HUGE CROWD GATHERS AT VATICAN FOR POPE FRANCIS’ FUNERAL
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Tens of thousands of mourners filled St Peter’s Square on Saturday to bid farewell to Pope Francis, known for his advocacy for the poor and as the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope.
Many queued overnight to secure a place at the ceremony, which was attended by world leaders including US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who were expected to possibly meet on the sidelines, according to a senior official.
The Argentine pope, who passed away on Monday at the age of 88, spent his 12-year papacy promoting a more inclusive vision for the centuries-old Church.
Around 250,000 people visited St Peter’s Basilica to pay their respects during the three-day lying in state, with large crowds gathering early Friday morning for his final farewell.
”He was not just the pope, he was what the definition of being human is,” said Andrea Ugalde, 39, who flew from Los Angeles to attend Saturday’s mass.
The ceremony is due to begin at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) and is expected to draw some 200,000 people.
Italian and Vatican authorities have mounted a major security operation for the ceremony, with more than 50 heads of state on the guest list.
A no-fly zone is in place, fighter jets are on standby, and snipers will be positioned on roofs surrounding the tiny city-state.
“We spent the whole night here in the car with the children,” said Peruvian Gabriela Lazo, 41.
“We are very sorry for what happened to him because we hold a South American pope in our hearts.”
The funeral sets off the first of nine days of official Vatican mourning for Francis, who took over following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.
After the mourning, cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect a new pope to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Many of Francis’s reforms angered traditionalists, while his criticism of injustices, from the treatment of migrants to the damage wrought by global warming, riled many world leaders.
Yet the former archbishop of Buenos Aires’s compassion and charisma earned him global affection and respect.
Trump’s administration drew the pontiff’s ire for its mass deportation of migrants, but the president arrived late on Friday with his wife, Melania, to pay tribute to “a good man” who “loved the world”.
Making the first foreign trip of his second term, Trump will be alongside dozens of leaders from other countries keen to bend his ear over a trade war he unleashed, among other subjects.
Zelensky has expressed hope for a meeting, in what would be their first since their White House showdown in February, and a senior official told AFP “the two presidents could meet”.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, attended, alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the funeral, while presidents Javier Milei of Argentina, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Lebanon’s Joseph Aoun were also expected.
More than a dozen royals, including Britain’s Prince William, will also be present.
Israel angered by Francis’s criticism of its conduct in Gaza is sending only its Holy See ambassador. China, which does not have formal relations with the Vatican, is not sending any representative at all.
Francis died of a stroke and heart failure less than a month after he left the hospital where he had battled pneumonia for five weeks.
He loved nothing more than being among his flock, taking selfies with the faithful and kissing babies, and made it his mission to visit the peripheries, rather than mainstream centres of Catholicism.
His last public act, the day before his death, was an Easter Sunday blessing of the entire world, ending his papacy as he had begun it with an appeal to protect the “vulnerable, the marginalised and migrants”.
The Jesuit chose to be named after Saint Francis of Assisi, saying he wanted “a poor church for the poor”, and eschewed fine robes and the papal palace.
Instead, the Church’s 266th pope lived at a Vatican guesthouse and chose to be interred in his favourite Rome church, Santa Maria Maggiore the first pontiff to be buried outside the Vatican walls in more than a century.
His send-off will be a grand affair, featuring some 224 cardinals and 750 bishops and priests alongside world dignitaries.
Catholics around the world are holding events to watch the proceedings live, including in Buenos Aires.
“The pope showed us that there was another way to live the faith,” said Lara Amado, 25
But the humble pope asked to be put inside a single wooden coffin to be laid in a simple marble tomb.
After the funeral, the coffin will be taken to the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica via the Fori Imperiali where Rome’s ancient temples lie and the Colosseum.
A group of “poor and needy” will greet the hearse on its arrival, the Vatican said.
Francis’s admirers credit him with transforming perceptions of the Church and helping revive the faith following decades of clerical sex abuse scandals.
He was considered a radical by some for allowing divorced believers to receive communion, approving the baptism of transgender believers and blessings for same-sex couples, and refusing to judge gay Catholics.
However, he maintained the Church’s traditional stance on certain longstanding teachings, particularly its opposition to abortion.
Early in his 12-year papacy, Francis made his first visit to Lampedusa, the Italian island that frequently receives migrants arriving across the Mediterranean. He also traveled to Lesbos in Greece, bringing 12 refugees back with him.
Some of those refugees are expected to attend his funeral.
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