decipher what exactly I was seeing. And then I saw an image that will remain with me forever. His hands, his unmistakable, very human, hands.
With rosary beads wrapped around three fingers on his right hand, which then draped down to the left and along his robe, it was at that moment I felt the significance of the occasion.
It is impossible to not feel a sense of history, to not want to stay and look for longer and take in all of the detail before you, even if, like me, you are not Catholic or indeed religious. Minutes later we were closer to the body and in full view of Francis.
The structure of the face becomes clearer – the closed mouth and eyes, the nose, the nostrils – all the small details that make us living, breathing human beings. But he is neither living nor breathing, of course. He has been embalmed and his skin is pale, waxy and worn.
One Vatican watcher tells me his nails have been painted. And then you remember that this is of course the case, because the person no more than 10 yards from you is in fact one of the most recognisable faces on earth. It is an incredibly surreal feeling.
Walking away from the coffin, people took a moment to catch their breath, a woman was hugged by her husband as she cried uncontrollably while holding an image of Francis in her hand. Others lit candles, some were simply unable to talk.
For others, like Matheus Silva, 27, and from Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, like Francis, he wanted to thank the Holy Father. Matheus said that, as a gay man, he had great respect for Francis for making the church more welcoming for the LGBTQ community.
“He is the first pope to have talked on this subject, so seeing him just now, it felt personal to me,” he said. “I just hope the next pope continues what Francis started.”
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