JERUSALEM: Tears mixed with smiles as a dense crowd flocked to the requiem mass for the pope at Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Wednesday. "He gave us hope, and we will keep that hope with us forever even in this situation in Palestine", said Na'ma Tarsha, a Palestinian retiree from the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, a part of the city occupied by the Zionist entity since 1967.

Dressed entirely in black, the 75-year-old woman said she was determined to take part in the mass for Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88. "I came to attend this mass because wherever he would go, I would follow him", she said "it's important to have this mass for him in a church with an empty tomb ... because it calls for rising (resurrection), it is a great symbol".

The basilica in Jerusalem's ancient Old City is the center point of Christianity, built on the site where believers hold that Christ was crucified, entombed and resurrected. "I was sad, but I feel peace inside because I know that he will rise again like Jesus," said Tarsha. Earlier that morning, a processions of clergy in cassocks ranging from brown to beige, depending on their religious order, passed through the wide doors of the building and into clouds of incense. Alongside them mingled nuns, scouts, local worshippers and a few foreign pilgrims, hoping to secure one of the few seats available.

'Really special moment'

Preceded by two "kawas" — guards in traditional livery from the Ottoman era, bearing sabers and ceremonial staffs — the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, entered the church followed by Christian religious leaders and diplomats. As the organ began to play, the patriarch kissed the Stone of Anointing, where Jesus's body is said to have been prepared for burial, before putting his biretta hat back on. As a cardinal, Pizzaballa will be among the elite electorate that will soon gather in Rome to appoint a successor to Pope Francis and has himself been tipped for the role.

"He could be the next (pope), but we need him so much here," said a Palestinian Christian who did not wish to give his name, but said he appreciated Pizzaballa's calls for peace. "We are so shaken, so sad. Even though we knew the pope was very sick, our feelings are all mixed, we feel so many feelings at the same time." Pope Francis repeatedly denounced the war in Gaza and regularly phoned a small Christian church, where both Christians and non-Christians sheltered from the Zionist entity's bombing.

In a hidden corner of the church, a group of young people stood on tiptoe to watch proceedings, all volunteers from various religious institutions in the Holy Land. Among them was Arthur Trusch, who said he couldn't miss the event, even though he was a Protestant evangelical. "It's a really special moment", said the 20-year-old German who was volunteering at a Jerusalem monastery. "To see all these people, here for the pope and for the patriarch, is very moving". — AFP