The Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic reported on Tuesday, 22, that the heads of the other powers of Brazil were invited and will accompany President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the funeral of Pope Francis.
According to Secom, the presidents of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), and Senate, David Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), accompany Lula on the trip to the Vatican. The first lady Janja Lula da Silva will also go to the funeral.
The forecast is that the entourage leaves Brazil on the night of Thursday, 24, around 10 pm. The return is scheduled for Saturday after the ceremony.
Lula postponed the planned trips to Rondônia and Pará to participate in the pontiff’s funeral, killed on Monday, 21. Initially, Lula to Porto Velho were planned on Thursday and Parauapebas on Friday, 25. According to the Secretariat of Social Communication (Secom), there is still no forecast of when such trips will be rescheduled.
The funeral
Pope Francis’ funeral will be Saturday at 5 am, for the time of Brasilia, in St. Peter’s Square, before the burial on the same day in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore of Rome, the Vatican announced. More than 200 heads of state are expected.
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All the safety of the Vatican and Italy is on alert. The Holy See had already expanded the surveillance body because of the increase in the flow of visitors with the Jubilee, which every 25 years invites people from all over the world to pass through the holy doors in Rome. In addition, the canonization of Blessed Carlos Acutis, scheduled for Sunday and suspended, also attracted hundreds of families, including teenagers and young people.
The head of the Rome Civil Protection Department, Fabio Cicilliano, coordinates security actions. There are specific plans for transport terminals, including major airports.
The body of the pontiff will be transported later this Wednesday, 23, from the chapel of Casa Santa Marta to the Basilica of St. Peter, to the farewells of the faithful. The confirmation of the dates took place during the first meeting of Cardinals after the Pope’s death, which gathered more than 60 prelates to define the details of funeral acts.
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According to the planning, after a moment of prayer, chaired by Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, the church’s Camerlengo, the transfer will begin on Wednesday. The procession will pass through Santa Marta Square and the Roman Protomártire Square; From the arch of the bells, will leave to St. Peter’s Square and enter the Vatican Basilica through the central door. At the altar of confession, Cardinal Cardeal will preside over the Liturgy of the Word, at the end of which the visits to the Pope’s body will begin.
Although the Pontiff has chosen a simple funeral ritual, traditional liturgical symbols are being maintained, as Dalton Luiz de Paula Ramos highlights, professor at USP and member of the Pontifical Academy Pro Vita (Vatican Sciences) for 20 years. “Signs, the symbols, refer to a reality, remembering something already experienced.”
One example is Francisco’s red casula (dress). “Red refers to the sacrifice of Christ, the love of Christ. It is the love that redeems,” says Ramos. At Francisco’s express will, his body was placed in a simple wooden and zinc coffin – previous pontiffs used three different coffins.
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In his head is the miter, a hat of solemn occasions. Its triangular format points to the sky and refers to the papal authority that comes from above. The white stole (palium) refers to pastoral activity. It was produced, as tradition dictates, with the wool of lambs of the monks of the Abbey of Three Fontes, in Rome, and woven by the Santa Cecilia clausure nuns in Trastevere.
On the right -hand ring finger, Francisco uses the silver ring he carries from Buenos Aires. It is your original ring, by Bishop. The “fisherman ring”, which Francis received at the beginning of his pontificate, will be broken to symbolize the end of his temporal power.
Among the fingers, Francis brings the third of Our Lady Aparecida. Visiting Brazil in 2013, he went to the national basilica. Faced with the image, he referred to the saint as “my mother.”
