Updated April 26, 2025 at 06:42 AM ET
Tens of thousands of mourners and dozens of world leaders gathered 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 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 10 a.m. local time 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 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 stood 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 were other senior Christian clergy, including patriarchs, archbishops and bishops. A sermon detailed aspects of the pope's life, but the service was otherwise a relatively traditional Catholic funeral, albeit one pared down at Francis' own wishes.
An Italian cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, presided 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, Re will also soon oversee the conclave of 135 cardinals that will meet to elect the next pope.
In his address to the crowd, Re said Francis "often used the image of the Church as a 'field hospital' after a battle in which many were wounded," and that Francis saw the Catholic Church as an institution that was "determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart; a Church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds."
In a memoir, published last year under the title Hope 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 attended the funeral mass too, as did 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 reported the Kremlin saying Russian President Vladimir Putin would 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 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' focus during his pontificate on society's most vulnerable, including migrants and refugees.
Catholic faithful and members of the public traveled from across the world, and through the night from parts of Italy to witness the funeral mass.
Antonella Marcuz took an overnight bus from Italy's border region with Austria to reach Rome, which was "important," she said.
Francis had been "an important man, for the world, for the peace, for the conciliation with other countries, and the person of different culture and religions," she added, with tears in her eyes.
"This moment is so big, so powerful, that we have to be here," said Desiree Alberti, 20, from the northern Italian city of Milan. "I'm very attached to him, I feel very sad really."
The Vatican 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."
Copyright 2025 NPR
