Argentina is preparing to bid a final farewell to Pope Francis with a Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, following vigils and pilgrimages to iconic places in the late pontiff’s life.
The funeral Mass at the Vatican is scheduled for 10am (Italian time) in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday before Francis’ body is transferred to its final resting-place, the Roman basilica of Santa María Maggiore, some 11,000 kilometres distant from his Flores birthplace.
Five hours later, at 10am Argentine time, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires will celebrate a Mass for the first Latin American pope in history. This is where Jorge Bergoglio served as archbishop until 2013, before travelling to Rome for the election of a new pope which turned out to be him.
Current Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva has invited all "brethren" to the Mass and a subsequent procession around the emblematic Plaza de Mayo housing the cathedral.
"It’s a symbolic embrace which we wish to give from Buenos Aires to our dear Pope and at the same time commit ourselves to his legacy to translate into reality the many teachings we received from him," said the prelate in an Instagram video.
The ceremony will be the central point of a day of tributes beginning the previous night.
Political youth militants will begin a vigil on Friday night in front of the Cathedral and in the small hours lit torches to follow the funeral in Rome live.
Afterwards, the so-called "curas villeros" (“slum priests”) have invited the communities of low-income neighbourhoods to a lunch in Plaza de Mayo together with the Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo, a network of centres fighting addictions which was strongly encouraged by the Argentine pope.
"Then we’ll join the procession covering the places reminding us of the steps of Francis in this city’s fringes: squares, hospitals, prisons, shantytowns, Hogares de Cristo and sanctuaries," wrote the team of slum priests in a communiqué.
The walk will cover such symbolic places as Casa Mama Antula, dedicated to the first Argentine saint, and Plaza Constitución, where Bergoglio spoke out against exclusion. It will end, after various stops, in the Barracas parish of Caacupé in the Villa 21-24 shantytown, where the Jesuit archbishop brought the Church closer to the neediest.
"Come and share this walk to relive the good moments with our father, Bishop Jorge Bergoglio, our dear Pope Francis," Father José María ‘Pepe’ Di Paola, a referential figure of the slum priests, said on Instagram.
– TIMES/AFP
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