From patrols on the River Tiber to surveillance drones and snipers deployed around St. Peter's Square, Rome is preparing to throw a thoroughly modern security shield around the ancient rituals of a papal funeral and its attendant huge crowds.

Although Pope Francis simplified the papal funeral rites in a move of typical modesty, Saturday’s ceremony will still be full of pomp and pageantry, as the world’s Catholics bid him farewell and cardinals in the Vatican ready themselves for the millennia-old process of picking a new pontiff.

Francis did away with that sort of viewing. Instead, a procession brought his coffin on Wednesday directly to St. Peter’s Basilica, where a public viewing is taking place. Francis’ body, dressed in papal vestments, his head covered with a white bishop’s miter, is lying in state to allow tens of thousands of mourners to bid farewell.