Vatican City: A group of poor people will welcome the late Pope Francis’s body at St. Mary Major where he will be buried Saturday, the Vatican said Thursday.
According to Philippines News Agency, the body will be taken from St. Peter’s, where he has been lying in state and viewed by tens of thousands, to the Marian Basilica at a walking pace on Saturday morning.
Santa Maria Maggiore was beloved of Francis who always prayed to the Virgin there before and after foreign trips.
“The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God. So also in the heart and in the Magisterium of the Holy Father, who chose the name Francis so as never to forget them. For this reason, a group of poor and needy people will be present on the steps leading to the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to pay their last respects to Pope Francis before the burial of his coffin,” read a statement from the Holy See.
