St. Peter’s Square shrouded in fog

For more than an hour and a half before the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died last December 31, and was celebrated by the Pope in office, Pope Francis, Rome’s St.

Well before eight in the morning the pews erected inside Bernini’s columns are slowly sold out by the influx of many pilgrims, also made up of groups that came from all over Italy but above all from the rest of the world: among the crowds, many languages ​​to assimilate: Spanish, Polish, English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese and of course German, Joseph Ratzinger’s native language.

The Vatican Gendarmerie and Swiss Guards direct the flow of believers. It also distributed pamphlets on the Mass and copies of the Roman Observer, listed in Hadad, entirely dedicated to the pontificate of Ratzinger, John Paul II’s successor since 2005 and who resigned in 2013.

The rain that fell during the night forced the mass participants to dry the chairs with paper towels while moisture envelops the square and the façade of the basilica under which the papal box was erected, surrounded by four giant screens that will broadcast. Occupation.