Tens of thousands of mourners and dozens of world leaders are gathering in Rome to celebrate the life of the late pope, Francis, at a funeral mass held in the Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square.
Just six days after his death from heart failure and a stroke, the 88-year-old’s body will then be buried inside a zinc and wooden coffin in a church more than two miles away, called Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore – or St. Mary Major.
That will mark the first time since 1903 that a pontiff is not laid to rest inside the Vatican itself. For the past three days, tens of thousands of mourners have filed past Francis’ coffin to pay their respects during a public viewing period, before a small group of senior Catholic Church officials sealed his coffin Friday night.
At 10am local time on Saturday, a priest bearing a cross led a procession into the center of the vast plaza, where a copy of the New Testament was placed on Francis’ coffin. The Italian government says as many as 200,000 people joined the ceremony, and the Vatican has released a list of attendees that includes political leaders and heads of state from more than 110 nations.
For President Trump, it is the first foreign trip of his second term in office, and during the morning’s mass he will stand with former President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and dozens of others.
Also attending are other senior Christian clergy, including patriarchs, archbishops and bishops. A sermon will detail aspects of the pope’s life, but the service will otherwise be a relatively traditional Catholic funeral, albeit one pared down at Francis’ own wishes.
An Italian cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, presides over the funeral mass, predominantly speaking in Latin, but with prayers conducted in Polish, Chinese, Arabic and Portuguese too. As the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Re will also soon oversee the conclave of 135 cardinals that will meet to elect the next pope at some point in the second week of May.
In an autobiographical book, published last year under the title “El Sucesor,” Francis suggested 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 requested the Latin name “Franciscus” be inscribed on his tomb, which will be made with marble quarried from the northwest Italian region of Liguria, from where the grandparents of Francis – born Jorge Mario Bergoglio – had emigrated to Argentina.
Argentina’s president Javier Milei is attending the funeral mass too, as will the president and prime minister of Ireland, the presidents of Poland and Brazil, the outgoing chancellor of Germany, the King of Spain, and Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian media has reported the Kremlin saying his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will not attend. He faces arrest if he lands in Italy, thanks to a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in connection with alleged war crimes inside Ukraine.
After the mass, a representative group of what the Vatican calls the “poor and needy” will stand on the steps of Santa Maria Maggiore’s Basilica to welcome Francis’ coffin to its final resting place, reflecting Francis’ persistent focus during his pontificate on society’s most vulnerable, including migrants and refugees.
The Vatican has said the public can begin visiting his tomb starting Sunday, and announced that dozens of cardinals will also do so on Sunday afternoon. For the following nine days, a period of mourning with daily masses will be observed, known by its Latin name as the “Novemdiales.”
