VATICAN CITY (RNS) — At a solemn funeral Mass on Saturday (April 26), political and religious dignitaries joined an enormous crowd in St. Peter’s Square to mourn the death of Pope Francis in a ceremony filled with Christianity’s two millennia of tradition while reflecting the Argentine pontiff’s spirit of humility.
At the moment the pope’s coffin was led into the square, a wave of applause rose from those gathered, estimated at some 250,000 people, and they applauded again as the coffin was carried into St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of the requiem. As the two-and-a-half hour ceremony went on, the crowd continued to swell, filling the square and packing the streets leading into it.
“The outpouring of affection that we have witnessed in recent days following his passing from this earth into eternity tells us how much the profound pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, in opening remarks from the platform built in front of the basilica.
“With our prayers, we now entrust the soul of our beloved pontiff to God, that he may grant him eternal happiness in the bright and glorious gaze of his immense love,” said Re.
With 149 cardinals robed in red seated in tight ranks to the left of the pope’s coffin and representatives of more than 130 nations and international organizations to its right, Re in his homily recalled Francis as a pope who had led the church from “among the people, with an open heart towards everyone.” Francis was gifted, Re said, with “great spontaneity and an informal way of addressing everyone, even those far from the church.”
Francis’ simple coffin had been sealed in a private ceremony on Friday night, at which a biography of the pope, along with coins and medals minted during his pontificate, were placed inside. Francis’ beloved icon of Mary, the Salus Populi Romani, had a place of honor near the altar, with the pope’s staff placed in front.
Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, back to camera, and master of ceremonies Monsignor Jan Dubina preside by the coffin of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
At the general congregation the day before the funeral, the cardinals “reiterated the desire that it be the funeral of a shepherd, and not of a sovereign.”
Still, some 50 governments were represented at the funerals, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentine President Javier Milei were seated in the first row. Behind them sat President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy, French President Emanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa, among others.
Zelenskyy and Trump were among the last people to come out of the basilica after paying respects to Francis, where he lay in state before the funeral began, and reports say they briefly discussed the Ukraine war.
Former President Joe Biden, a Catholic, was also present, as were Secretary General of the United Nations Antònio Guterres, the president of the European Council; Antonio Costa, the president of the E.U. Commission; and Ursula von der Leyen.
Royals, including Prince William of Great Britain and the kings of Spain, Jordan and Monaco, also paid their final respects.
Anglican, Christian Orthodox, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian leaders were seated in the front rows of the religious delegation, most notably Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. It was only the second time the spiritual leader of Eastern Christianity had attended a papal funeral in history after Bartholomew attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. A representative of the Russian Orthodox church was in attendance as well.
The coffin of Pope Francis is carried in front of dignitaries, including President Donald Trump, center, and French President Emmanuel Macron, second left, during Francis’ funeral in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
No official representative from the Islamic tradition was present, despite Francis’ overtures toward the Muslim world.
Also present were migrants, refugees and the homeless on whose behalf Francis spoke frequently as pope, reminding many of the same leaders in attendance of their plight.
Re’s homily highlighted that Francis’ “gestures and exhortations in favor of refugees and displaced persons are countless,” and he retraced the pope’s historic trips to refugee centers on the Mediterranean islands of Lampedusa and Lesbos and his Mass on the border between the United States and Mexico. The cardinal’s words were followed by loud applause.
Re also quoted Francis’ repeated call to “build bridges, not walls,” as Trump, running for his first term in 2016, vowed to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. The pope called the candidate Trump at the time “not Christian.”
There were some notable absences at the funeral. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent representatives in their stead, and the Mass was attended by the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See.
Clergy attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
“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 honest negotiation to find possible solutions,” Re said, having to raise his voice as the crowd cheered.
At the funeral, Latin hymns, psalms and Gregorian chants rose into the air, praying to God that he might welcome the late pontiff to heaven. The readings at Mass emphasized the Christian responsibility to welcome everyone, reflecting Francis’ own emphasis on the poor and the marginalized.
Francis’ choice for the gospel reading was from the 21st chapter of John, in which Jesus commands Peter, considered the first pope, “Feed my lambs.” It spoke of Francis’ call for pastors to “have the smell of the sheep,” meaning to stay close to their congregants and the vulnerable in their communities.
His pastoral spirit, Francis’ trademark as pope, and his love for ordinary Catholics was returned, evident in the estimated quarter-million who had lined up at St. Peter’s to pay homage to the late pontiff as he lay in state since Tuesday morning.
The reading ended with a passage in which Jesus apparently refers to old age, when “another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” Francis, who worked tirelessly and publicly through his old age, often being push in a wheelchair in the last years of his pontificate, often quoted this passage to underscore the inevitable fate of those who follow Jesus to suffer.
The coffin of Pope Francis passes the Colosseum in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Two solemn prayers concluded the Mass, one to the church in Rome that calls on a litany of saints to intercede for the pontiff to go to heaven, and another from the Eastern churches, as patriarchs and archbishops chanted a prayer in Greek. Cardinals poured water and incense over the pope’s staff. The Magnificat, a prayer attributed to Mary, was sung in Latin.
After the ceremony ended, the pope’s coffin was driven in a white hearse through the city of Rome “to allow everyone to say a last goodbye,” Italian authorities said, and finally to his burial in the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major. Bystands shouted “long live the pope!” as the pope’s coffin drove by.
Many in the crowd had come for other reasons, not expecting to see Francis’ funeral. Many young people had come for the canonization of the teenage saint Carlo Acutis, or for a pilgrimage of more than 80,000 youths celebrating their Catholic faith in a Jubilee year, a time of deepened spirituality.
Samuel Turi, 14, who had come to see Acutis sainted, said, “It was an indescribable emotion being here, especially because it’s the Jubilee year, which doesn’t happen every day. One day we will be able to tell our children, I was there!”
People await the funeral procession of Pope Francis in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (RNS photo/Tom Reese)