Pope Francis visits tombs of his predecessors

This week, Pope Francis prayed before the tombs of his predecessors. On the eighth anniversary of the death of Blessed John Paul II on Tuesday, Pope Francis visited his tomb in St Peter's Basilica. The Holy Father—accompanied by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, and Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, his personal secretary—prayed for a long while before Blessed John Paul II's tomb in the St Sebastian Chapel and then also stopped at the tombs of Blessed John XXIII and St Pius X.

“Like his visit to the tomb of St Peter and the Vatican Grottoes,” reads a note from the Press Office of the Holy See, “this afternoon's visit to the Basilica expresses the profound spiritual continuity of the Petrine Ministry of the Popes that Francis lives and feels intensely. This is also evident in the meeting and the frequent phone calls with his predecessor, Benedict XVI.”

In the afternoon of Easter Monday, Pope Francis visited the scavi – the excavations of the Vatican necropolis beneath the Basilica, which include the tomb of St Peter.

Accompanied by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, and the heads of the archaeological projects, Drs Pietro Zander and Mario Bosco, the Holy Father proceeded through the excavated spaces, listening to the archaeologists’ explanations, all the way to the tomb of St Peter, situated precisely beneath the central altar and the cupola.

Pope Francis then paused for prayer in the Clementine Chapel, before making his way to the Vatican Grottoes, where he paid respects to the tombs of the Popes of the 20th century, which are located there: Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, Paul VI and John Paul I. The whole visit took about three quarters of an hour, beginning at 5 in the afternoon Rome Time. On his way out, Pope Francis greeted the personnel on duty, and returned to the Domus Sanctae Marthae the same way he had come - on foot.

Source: VIS