Pallbearers carry the coffin of late Pope Francis through the funeral ceremony in St Peter’s Sq., on the Vatican, on April 26, 2025. Agence France-Presse
VATICAN CITY — Tens of hundreds of mourners and world leaders together with US President Donald Trump packed St Peter’s Sq. on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis, the champion of the poor and the Catholic Church’s first Latin American chief.
Some waited in a single day to get a seat for the ceremony, with police reporting some 150,000 folks within the sq. and surrounding streets even earlier than proceedings started at 10:00am (0900 GMT).
The crowds cheered and applauded because the pope’s coffin was introduced out of St Peter’s Basilica into the sq..
Most of the greater than 50 heads of state attending the funeral had entered the Basilica beforehand to pay their respects on the coffin of the Argentine pontiff, who died on Monday aged 88.
Friends included Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Britain’s Prince William in addition to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky — who met Trump on the sidelines, in keeping with a Ukrainian spokesperson.
Francis sought to steer the centuries-old Church right into a extra inclusive path throughout his 12-year papacy, and his loss of life prompted a world outpouring of emotion.
“He was not simply the pope, he was what the definition of being human is,” stated Andrea Ugalde, 39, who flew from Los Angeles to attend Saturday’s mass.
Safety operation
Italian and Vatican authorities have mounted a significant safety operation for the ceremony, with fighter jets on standby and snipers positioned on roofs surrounding the tiny metropolis state.
However the huge crowd was largely silent as they waited, watching proceedings on a number of massive screens across the sq..
“We spent the entire night time right here within the automotive with the youngsters,” stated Peruvian Gabriela Lazo, 41.
“We’re very sorry for what occurred to him as a result of we maintain a South American pope in our hearts.”
A normal view of Pope Francis’ funeral ceremony at St Peter’s Sq. within the Vatican on April 26, 2025. Agence France-Presse
The funeral units off the primary of 9 days of official Vatican mourning for Francis, who took over following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.
After the mourning, cardinals will collect for the conclave to elect a brand new pope to guide the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Diplomatic gathering
A lot of Francis’s reforms angered traditionalists, whereas his criticism of injustices, from the therapy of migrants to the harm wrought by world warming, riled many world leaders.
But the previous archbishop of Buenos Aires’s compassion and charisma earned him world affection and respect.
Trump’s administration drew the pontiff’s ire for its mass deportation of migrants, however the president arrived late on Friday together with his spouse Melania to pay tribute to “ man” who “liked the world”.
Making the primary overseas journey of his second time period, Trump was alongside dozens of leaders from different international locations eager to bend his ear over a commerce struggle he unleashed, amongst different topics.
US President Donald Trump (C) and First Woman Melania Trump (C/R) stand alongside leaders together with France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb (2L) as they attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral ceremony at St Peter’s Sq. on the Vatican on April 26, 2025. Agence France-Presse
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden additionally attended the funeral, alongside UN Secretary Common Antonio Guterres, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Lebanon’s Joseph Aoun.
Israel — angered by Francis’s criticism of its conduct in Gaza — was sending solely its Holy See ambassador. China, which doesn’t have formal relations with the Vatican, didn’t ship any consultant in any respect.
Easy tomb
Francis died of a stroke and coronary heart failure lower than a month after he left hospital the place he had battled pneumonia for 5 weeks.
He liked nothing greater than being amongst his flock, taking selfies with the devoted and kissing infants, and made it his mission to go to the peripheries, slightly than mainstream facilities of Catholicism.
His final public act, the day earlier than his loss of life, was an Easter Sunday blessing of all the world, ending his papacy as he had begun it — with an enchantment to guard the “weak, the marginalised and migrants”.
The Jesuit selected to be named after Saint Francis of Assisi, saying he wished “a poor Church for the poor”, and eschewed high-quality robes and the papal palace.
As a substitute, the Church’s 266th pope lived at a Vatican guesthouse and selected to be interred in his favorite Rome church, Santa Maria Maggiore — the primary pontiff to be buried outdoors the Vatican partitions in additional than a century.
His send-off is grand affair, that includes some 224 cardinals and 750 bishops and monks alongside world dignitaries.
Catholics around the globe are holding occasions to observe the proceedings stay, together with in Buenos Aires.
“The pope confirmed us that there was one other method to stay the religion,” stated Lara Amado, 25.
However the humble pope requested to be put inside a single picket coffin to be laid in a easy marble tomb.
After the funeral, the coffin might be taken to the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica through the Fori Imperiali — the place Rome’s historical temples lie — and the Colosseum.
A bunch of “poor and needy” will greet the hearse on its arrival, the Vatican stated.
Refusal to guage
Francis’s admirers credit score him with remodeling perceptions of the Church and serving to revive the religion following many years of clerical intercourse abuse scandals.
He was thought-about a radical by some for permitting divorced believers to obtain communion, approving the baptism of transgender believers and blessings for same-sex {couples}, and refusing to guage homosexual Catholics.
However he additionally caught with some centuries-old dogma, notably holding agency on the Church’s opposition to abortion.
The primary journey of Francis’s papacy was to Lampedusa, an Italian island that’s usually the primary port of name for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, and he visited Greece’s Lesbos island, flying 12 refugees dwelling with him.
A few of these refugees are attending his funeral.
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