Catholic faithful pay their final respects to Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica

Thou­sands of peo­ple filed through the cen­tral aisle of St. Pe­ter’s Basil­i­ca to pay their fi­nal re­spects to Pope Fran­cis on Wednes­day, the start of three days of pub­lic view­ing ahead of the pon­tiff’s fu­ner­al.

Throngs of or­di­nary faith­ful made their way slow­ly to the 16th-cen­tu­ry basil­i­ca’s main al­tar, where Fran­cis’ sim­ple wood­en cas­ket was perched on a slight ramp, as four Swiss Guards stood at at­ten­tion. Over the com­ing days, tens of thou­sands of peo­ple are ex­pect­ed to pass through the basil­i­ca, which is stay­ing open un­til mid­night to ac­com­mo­date them.

Car­di­nals, mean­while, met in pri­vate to fi­nal­ize prepa­ra­tions for Sat­ur­day’s fu­ner­al and plan the con­clave to elect Fran­cis’ suc­ces­sor.