The coffin of late Pope Francis sits in entrance of Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome on April 26, 2025. Agence France-Presse
VATICAN CITY — A whole bunch 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, “pope among the many folks” and the Catholic Church’s first Latin American chief.
Some waited in a single day to get a seat within the huge sq. in entrance of St Peter’s Basilica, with the Vatican reporting some 250,00 folks attended, in an outpouring of help for the Argentine pontiff.
Greater than 50 heads of state have been additionally current on the solemn ceremony, together with Trump — who met a number of world leaders in a nook of the basilica beforehand, notably Ukraine’s Volodomyr Zelensky, of their first face-to-face since their Oval Workplace conflict in February.
READ: Mourners applaud Pope Francis’ coffin as Vatican funeral begins
The crowds applauded because the pope’s coffin was carried out of the basilica by white gloved pallbearers, accompanied by greater than 200 red-robed cardinals, after which once more because it was taken again after the roughly two-hour mass.
‘Pope among the many folks’
Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, was “a pope among the many folks, with an open coronary heart”, who strove for a extra compassionate, open-minded Catholic Church, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re mentioned in his funeral homily.
READ: 12 years of Pope Francis: Reform, social justice and tackling abuse
There was applause once more from the lots gathered beneath brilliant blue skies as he hailed the pope’s “conviction that the Church is a house for all, a house with its doorways at all times open”.
Francis sought to steer the centuries-old Church right into a extra inclusive route throughout his 12-year papacy, and his demise prompted a worldwide outpouring of emotion.
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“I’m touched by how many individuals are right here. It’s stunning to see all these nationalities collectively,” mentioned Jeremie Metais, 29, from Grenoble, France.
“It’s a bit just like the centre of the world immediately.”
Main safety operation
Italian and Vatican authorities mounted a significant safety operation for the ceremony, with fighter jets on standby and snipers positioned on roofs surrounding the tiny metropolis state.
After the funeral, the pope’s easy wood coffin was put onto a white popemobile for a gradual drive via the streets of Rome to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the place he shall be buried.
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 steer the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Lots of Francis’s reforms angered traditionalists, whereas his criticism of injustices, from the therapy of migrants to the injury wrought by world warming, riled many world leaders.
World affection
But the previous archbishop of Buenos Aires’s compassion and charisma earned him world affection and respect.
“His gestures and exhortations in favour of refugees and displaced individuals are numerous,” Battista Re mentioned.
He recalled the primary journey of Francis’s papacy to Lampedusa, an Italian island that’s usually the primary port of name for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, in addition to when the Argentine celebrated mass on the border between Mexico and the US.
Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (L) officiates the mass in entrance of the coffin of late Pope Francis, in the course of the funeral ceremony at St Peter’s Sq. on the Vatican on April 26, 2025. Agence France-Presse
Trump’s administration drew the pontiff’s ire for its mass deportation of migrants, however the president has paid tribute to “ man” who “beloved the world”.
Making the primary international journey of his second time period, Trump sat amongst dozens of leaders from different international locations — a lot of them eager to bend his ear over a commerce conflict he unleashed, amongst different topics.
‘Very productive’
The White Home mentioned Saturday that the president had a “very productive” assembly with Zelensky earlier than the funeral, whereas a second assembly was deliberate after, the Ukrainian presidency mentioned.
On this picture supplied by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Workplace, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, proper, and President Donald Trump, discuss as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Workplace through AP)
Kyiv printed a photograph of the encounter, the 2 males sitting head to head in crimson and gold chairs within the basilica, in addition to one other exhibiting Zelensky huddled with Trump, Britain’s Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Within the homily, Battista Re highlighted Francis’s incessant requires peace, and mentioned he urged “cause and sincere negotiation” in efforts to finish conflicts raging all over the world.
“‘Construct bridges, not partitions’ was an exhortation he repeated many instances,” the cardinal mentioned.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden additionally attended the funeral, alongside UN Secretary Common Antonio Guterres, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Lebanon’s Joseph Aoun.
Israel — angered by Francis’s criticism of its conduct in Gaza — despatched solely its Holy See ambassador. China, which doesn’t have formal relations with the Vatican, didn’t ship any consultant.
Italian mourners Francesco Morello, 58, mentioned the homily about peace was a “becoming, sturdy and exquisite message”.
Of the world leaders gathered, Morello famous: “He couldn’t carry them collectively in life however he managed in demise.”
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 beloved nothing greater than being amongst his flock, taking selfies with the trustworthy and kissing infants, and made it his mission to go to the peripheries, moderately than mainstream facilities of Catholicism.
This {photograph} exhibits the inside of Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, the late Pope’s closing resting place, a day previous to the Pope’s funeral, in Rome on April 25, 2025. Agence France-Presse
His final public act, the day earlier than his demise, was an Easter Sunday blessing of your complete world, ending his papacy as he had begun it — with an enchantment to guard the “weak, the marginalized and migrants”.
The Jesuit selected to be named after Saint Francis of Assisi, saying he needed “a poor Church for the poor”, and eschewed positive 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 — the primary pontiff to be buried outdoors the Vatican partitions in additional than a century.
Catholics all over the world held occasions to observe the proceedings dwell, together with in Buenos Aires, the place Francis was born Jorge Bergoglio within the poor neighbourhood of Flores in 1936.
“The pope confirmed us that there was one other option to dwell the religion,” mentioned Lara Amado, 25, within the Argentine capital.
Francis requested to be put inside a single wood coffin to be laid in a easy marble tomb, marked solely with the inscription “Franciscus”, his identify in Latin.
Remodeling perceptions
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 of a radical by some for permitting divorced and remarried believers to obtain communion, approving the baptism of transgender believers and blessings for same-sex {couples}, and refusing to evaluate homosexual Catholics.
However he additionally caught with some centuries-old dogma, notably holding agency on the Church’s opposition to abortion.
Francis strove for “a Church decided to maintain the issues of individuals and the good anxieties that tear the modern world aside”, Battista Re mentioned.
“A Church able to bending down to each individual, no matter their beliefs or situation, and therapeutic their wounds”.
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