Vigilias, honors and special masses have been held throughout Europe, while the faithful cry the death of the late Pope Francis.
In Italy, the bells in the Towers of the Church and the flags were placed in the middle of the bar in government buildings in Rome.
In France, an afternoon mass was held in the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, during which the faithful paid tribute to the pontiff in a prayer vigil.
The families who attended the night mass lit candles and put them in front of a great photograph of the Pope.
Notre Dame’s bells also played 88 times to mark the Pope’s years, while the Eiffel Tower was dark in honor of Francis.
In Madrid, the Mass was held in the Almudena Cathedral, where part of the present spoke of the late Pontiff, who died on Monday and said they will be very surprised and will leave a lasting legacy.
“For us, the Pope represents a memory of love and inclusion. While young people marked a turning point in the church. He was a Pope that we love a lot and we will remember with deep affection,” said Sara Ruiz, a teaching assistant at a local Catholic school.
The missionary Nun Miriam Blanco also spoke of Francisco’s legacy, saying that “it is a very beautiful memory and the legacy that leaves us as a Holy Father: the truth, its simplicity, its proximity, I think it was very, very good and we will miss you.”
However, the Vatican flags rose in Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria, where the faithful expressed similar feelings.
In the small town of Szécsény, Hungary, the local inhabitants gathered near the Franciscan church and monastery.
“He was a simple and puritano man who had also tried to take this to the Church, but with less successful. Of course, the Pope has relatively little power and voice today. Whatever he said, unfortunately, the world did not want to listen to it,” said Lajosi, a local resident of the city.
The faithful also gathered around the Catholic Cathedral of Zagreb, the Croatian capital, to pay tribute to the deceased Pope.
“I think he has left us a great man. A great man of the Church, of God and the people. This is difficult for us. We feel a lot. I will pray for us from Paradise, as we pray for us on earth. He worked for all, poor or rich,” said sister Antonija Grubisic, a Catholic assignment.
In the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, the Catholics lit candles in the city’s cathedral, where Monsignor Rumen Stanev said that Francis “had a deep affinity for marginalized and abandoned.”
“Like Jesus in the gospels, he walked among sinners, marginalized and weak.”
ADVERTISINGAlso in the United Kingdom, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, celebrated a Requiem Mass in the Westminster Cathedral on Monday night in honor of Pope Francis.
The flags were also placed in the middle of the rod through the capital to mark the death of the Pope.
