VATICAN CITY – Tens of thousands of pilgrims and Roman Catholic faithful were paying their respects to Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica after the coffin with the pontiff’s body was carried some 800 M to the largest church in the world from the Santa Marta guest house where Francis lived and died in his tiny city state. The Basilica remained open throughout most of the early hours Thursday, closing only briefly for cleaning, to allow as many people as possible to file past the pope's coffin.

 By Thursday at 1 p.m., the Vatican said, as many as 60,000 people had filed by the open coffin of the Argentine pope who died on Easter Monday at age 88 from a stroke followed by heart failure.

Francis’ coffin will lie in state at St Peter’s for the faithful to view until Saturday when his funeral will be held at 10 a.m. attended by world leaders including U.S. President Trump, French President Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Vlodomir Zelensky as well as Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni.

Thousands of Italian police will supplement the Vatican’s small gendarmerie and the pontifical Swiss Guard, the smallest army in the world, to ensure security for the great and the good as they come to bid Francis farewell.

 Zelensky has said that he hopes to meet with Trump on the fringes of the funeral to discuss stalled efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine. The United States is seeking to achieve a peace settlement by the 100th day of Trump’s presidency at the end of April, threatening to walk away from peace efforts if there is not a breakthrough by then.

 After the funeral another large scale security operation will be mounted for the conclave of cardinals to elect the next pope to replace Francis.

 Under the Apostolic constitution the earliest the conclave can start is May 5.