Some mourning people spent the night sleeping in the streets near the Vatican, and they started to queue at dawn on Saturday on Saint-Pierre square to say goodbye to Pope Francis. A few hours later, the world leaders took place in rows near an altar installed in front of the Saint-Pierre basilica.
The scene was appropriate for the funerals of a head of state, with cardinals in red dress, royalty and dignitaries participating in the mass outdoors. But for a pope who had spent more than a decade defending people on the sidelines of society, many had also come to pay tribute to someone who occupied a deeply personal space in their lives.
“More than a pope, he was a paternal figure for us migrants,” said Virginia Munos Ramires, 30, from El Salvador, when she stopped at a Balustrade on Saint-Pierre square under the fighter sun. “He represented Latinos, immigrants – he was a reference for all of us.”
Some of the mourning people wore costumes, others the blue and white football jerseys from Argentina from Francis. Still others were dressed in traditional Polish clothes or colored rags from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Many have burst into applause when Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who officiated the mass, recalled in his homily that the Pope’s first trip had been to Lampedusa, an island in southern Italy which has become emblematic of a large number of migrants arriving in Europe in the last decade.
Pope Francis “gave himself without measure, in particular to the marginalized,” said Cardinal Re, while he was standing at the sight of a giant statue of Saint-Pierre, the first pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
The gulls shouting above and the helicopters roaring above in the sky, the crowd was largely silent while readings in Latin, Italian and other languages resounded in the square.
For all of his pump and ceremony, the experience of the crowd also had something of the feeling of a stadium concert. The mass took place on a scene so distant that the figures seemed tiny. What made him feel close was giant screens and a speaker system that resonated around the pizza.
At one point, the cameras focused on a small detail of the Pope’s coffin, which makes the solemnity of the occasion too real. In another, they showed President Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine as he headed for his seat, which caused applause of the crowd.
But no one who was present needed a video display to be captivated by the greatness of the environment. Piazza, arranged around the Vatican obelisk, is delimited by huge colonnades surmounted by sculptures that stand in silhouette against the sky.
Among the mourning people, there were Catholics from places where Francis wanted to reach out. Many, like the retired owner of a grocery story in the city of Genoa in northern Italy, said they thought that Francis was a “normal person”, like them. “The world you loved is here today to thank you,” read a banner.
Francesca Butros, a nun from Egypt, had met Piazza to secure a place. She had prayed for Pope Francis, who suffered from knee ailments, relieved her legs from pain and allowed her to go to Saint-Pierre in time for funeral. She did it, although another nun has twisted her ankle in the metro, she said.
Epiphana Lubangula, 53, from Tanzania who works as a nurse in Italy, said: “We are here from West to East.” She said that she hoped that “the powerful who are here today would cherish the message of François”.
A priest of Myanmar, the Reverend César Htoo Ko Ko, said that since the Pope’s visit in 2017 in the country, people there “finally have an image of what a Catholic is”.
And while the attention of the media turned to a meeting between Mr. Zelensky and President Trump in the basilica before the funeral, many people in mourning were mainly concentrated on saying goodbye to the Pope.
“He was like a family,” said Colette Sandjon, 68, from Cameroon who had traveled in Paris and spent the night standing in a street in the city of the Vatican to obtain a place at the funeral of the Pope.
“When he spoke to me, it was as if he was talking to all of Africa,” she added, her eyes blushed by the white night.
Towards the end of the ceremony, he approached noon, and the heat of spring wreaks havoc on those who stood before dawn. Hundreds of people sat for homily, while others tried to fade with the funeral program book.
The Pope being put at rest, many Catholics also started to look to the future. Some wondered who would defend the speechless now that their strongest champion had disappeared. Others said they hoped that the Francis era to highlight charity and pastoral work on the doctrine of the church was over.
The Reverend Joseph Jaros, of the Czech Republic, said that he agreed with Francis that the Church was to change, but, echoing a criticism often heard among the conservatives, he said that this should be in accordance with tradition. “The world is changing a lot, but the Church should not change too much,” he said.
Munos Ramires, El Salvador’s migrant, said that she was more concerned with the Pope’s message. “As migrants, we are worried,” she said. “We hope we will have another lawyer.”
After the end of the mass, the cardinals descended the staircase of the basilica in a red cascade and the crowd sank. The piazza outside the basilica was released. A strange silence has remained.
Jason Horowitz Contributed reports.
