Navarrosa, who is currently writing his thesis on the pope’s 2016 encyclical 'Amoris Laetitia,' recalls meeting Francis in 2021 and says he had hoped to meet him again. “I’m not worried about the future of the church, because it is guided by the Holy Spirit,” he says.

In the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence, where Pope Francis lived and died, a nun prayed Tuesday with tears in her eyes before the pontiff’s wooden coffin. Swiss guards in their brightly colored uniforms stood either side of the casket laid out for Vatican staff,