Pope Francis remembered in funeral mass attended by world leaders and 200,000 mourners

Pope Francis’s funeral took the shape of a mass pilgrimage and unofficial global summit, as the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square filled to bursting with pilgrims, presidents and refugees.

The Vatican estimated that more than 200,000 pilgrims from all over the world had arrived before the funeral started at 10 a.m. on Saturday, making it one of the largest funerals in the church’s – and Europe’s – history. They began filling the square well before dawn, a testament to the popularity of Francis among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

The crowds spilled into the streets around the basilica and onto two bridges over the nearby Tiber River, where they had no view of the event but could hear the hymns. Some of the faithful, unable to get near St. Peter’s Basilica, entered nearby churches to pray in silence.

The heads of state or government at the funeral included President Donald Trump of the United States, President Emmanuel Macron of France, President Javier Milei from Francis’s native Argentina, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. At least 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs attended the funeral, the Vatican said, plus dozens of other delegations.

Canada was represented by Governor-General Mary Simon and her contingent. Mark Carney, who has remained Prime Minister during the federal election campaign, was unable to attend so close to Monday’s vote.

Ms. Simon met Francis several times during his tour of Canada in 2022, when he apologized to Indigenous peoples for the harm caused by Catholic-run residential schools.

“The apology that Pope Francis made to most of the residential-school survivors was very meaningful and very powerful and helped to address the grief and pain that they endured for so long,” she told The Globe and Mail after the funeral.

“Reconciliation is continuing and will continue, and hopefully we will carry on Pope Francis’s legacy of bringing people together and talking about the dark history of different countries – for us, it’s Canada –and the relationship with Indigenous peoples."

Also invited to his funeral mass were delegations from Mediterranea Saving Humans, an Italian charity that protects refugees who cross the Mediterranean, and Refugees in Libya, a charity that campaigns on behalf of migrants and refugees held in detention camps. Francis was close to both groups.

The gathering of leaders was awkward in the sense Francis’s empathy and support for migrants and asylum seekers were at odds with philosophical odds with some of the leaders, including Ms. Meloni, Mr. Trump and Mr. Milei.

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Ms. Meloni, who was elected Prime Minister in 2022 partly on an anti-migrant platform, once said Italy should “repatriate migrants back to their countries and then sink the boats that rescued them.”

The Pope was highly critical of Mr. Trump’s anti-migrant stance: “Anyone who wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian,” Francis once said.

Francis, who was warm and open to divorced and gay Catholics – “Who am I to judge?” he said in one of his most famous remarks – believed the Church “is a home for all,” Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who led the funeral, said in his homily.

Francis was guided by his conviction that the Church “is capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds,” the Cardinal said.

Open this photo in gallery:

Mr. Zelensky, who was dressed in dark military clothes, received a round of applause as he left the basilica, where he paid his respects in front of Francis’s coffin just ahead of the funeral ceremony.

He and Mr. Trump met before the funeral. White House communications director Steven Cheung said the pair “had a very productive discussion.”

After the funeral, Mr. Zelensky used X to thank Mr. Trump for the meeting: “We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out,” he wrote.

Some of the Catholic faithful travelled for days to attend the funeral, which was held on a sunny, breezy day in Rome, though thousands shivered in the pre-dawn chill.

One group of disabled pilgrims had travelled to Rome with the Kairos Forum, a British consultancy that helps disabled people, and were scheduled to meet Francis last Tuesday. They were deeply saddened by the Pope’s death only a day before the meeting was to take place.

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But many of the 150 in the group were thrilled to have seen Francis celebrate Easter mass on Sunday.

“Under Francis, this was a church were everyone belonged,” said Zachariah Duke, the senior lecturer in theology of Australian Catholic University who was co-ordinating the Kairos visit. “I would like to see the next pope be able to connect with all humanity like Francis did.”

Jessica Dal Ri, 29, who works in tourism and marketing, travelled from Italy’s far north to attend the funeral with her father: “For the young generation, he was our pope,” she said.

“He knew how to connect to the young in a way Benedict did not,” she added, referring to the Francis’s predecessor, a religious scholar who often seemed aloof and distant.

The final resting place of Pope Francis

Foregoing the traditional practice of being interred in the Vatican

Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s, Pope Francis chose to be laid to

rest inside the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pauline Chapel: Home toan icon

of the Virgin Mary, Salus Populi

Romani, said to have been

painted from life by Saint

Luke. Pope Francis visited

here often

Sacra Culla: Wooden

fragments believed to be

from the crib of the

baby Jesus

Tomb of Bernini

Apse

POPE’S TOMB IN

NICHE BETWEEN

TWO CHAPELS

Sforza

Chapel

Sistine Chapel

(Chapel of the

Nativity)

Baptistry

FLOOR PLAN

Entrance

DETAIL

Villa Borghese

River Tiber

Santa Maria

Maggiore

VATICAN CITY

ROME

1 km

the globe and mail, Source: graphic news; Today (NBC); The Catholic

Network; Papal Basilica of Santa maria maggiore; openstreetmap

The final resting place of Pope Francis

Forgoing the traditional practice of being interred in the Vatican

Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s, Pope Francis chose to be laid to

rest inside the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pauline Chapel: Home to an icon

of the Virgin Mary, Salus Populi

Romani, said to have been

painted from life by Saint

Luke. Pope Francis visited

here often

Sacra Culla: Wooden

fragments believed to be

from the crib of the

baby Jesus

Tomb of Bernini

Apse

POPE’S TOMB IN

NICHE BETWEEN

TWO CHAPELS

Sforza

Chapel

Sistine Chapel

(Chapel of the

Nativity)

Baptistry

FLOOR PLAN

Entrance

.

DETAIL

Villa Borghese

River Tiber

Santa Maria

Maggiore

VATICAN CITY

ROME

1 km

the globe and mail, Source: graphic news; Today (NBC); The Catholic

Network; Papal Basilica of Santa maria maggiore; openstreetmap

The final resting place of Pope Francis

Forgoing the traditional practice of being interred in the Vatican

Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s, Pope Francis chose to be laid to

rest inside the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pauline Chapel: Home to an icon

of the Virgin Mary, Salus Populi

Romani, said to have been

painted from life by Saint

Luke. Pope Francis visited

here often

Sacra Culla: Wooden

fragments believed to be

from the crib of the baby Jesus

Tomb of Bernini

Apse

POPE’S TOMB IN

NICHE BETWEEN

TWO CHAPELS

Sforza

Chapel

Sistine Chapel

(Chapel of the

Nativity)

Baptistry

FLOOR PLAN

Entrance

DETAIL

Villa Borghese

River Tiber

VATICAN CITY

ROME

1 km

the globe and mail, Source: graphic news; Today (NBC); The Catholic Network;

Papal Basilica of Santa maria maggiore; openstreetmap

Francis’s coffin was sealed on Friday evening in St. Peter’s Basilica, where he lay in state for three days. The Vatican said that day that 250,000 visitors have filed past his then-open coffin to pay their respects. Some of the faithful were annoyed by visitors posing for selfies near the open coffin.

The funeral ended just before noon on Saturday, after which the funeral procession took the coffin through the streets of Rome to Santa Maria Maggiore, Francis’s favourite basilica in Rome. He broke with tradition by asking to be buried there, not in the crypts beneath St. Peter’s, which hold the tombs of some 140 popes.

In keeping with his desire for simplicity, Francis chose to be buried in a simple wooden coffin.