'What a rotten age': Mourners take smiling selfies with Pope Francis' body in casket, triggers outrage
Written By Mansi Arora
Published: Apr 24, 2025, 18:09 IST | Updated: Apr 24, 2025, 18:09 IST
Story highlights
"Fury at ‘disrespectful’ mourners taking selfies with the pope’s corpse as the faithful line up to pay their respects," one Instagram user wrote. WORLD
Mourners paying their final respects to Pope Francis have been disturbed by people taking selfies beside his body in his open casket, some even posting smiling photos online.
This triggered a massive backlash on social media, while people call it, "very distasteful."
Tens of thousands of people flocked to St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City to see the first Latin American pope.
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While some looked sad in the photos, others posted smiling selfies with Pope lying lifelessly in a coffin just a feet away.
"Fury at ‘disrespectful’ mourners taking selfies with the pope’s corpse as the faithful line up to pay their respects," one Instagram user wrote.
Latest social media trend is to get a selfie with the dead Pope
#maincharacter #entitled #accountability pic.twitter.com/rf2LM4T8V0
#maincharacter #entitled #accountability pic.twitter.com/rf2LM4T8V0
“People were being asked to put their selfie sticks away when they got to the front,” UK tourist Martin Gilsenan told the Mirror.
His wife said that they were surprised by people clicking pictures without being stopped and found it "very distasteful".
“There were also many people looking around and getting upset with those on the phones,” he said, with images showing others crowding around taking pics, despite being told not to.
One of the users posted on X, saying, "What a rotten age, when people no longer know how to behave, even in front of a deceased person..."
Des gens font un selfie devant le corps du pape, exposé dans la basilique Saint-Pierre de Rome. Quelle époque pourrie dans laquelle les gens ne savent plus se tenir, même devant un défunt...#PapaFrancesco pic.twitter.com/cSk0ZU2Sou
Another person said that she was surprised by the fact that people were getting their phones out and taking selfies with the coffin.
“What did surprise me is the fact that earlier we were told no photos in the Sistine Chapel and here people were getting their phone out and doing selfies with the coffin,” Janine Venables, of Wales, told the Daily Mail.