{"id":135073,"date":"2025-04-25T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T20:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pope-francis-latest-security-ramping-up-ahead-of-popes-funeral-as-starmer-meets-with-italian-pm-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T20:33:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T20:33:00","slug":"pope-francis-latest-security-ramping-up-ahead-of-popes-funeral-as-starmer-meets-with-italian-pm-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pope-francis-latest-security-ramping-up-ahead-of-popes-funeral-as-starmer-meets-with-italian-pm-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis latest: Security ramping up ahead of Pope's funeral – as Starmer meets with Italian PM – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After three days of lying in state, the Pope’s coffin will be sealed this evening ahead of his funeral tomorrow, as world leaders start arriving in Rome to pay their respects.
Friday 25 April 2025 21:26, UK
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Earlier, we told you that the process of sealing Pope Francis’s coffin had started behind the closed doors of St Peter’s Basilica (see 7pm post).
The pictures below show a white cloth being placed over the pontiff’s face and the coffin lid being fixed ahead of tomorrow’s funeral.
We’ve been telling you about the world leaders arriving in Italy ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral tomorrow.
Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer, Prince William and Emmanuel Macron will all be attending, but there’s uncertainty over whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be there (see 6.43pm post).
Here’s a look at those who will be at the service, and those who won’t be.
Police sources have told our team at the Vatican that around 200,000 people are expected to attend the funeral of Pope Francis tomorrow.
It’s also estimated that around one million people will be trying to see the procession in Rome.
In 2023, around 50,000 people attended the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, which came 10 years after he had resigned in 2013.
And in 2005, about 300,000 went to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, who died aged 84. 
The Vatican has said at least 250,000 have taken the chance to view the Pope’s casket this week ahead of tomorrow’s funeral.
Our Europe correspondent Adam Parsons<\/a> was among those to have joined the crowds in St Peter’s Basilica, calling the experience “memorable, touching and emotional”.
In case you missed it, here’s what he made of the full experience…
We’ve just received this picture showing Sir Keir Starmer meeting Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after arriving in the country.
It’s the second meeting between the two leaders in as many months, after Meloni met the UK prime minister at Downing Street at the start of March.
Starmer is among a host of world leaders attending Pope Francis’s funeral tomorrow.
Vincent Nichols is among four UK cardinals in Rome for the Pope’s funeral on Saturday.
He told Sky’s Anna Botting<\/strong><\/a> it’s “intimidating” to be one of those responsible for choosing the next pope.
“I hope nobody goes into this conclave, as it were, with the sole purpose of wanting to win,” he said.
“I think it’s very important that we go in wanting to listen to each other… It has to be together, trying to sense what God wants next. Not just for the church.”
We’re now expecting the process that will see the sealing of Pope Francis’s coffin to start behind the closed doors of St Peter’s Basilica.
There’s a ceremony around that and, as our commentator Alastair Bruce explains, it’s all “very beautifully planned”.
He says the cardinals will come into the centre of St Peter’s Basilica and stand along the area of the altar of confession.
“The process of closing the coffin follows a very clear set of steps,” he says.
A white cloth will be placed over the pontiff’s face so he is no longer seen by the world, Bruce explains, and a bag of medals and coins from his reign as Pope will be placed in the coffin.
An account of his papacy will also be read aloud, placed in a tube and put in the coffin.
“They then close the zinc lid of the coffin and that literally has to be sealed,” Bruce says.
“It takes quite a bit of time as you can imagine because then it is completely airless inside.”
Doubts have been raised over whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend Pope Francis’s funeral tomorrow.
It had been expected that Zelenskyy would attend the service, but Ukrainian embassy sources have now told US reporters that he may not be there.
Ukraine’s president cut a visit to South Africa short yesterday after Russia launched a large-scale attack across his country, with Kyiv on the receiving end of its largest attack since July last year.
By Lisa Holland<\/a>, Sky Correspondent in Vatican City<\/b>
It’s the day before the funeral of Pope Francis.  
With such a momentous occasion so close in St Peter’s Square, we see lovely spontaneous acts of spirituality. Cloaked in black and purple we notice a senior member of the Catholic Church approach a group of medics and bless them. 
With potentially a million people planning to be close to the Vatican for the funeral, the medics play a vital role in supporting the crowd on what is likely to be a hot day.
It turns out the blessing we witness is being conducted by the Archbishop of Warsaw. A sign of the growing numbers of very senior figures joining the world leaders flying in.
But as the day progressed, the easy atmosphere gave way to a growing sense of jeopardy amongst people queuing to pass by the open coffin of Pope Francis in St Peter\u2019s Basilica to pay their respects.
It was a race against time for some of those we met in the crowd. One woman had spent the last three days travelling \u2013 after setting off from Ecuador when she heard the Pope had passed away. She had just arrived and dashed to join the queue.
Another woman had just landed in Rome from the UK with just a short time until the doors of the Basilica closed.
It’s just gone 7pm in Rome, and the doors have now closed to members of the public at St Peter’s Basilica.
It marks the end to three days in which Pope Francis’s open coffin has been lying in state.
In its most recent update, the Vatican has said at least 250,000 people from around the world have been to pay their respects to the pontiff since Wednesday (see previous post).
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