buried directly in the crypt below st. peter s in the tomb that pope john paul ii once occupied. before he was moved up into the main church of one of the chapels but he will be interred in st. peter s basilica. i m wondering because we are seeing you on the right-hand side and on the left-hand side for looking at the vatican at st. peter s square. i m wondering if you can give u an idea of what has been going on for the past couple of days. what has the activity been and who is coming to pay their respects and what is that like right now as we wait for the procession to begin. this community has been really tight. it s grown over the last three days. when we first got here, no checkpoints and as time went on
angeles. thank you for joining our special coverage of pope benedict s funeral. some 200,000 of the faithful have filed past the body of pop benedict as he was lying in state in st. peter s basilica. during general audience at the vatican wednesday come up pope francis prayed his predecessors acute and gentle thoughts. we begin our coverage with our chief religion correspondent , lauren greene, who was live in vatican city fo us. good morning. it is time to say goodbye to pope benedict. there is a fog here in st. peter s square appears so foggy that you cannot see that the dome of st. peter s basilica . naming the number you can see from 50 mile away on a clear day. we cannot see the top of the dome. there is a sense of sap as here. over the last three days people
predecessor was original ly ori. in accordance with benedict x xvi s final wishes. pope francis having come down todd: if you are just joining us, the funeral for pope emeritus benedict xvi just ending on the steps of the basilica. pope benedict will be buried under st. peter s basilica. the pope was 95 years old. ashley: starting with a fox news alert. house lawmakers head back to capitol hill for third attempt to select a speaker. kevin mccarthy says some progress has been made, but they have voted six times and hold-outs have not shown a sign they are ready to budge.
strength of body and of mind. cnn is covering all angles of today s events. senior international correspondent frederik pleitgen and senior vatican analyst jonathan allen are both in rome, but we begin with vatican correspondent delia gallagher who s joining us from st. peter s square. delia, explain to us what the atmosphere is like as the faithful gather on this day. reporter: well, bianca, i ve been here for a few hours. now, they started coming in the early hours of the morning to fill the square. there s about a 60,000 person capacity seated there in st. peter s square. it looks like it s getting filled up. at the moment, as you mentioned, the casket has just come out from st. peter s basilica. they are doing a rosary. they are saying prayers just before the mass begins. that coffin was sealed last night. inside they put coins and medals from pope benedict s pontificate as well as a scroll. and the vatican has given us the text of that scroll. the scroll contains the biography
pope benedict. we heard those chants from the crowds during the funeral of pope john now st. paul ii. this has been such a respectful crowd, very prayerful and when you think you have all those thousands of people gathered in one space and to see them there and then they applauded both when the coffin was brought in to begin the mass and now as it goes through as you said the door of death to be buried in the grottoes underneath st. peter s basilica but i was struck by listening to the readings how all the readings were about giving yourself over to god and the joy that comes from that and i think that really was the life of pope benedict. he was a man who truly gave himself over to god. the beginning and the end of the homily that was quoting the gospel of luke, father, into