130 International Delegations, 50 Heads of State and 10 representatives of Royal Houses will fire Pope Francis on Saturday in the Vatican. The protocol will follow the procedures followed for the last goodbye to Pope Wojtyla in April 20 years ago and that of Pope Emeritus Joseph Ratzinger in 2023.
The rigid protocol for Francisco’s funeral this Saturday is a delicate diplomatic work to avoid conflicting situations that will follow the alphabetical order in French, that of diplomacy, when assigning the positions.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, confirmed the presence of 130 delegations, but could be increased during the day and some media speak of up to 170that will arrive throughout the afternoon.
This is the strict protocol
Among the confirmed attendees are President of the United States, Donald Trump and his wife Melania or Argentina, Javier Milei and his sisterwhich will inevitably concite many looks not only for the Argentine origin of the late Pope but for the criticism of his figure that the Argentine president dedicated him in the past. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will also be present, who will be accompanied by his wife, Efe reports.
The delegations will enter through the Vatican walls through the door of Peruginowhere cars will park to be directed to the Plaza de San Pedro and enter for side access, where they will be received by the prefect of the Pontifical House Leonardo Sapienza, before the personnel of the Pontifical Ceremonial accompany them to their position.
International delegations will be placed on the right side of the square while the cardinals will be on the left side.
Trump, far from Zelenski
The Vatican protocol indicates that The first rows are reserved for the heads of state, but with priority for Italian delegationsthe most massive with the presence of the President, Sergio Mattarella, and the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni; and Argentina, Francisco’s home country, headed by Javier Milei and his sister, in front of the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber, Ignazio La Russa and Lorenzo Fontana, because the ceremony takes place in a foreign country.
Behind them will sit the president of the Constitutional Court, Giovanni Amoroso, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, since the Pope is also primacy of the Church of Rome, bishop of the capital and representative of Catholicism.
The first rows are also dedicated to Catholic royal houses, so Kings of Spain will be located in that position with the rest of the monarchs who have announced their presence: Felipe and Matilde de Belgica, Grand Duke Enrique and the Grand Duchess María Teresa de Luxembourg, the princes Alberto and Charlène de Monaco, and the Copríncipe de Andorra, Joan Enric Vives, current bishop of the Seu de Urgell. Next to them will sit the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Frey John T. Dunlap. The great absent will be maximum of the Netherlands, which in addition, of Sovereign Catholic is Argentina.
Next, non -Catholics such as Carlos Gustavo de Sweden and Queen Silvia, and Prince Guillermo of England.
And then there is the complicated diplomatic game of the presidents that follow the French alphabetical order. Donald Trump, along with his wife Melania, will be in the same row as the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, but far away from the Ukrainian Volodimir Zelensky, who has sponsored a meeting with the US president, but that it will be difficult to intend to return to his country just after the Mass.
Among the top positions are the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, the representatives of the European Union -with the presidents of the Council, the Commission and the Parliament, Antonio Costa, Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola.
Among the heads of state closest to the altar, always in the front row, there will be Germans and Austrians, Frank Walter Steinmeier and Alexander van der Bellenwith his Albanian counterparts Bajram Begaj and the Angolan João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenç.
Also the Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, together with the governor general of Canada, Mary Simon, and the heads of state of Cabo Verde and Cyprus, José Maria Pereira Neves and Nikos Christodoulides, as well as the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa.
An enigma will be to know if the former US president Joe Biden, who confirmed his presence in Rome yesterday due to his close relationship with Pope Francis, will be included in the delegationbut what is certain is that it will be ranks back to Trump.
In the third row there will be ministers, other members of the delegations and ambassadors, such as Israel’s representative before the Holy See, Yaron Sideman.