The Vatican has begun a Rosary prayer in St Peter’s Square in its first public commemoration following Pope Francis’s death.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica, led the prayer as the sun set.
The first reading was delivered by Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Vatican City State and one of the highest-ranking women at the Vatican.
Her appointment was a sign of Francis’s insistence that women be given more prominent, decision-making roles.
Pope Francis died on Monday at age 88. History’s first Latin American pontiff charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor, but alienated many conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change.
The cause of death has not been shared, though Francis had chronic lung disease, and he was admitted to a hospital on February 14 for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia.
He spent 38 days there, the longest hospitalisation of his 12-year papacy.
He last appeared in public on Sunday with an Easter blessing and a popemobile tour through a cheering crowd in St Peter’s Square.
No date for the funeral has been announced, and the next pope is still to be decided.
“I hope that whoever comes after him can be as competent, as affectionate and as loving,” said Mary Soul, a Christian resident of Aleppo, Syria.
