Funeral of Pope Francis draws thousands to say farewell
(NewsNation) — The funeral of Pope Francis took place Saturday in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, drawing around 200,000 people who bid farewell, according to the Vatican. The service started at 4 a.m. EDT Saturday, beginning with prayer and song.
Francis' body laid in state for three days at St. Peter's Basilica since Wednesday.
Proceedings and plans for his final resting place were simpler than those of previous popes.
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Crowds gathered outside in St. Peter's Square for the funeral Mass where Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, delivered the 'Liturgy of the Word,' or readings from Scripture.
'Dear Pope Francis, we now ask you to pray for us,' said Re, who presided over the ceremony. 'We ask you from heaven, may you bless the church. May you bless Rome and bless the whole world as you did last Sunday from the balcony of this Basilica.'
Re led the funeral Mass.
'War always leaves the world worse than it was before,' Re said as he detailed Francis' life and moral values, saying he always maintained his temperament.
Francis' 2024 changes to burial rites for pontiffs paved the way for his more humble funeral and particular burial site, the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major. Located outside the Vatican, the basilica is home to Francis' favorite icon of the Virgin Mary.
The first images of Francis' body were released earlier this week after his death Monday. He was 88. Francis was placed in a wooden casket, in red vestments and with his bishop's miter, with the Vatican secretary of state praying over him in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel, where he lived and died.
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Typically, popes have three coffins — made of cypress wood, lead and elm — that are ultimately stacked together and buried in the Vatican grottoes beneath St. Peter's Basilica.
Francis, under the renewed rite, opted to be buried in just one coffin: a wooden casket lined with zinc. Francis' singular coffin was not placed on an elevated bier, as is custom; his coffin, instead, simply faced the basilica's pews.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived at the funeral shortly before the service began at 10 a.m. local time.
Former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden were present at the start, as well.
Argentine President Javier Milei and Prince William were among the mourners. The 42-year-old member of Britain's royal family attended the Vatican City funeral on behalf of King Charles III, multiple outlets reported.
William, heir to the British throne, has traditionally represented the monarch at funerals, according to Vanity Fair.
The office of Polish President Andrzej Duda said Duda planned to attend the ceremony. Poland has also declared a day of national mourning on Saturday for the funeral.
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Reuters has reported the following world leaders also attended the funeral:
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and first lady Janja Lula de Silva
French President Emmanuel Macron
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda
Romania's interim President Ilie Bolojan
Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia
Switzerland's President Karin Keller-Sutter
Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Council President Antonio Costa, Parliament President Roberta Metsola
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Bendito Freitas
Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and Prime Minister Bart De Wever
Vice President JD Vance will not attend, a White House official told NewsNation. Vance visited Francis during a brief meeting on Easter Sunday, the day before the pontiff died.
Francis, the 266th head of the Catholic Church, died one day after Easter and nearly a month after his release from a hospital.
His cause of death was a cerebral stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure, according to the Vatican. Francis was hospitalized in February, staying five weeks with double pneumonia that required high flows of oxygen and blood transfusions.
The pope's death sets off the formal process to select his successor, known as a conclave.
The word conclave is derived from the Latin words 'com,' meaning 'with,' and 'clavis,' meaning 'key.' It refers to the practice of Catholic cardinals gathering in a closed room or hall to vote on who should be the next pope.
Per the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the conclave usually occurs around 15 to 20 days following the death or resignation of a pope.
Due to political turmoil, it took more than two years to elect Pope Gregory X in 1271. To ensure the papal election was not dragged out in the future, Gregory X ensured cardinals would remain together until a new pontiff was decided.
Only cardinals younger than 80 are allowed to participate in the secretive, anonymous conclave vote.
In terms of a successor for Francis, there are several frontrunners — or 'papabile' — including Cardinals Peter Erdo, Reinhard Marx, Luis Tagle, Marc Ouellet and Robert Sarah, among others.
NewsNation's Anna Kutz, Ashley N. Soriano, Patrick Djordjevic and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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