By Roberto de Mattei, Rorate Caeli - Napolitano was a consistent atheist-communist, and his "secular" funeral, was held on Sept. 26, for the first time in the history of Italy, inside the hall of Montecitorio [the palace of the Italian Chamber of Deputies]. This is the character to whom, two days earlier, Pope Francis wanted to pay homage, standing for a few minutes in silence, without a blessing or a sign of the cross, before the coffin displayed in the Senate's funeral chamber... The tribute was not paid privately, but publicly, with a clear symbolic message. Giorgio Napolitano, Pope Francis said, was "a great man, servant of the fatherland."