basilica

Just weeks earlier, Sunday Mass had been interrupted by chants from the altar of the basilica.

The event also kicks off the final seven-month dash of preparations and public works projects to be completed by Dec. 24, when Francis opens the basilica’s Holy Door and formally inaugurates the Jubilee.

He then re-emerged on the basilica’s balcony, lined with flowers, where he spoke about the toll that conflicts take on civilians.

Previously, popes performed the ritual on Catholic men only at a Rome basilica.

As the color drained from the sky, a group gathered before the white-stoned basilica of St. Denis, where dozens of French kings are buried, to pay homage to their ancestors.