Youssef Absi, Patriarch of Antioch and the whole East, Alexandria and Jerusalem and chief of the Greek Catholic Church Melkite, blesses the coffin during the funeral of Pope Francis on Saint-Pierre square on April 26, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican.
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Tens of thousands of people in mourning and dozens of world leaders gathered in Rome to celebrate the life of the late Pope, François, during a funeral mass held on the Place Saint-Pierre du Vatican.
Only six days after his death after heart failure and a stroke, the 88 -year -old body will be buried inside a zinc and wooden coffin in a church more than two kilometers, called Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore – Or St. Mary Major.
This will have marked the first time since 1903 that a pontiff has not been put at rest inside the Vatican itself. In the past three days, tens of thousands of mourning people have deposited the Francis helmet to pay tribute during a period of public viewing, before a small group of senior Catholic church officials sealed its coffin on Friday evening.
At 10 am local time on Saturday, a priest carrying a cross led a procession to the center of the vast place, where a copy of the New Testament was placed on the coffin of Francis. The Italian government says that up to 200,000 people have joined the ceremony and that the Vatican has published a list of participants who includes political leaders and heads of more than 110 nations.
For President Trump, this is the first foreign trip of his second term, and during the morning mass, he was held with former president Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, French president Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and dozens of others.
The other members of the superior Christian clergy, including patriarchs, archbishops and bishops. A detailed sermon of the aspects of the Pope’s life, but the service was also a relatively traditional Catholic obstacle, although it is made to the wishes of Francis.
An Italian cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, presided over the funeral mass, mainly speaking in Latin, but with prayers carried out in Polish, Chinese, Arab and Portuguese also. As a dean of the College of Cardinals, RE will also supervise the 135 cardinals conclave which will meet to elect the next Pope.
In his speech to the crowd, Re declared that Francis “often used the image of the Church as a” field hospital “after a battle in which many were injured” and that Francis considered the Catholic Church as an institution which was “determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties which tear the contemporary world; a church capable of leaning on each person, whatever their beliefs or their conditions, healing.
In a memoir, published last year under the title “El Sacesor”, Francis suggested that a pope should be buried “with dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.”
He asked that the Latin name “Franciscus” be inscribed on his grave, which will be made with transplanted marble of the northwest region of the Liguria, hence the grandparents of Francis – born Jorge Mario Bergoglio – had emigrated to Argentina.
Argentina president Javier Milei also attended the funeral mass, as was the president and Prime Minister of Ireland, the presidents of Poland and Brazil, the outgoing Chancellor of Germany, the King of Spain, and the head of Ukraine Volodyr Zelenskyy.
The Russian media reported that the Kremlin saying that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would not witness it. He faces an arrest if he landed in Italy, thanks to a mandate issued by the International Criminal Court in the context of alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
After mass, a group of what the Vatican calls the “poor and needy” will be held on the steps of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to welcome the coffin of Francis in his last place of rest, reflecting the attention of François during his pontificate on the most vulnerable of society, including migrants and refugees.
Catholic faithful and public members have traveled around the world and, all night of certain parts of Italy to attend the funeral mass.
Antonella Marcuz took a night bus from the Italian border region with Austria to reach Rome, which was “important,” she said.
Francis had been “an important man, for the world, for peace, for conciliation with other countries, and the person of different culture and religions,” she added, with tears in the eyes.
“This moment is so large, so powerful, that we must be here,” said Desiree Alberti, 20, from the city of northern Italy in Milan. “I am very attached to him, I feel really very sad.”
The Vatican said that the public can start visiting their tomb from Sunday and announced that dozens of cardinals will also do it on Sunday afternoon. During the following nine days, a period of mourning with daily masses will be observed, known by its Latin name under the name of “November”.
