During the first day that the body of Pope Francis lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica, 61,000 mourners filed past his coffin, the Vatican newspaper reported.

Warren Hern, the outspoken abortionist who had run the abortuary—and had reportedly performed more than 40,000 abortions—had retired in January, but said that the clinic would continue its “sacred commitment” to provide abortions. He has now conceded that the clinic is out of business.

The Neuer Anfang [“New Beginning”] movement charged that the episcopal conference, which approved the guidelines on April 4, had withheld publication to avoid a Vatican rebuke. “They were probably just waiting for the Pope’s death and the interregnum to make news during a period of weaker ecclesiastical authority,” the group said.

Neuer Anfang said that the bishops’ instructions conflict with the Vatican instruction Fiducia Supplicans by encouraging liturgical ceremonies to celebrate same-sex unions. The document “distorts what the Church truly teaches,” the group said.

A spokesman for the German bishops denied that the release of the guidelines had been postponed until the papal interregnum, saying that the publication had been scheduled weeks earlier.

St. Peter’s basilica will be closed at 7 pm on Friday, allowing for the ceremonial closing of the papal casket, with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo presiding. The basilica had remained open late on Thursday night, and opened again early Friday morning, to accommodate the thousands of people who filed through to pay their last respects.

“Creating or sharing campaign videos, even with good intentions, risks turning a sacred discernment into a worldly spectacle,” Cardinal David said. “It may inadvertently pressure or politicize the conscience of the electors, and distract from the silence and prayer needed to truly hear the voice of the Spirit.”

“Rest in peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing,” was the brief message. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later issued his own quick statement, but will not attend the papal funeral.

Cardinal Mahony retired in 2011, upon reaching the age of 75. As details of his handling of abuse complaints became public, in 2013 his successor, Archbishop José Gomez, announced that the cardinal would no longer play a public role in the work of the archdiocese. That ban was later quietly lifted, apparently after an intervention by the Vatican.

Cardinal Mahony will be one of several prelates chosen to assist at the closing of the coffin of Pope Francis. A Vatican spokesman said that he was chosen because he among the cardinals classified as “cardinal-priests,” he is the senior member available.

“He called me ‘la prima della classe‘ or ‘the first in the class.’ It wasn’t necessarily a compliment.”

Father Donato Ogliari, the Benedictine abbot of the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, will deliver the first meditation. He will be followed by Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the former preacher of the pontifical household. The date for the opening of the conclave—probably May 5 or 6—has not yet been settled.

As cardinals arrive in Rome, they are joining in the general congregations, which will continue each day until the opening of the conclave. All the cardinals are taking the oath prescribed by the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, for prelates preparing for the conclave.

“Non-church married couples, divorced and remarried couples, and couples in all the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities are of course part of our society,” the bishops say, adding that any request for a priest’s blessing should be recognized as “an an expression of gratitude for their love and an expression of the desire to shape this love from faith.”

The blessing, the bishops’ guidelines state, is given “at the service of the divine-human encounter,” and in “the hope of a relationship with God that can sustain human life.” While not specifying the form that the church blessing should take, the bishops say that it would “express the appreciation of the people who have asked for the blessing, their togetherness and their faith.”

The guidelines are a response to the 2023 Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans, which opened the way for church blessings of same-sex couples.