Fr. Fernando Camou, a Diocese of Phoenix priest who is pursuing a Sacred Theology Doctorate in Liturgical Theology at the University of The Holy Cross in Rome, shares his boots-on-the-ground experience of the sights and sounds of St. Peter’s Square in the wake of Pope Francis’ death and the upcoming conclave to elect the new pope.
“The Casa Santa Maria, where I live, is 1.5 miles from St. Peter’s Basilica, a 25-minute walk. Currently, Rome is packed with tourists and pilgrims alike. The streets are usually full. Any given time I walk around, I easily hear five different languages, as both the pilgrims and tourists are from all parts of the world — Europe, Asia and the Middle East. There are many Italian pilgrims, too.
Even at liturgies, I may hear more Korean, French, German, Polish and English than I hear Italian among the crowds. The feel is very global.
I spent over four hours waiting to get into St. Peter’s to pay my respects the evening the Holy Father’s body was moved there to ‘lie in state.’ I was deeply moved by the enormous crowds. However, there was almost no wait the next few days. Either police got more efficient at managing crowds or crowds greatly diminished during the day.
For the funeral, St. Peter’s Square was packed and the crowds extended far beyond the square. I’ve seen several news sources reporting 200,000 people attended the funeral. But St. Peter’s Square alone fits 300,000 people and the Italian police reported 400,000 attendees. I think it was more. It was really striking to see!
While we are in tourist season, all the recent events surrounding the pope’s death have not felt touristy at all. The papal liturgies have seemed to be 100-percent pilgrims, who have a very different feel than the tourists throughout the city.
In the city it’s pretty much business as usual. But like anywhere else, each person has varying degrees of curiosity about the conclave or theories and speculation of who is ‘papabile,’ that’s no different in Rome than anywhere else.
Once the conclave begins, we’ll all be making regular walks to St. Peter’s Square to check the smoke or be ready to sprint there if we get a report of white smoke! I hope to be in St. Peter’s Square when the new pope makes his first appearance.”
