The faithful Roman Catholic began visiting the tomb of Pope Francis On Sunday, the presentation conforms to the simple white tomb inside St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome to day after he said goodbye.

A single white rose was placed in the grave that said “Francisco”, the name of the Pope in Latin, within Santa Maria Maggiore, where the late Pontiff would be after returning from his trips abroad.

A view of Pope Francis’s grave in the Basilica of Santa María Major in Rome, Italy, on April 27, 2025.

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Rosario Correale, from Salerno, Italy, was one of those who visited the tomb. He said he experienced “great emotion” by witnessing Francis’s last resting place.

“I see that all people are really moved,” he said. “It really left us a brand.”

People passed, many crossed or took photos with their phones. The accommodators urged them to continue moving for accommodation, the thousands who went into mass to the Basilica of Rome to see the grave, forming a long line outside.

“Pope Francis for me was an inspiration, a guide,” said Elias Caravalhal.

People queue to visit the Basilica of Santa María Maggiore, organizing the tomb of Pope Francis, the first day of his opening to the public, in Rome on April 27, 2025.

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Caravalhal lives in Rome, but could not respect Francis when the body was in a state in the Basilica of San Pedro after his Death on Easter at the age of 88. He said he visited the grave “to thank him for what he has done.”

The grave opened in the second of nine days of official mourning for Francis, after which a conclave He will be held to choose the next Pope.

“Being able to see the Pope and his tombstone today, it was really beautiful,” said Amaya Morris, a tourist from Los Angeles, California. “I thought it was incredible that he wanted to be buried here in this basilica. Of all who chose this.”

Young groups and people attend Holy Mass in Divine Mercy in the Plaza de San Pedro, the second day of mourning for Pope Francis on April 27, 2025 in Rome, Italy.

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A special mass was also held in the Plaza de San Pedro on Sunday by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Vatican. Parolin is a possible contender to be next due to its prominence in the Catholic hierarchy.

“The pastor to whom the Lord gave his people, Pope Francis, has finished his earthly life and has left us,” Parolin said in his homily, delivered on the first Sunday after Easter. “The complaint to its departure, the feeling of sadness that assails us, the agitation we feel in our hearts, the sense of confusion: we are experiencing all this, like the apostles afflicted by the death of Jesus.”

The Mass was attended by an estimated crowd in 200,000, among the young people who originally arrived in Rome, so it was supposed to be the canonization of the First Millennial Saint, Carlo AcutisDuration Special Holy Days dedicated to adolescents.

The eyes turn to the papal conclave

Many of the mourning to the late Pope also expressed anxiety about who will be chosen to direct the Church.

“He ended up transforming the church into something normal, more human,” Romina Cacciatore, 48, an Argentine translator who lives in Italy, told AFP. “I’m worried about what is coming.”

The cardinals attend a celebration of the second eve in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which houses the tomb of Pope Francis, the first day of his opening to the public after the funeral of the Pope, in Rome on April 27, 2025.

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP through Getty Images


A date for the conclave has not yet been established, but it is expected to begin between May 5 and 10. Around 135 cardinals from all over the world who traveled to Rome for Francis’s funeral will gather regularly this week before the ticket of a bill of a Chart church.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told journalists on Saturday that the conclave would last only “a few days,” AFP said.

Marx said the debate about the next Pope was open, adding: “It is not a matter of being conservative or progressive … the new Pope must have a universal vision.”

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