VATICAN CITY (AP) — World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic trustworthy bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for folks on the peripheries and mirrored his want to be remembered as a easy pastor. Although presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Sq., prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis’ coffin at his remaining resting place in a basilica throughout city.
In keeping with Vatican estimates, some 250,000 folks flocked to the funeral Mass on the Vatican and 150,000 extra lined the motorcade route via downtown Rome to witness the primary funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered “Papa Francesco” as his easy wood coffin traveled aboard a modified popemobile to St. Mary Main Basilica, some 6 kilometers (3.5-miles) away.
As bells tolled, the pallbearers introduced the coffin previous a number of dozen migrants, prisoners and homeless folks holding white roses exterior the basilica. As soon as inside, the pallbearers stopped in entrance of the icon of the Virgin Mary that Francis liked. 4 youngsters deposited the roses on the foot of the altar earlier than cardinals carried out the burial ceremony at his tomb in a close-by area of interest.
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“I’m so sorry that we’ve lost him,” mentioned Mohammed Abdallah, a 35-year-old migrant from Sudan who was one of many individuals who welcomed Francis to his remaining resting place. “Francis helped so many people, refugees like us, and many other people in the world.”
Earlier, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re eulogized historical past’s first Latin American pontiff throughout the Vatican Mass as a pope of the folks, a pastor who knew the way to talk to the “least among us” with an off-the-cuff, spontaneous fashion.
“He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” the 91-year-old dean of the School of Cardinals mentioned in a extremely private sermon. He drew applause from the gang when he recounted Francis’ fixed concern for migrants, exemplified by celebrating Mass on the U.S.-Mexico border and touring to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, when he introduced 12 migrants dwelling with him.
“The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” Re mentioned, noting that along with his travels, the Argentine pontiff reached “the most peripheral of the peripheries of the world.”
A unprecedented assembly about Ukraine on the sidelines
Regardless of Francis’ deal with the powerless, the highly effective have been out in pressure at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-Normal António Guterres and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and continental European royals main greater than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had pleasure of place given Francis’ nationality, even when the 2 didn’t notably get alongside and the pope alienated many in his homeland by by no means returning there.
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In a unprecedented growth, Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines. A photograph confirmed the 2 males sitting alone, going through each other and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica, the place Francis usually preached the necessity for a peaceable finish to Russia’s struggle in Ukraine.
Tens of 1000’s flocked earlier than daybreak to the Vatican
Francis choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals final yr. His intention was to emphasise the pope’s function as a mere pastor and never “a powerful man of this world.”
It was a mirrored image of Francis’ 12-year challenge to radically reform the papacy, to emphasize monks as servants and to assemble “a poor church for the poor.” He articulated the mission simply days after his 2013 election and it defined the title he selected as pope, honoring St. Francis of Assisi “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” in accordance with the official decree of the pope’s life that was positioned in his coffin.
The white facade of St. Peter’s glowed pink because the solar rose Saturday and throngs of mourners rushed into the sq. to get a spot for the Mass. Big tv screens have been arrange alongside the encompassing streets for individuals who couldn’t get shut.
Police helicopters whirled overhead, a part of the huge safety operation Italian authorities mounted, together with greater than 2,500 police, 1,500 troopers and a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported.
Many mourners had deliberate to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy 12 months canonization of the primary millennial saint, Carlo Acutis. Teams of scouts and youth church teams practically outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.
“He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human,” mentioned Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who mentioned he had camped out all evening close to the piazza. “It’s very emotional to say goodbye to him.”
A particular relationship with the basilica
Francis, who was additionally the primary Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after struggling a stroke whereas recovering from pneumonia.
Even earlier than he grew to become pope, Francis had a specific affection for St. Mary Main, dwelling to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani. He would pray earlier than the icon earlier than and after every of his overseas journeys as pope.
The popemobile that introduced his coffin there was made for a type of journeys: Francis’ 2016 go to to Mexico, and was modified to hold a coffin.
The selection of the basilica was additionally symbolically vital given its ties to Francis’ Jesuit spiritual order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who based the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass within the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.
The basilica is the resting place of seven different popes, however this was the primary papal burial exterior the Vatican since Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was entombed in one other Roman basilica in 1924.
Following the funeral, preparations can start in earnest to launch the centuries-old strategy of electing a brand new pope, a conclave that can possible start within the first week of Might. Within the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key amongst them Re, who’s organizing the key voting within the Sistine Chapel.
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who will take part within the conclave, mentioned the outpouring of assist for Francis at his funeral confirmed the clear want for the following pope to proceed his legacy.
Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis
Over three days this week, greater than 250,000 folks stood for hours in line to pay their remaining respects whereas Francis’ physique lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican stored the basilica open via the evening to accommodate them, however it wasn’t sufficient. When the doorways closed to most people at 7 p.m. Friday, mourners have been turned away in droves.
By daybreak Saturday, they have been again, some recalling the phrases Francis uttered the very first evening of his election and all through his papacy.
“We are here to honor him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,’” mentioned Nigerian Sister Christiana Neenwata. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”
This story has been corrected to replicate that the popemobile that carried Francis’ coffin was made for his 2016 go to to Mexico, as an alternative of his 2015 go to to the Philippines.
Related Press writers Vanessa Gera in Vatican Metropolis and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.
Related Press faith protection receives assist via the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content material.
