The funeral of Pope Francis has taken place, welcoming tens of thousands of pilgrims and mourners as well as multiple heads of state and dignitaries in St. Peter’s Square.
The late Pope Francis has been lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica for three days following his death on Easter Monday.
The mass was held outdoors at 10AM local time, with over 250,000 people in attendance.
Over 130 delegations were also in attendance, with world leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reportedly met and had a “productive” meeting prior to the ceremony, according to reports. Also there was British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as former U.S. President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden.
The solemn ceremony lasted for just over two hours, with red-robed cardinals participating and priests and deacons from across the world giving Communion to pilgrims in the square. Latin verses and Gregorian chants echoed through the piazza up to the clear blue skies. While the crowd mostly stayed hush, applause broke out when pallbearers for Pope Francis’s coffin began to take it through St. Peter’s Basilica doors one last time.
Francis was a “pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who led the ceremony, said in the homily. “Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings and hopes of this time of globalization.” Re highlighted Francis’s desire for the end of conflict, and favor for refugees and displaced persons around the world.
“Faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and calling for reason and inviting honest negotiation to find possible solutions. War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: it is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone,” Re added—a poignant speech in front of the most powerful people in the world who had made the journey to the Vatican City to be present.
The piazza’s crowd of clergy and political leaders looked like a brilliant patchwork striped black, red, and white: The crimson robes of the Cardinals, the solemn black funeral clothes of delegations, and the white vestments of participating priests and church people. Further afield, more purple, white, and black vestments depending on the clergy.
