Mourners for Pope told to ‘build bridges, not walls' at funeral celebrating migrants

Telegraph

26-04-2025

Mourners at Pope Francis's funeral were told to 'build bridges, not walls' in a service that celebrated the former pontiff's work advocating for migrant rights.
'His gestures and exhortations in favour of refugees and displaced persons are countless. His insistence on working on behalf of the poor was constant,' said Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, in a tribute to Francis on the steps of St Peter's Basilica.
'Build bridges, not walls, was an exhortation he repeated many times.'
The phrase has been interpreted as an oblique criticism of Donald Trump's efforts to construct a wall along the Mexican border during his first presidency. Pope Francis was openly critical of the US president's policy on migrants on a number of occasions.
As Cardinal Battista Re repeated the late pontiff's words, Mr Trump was sitting in the front row of the ranks of world leaders.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, were also in the front row. Prince William and Sir Keir Starmer were seated further back.
The funeral ceremony was attended by at least 200,000 people and watched by millions around the globe.
From scarlet-robed cardinals and helmeted Swiss Guards in their distinctive Renaissance uniforms to incense and soaring choral music, the two-hour service featured all the considerable pomp and ceremony the Vatican can muster – and which the Argentinian pontiff often eschewed during his 12-year papacy in favour of more humble gestures.
Francis, who died from a stroke at the age of 88 on Monday, was described as 'a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone'.
His funeral took place in front of the basilica, on a broad flight of steps overlooking St Peter's Square.
It was just six days ago that Pope Francis delivered a blessing from the balcony of the basilica and was then driven around the piazza in his white Popemobile, looking wan and tired, but waving to the crowds.
It was his last public appearance before his death early on Monday morning in his residence inside the Vatican.
'Path of self-giving until the end'
'The final image we have of him, which will remain etched in our memory, is that of last Sunday, Easter Sunday, when Pope Francis, despite his serious health problems, wanted to give us his blessing from the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica,' said the 91-year-old Cardinal Battista Re.
'He then came down to this square to greet the large crowd gathered for the Easter Mass while riding in the open-top Popemobile. Despite his frailty and suffering towards the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life.'
Pope Francis was hailed for his outreach towards ordinary people – in Cardinal Battista Re's words, 'the marginalised, the least among us'.
The vast crowd was reminded that the first of the Pope's 47 apostolic journeys was to Lampedusa, the tiny Italian island south of Sicily where hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have arrived in the last decade after crossing the Mediterranean from Africa.
'The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open. He often used the image of the Church as a 'field hospital' after a battle in which many were wounded,' the cardinal continued.
At the start of the service, the Pope's simple wooden coffin was carried out of the basilica, where it had lain in state since Wednesday, by 14 pallbearers wearing white gloves.
During those three days of lying in state, an estimated quarter of a million people endured long queues to pay their respects to the Catholic Church's first pope from the Americas and its first Jesuit pope.
In brilliant sunshine, the coffin was laid to rest on a platform overlooking St Peter's Square, which was thronged with mourners.
'In this majestic St Peter's Square, where Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist so many times and presided over great gatherings over the past twelve years, we are gathered with sad hearts in prayer around his mortal remains,' said Cardinal Battista Re.
'The outpouring of affection that we have witnessed in recent days following his passing from this earth into eternity tells us how much the profound pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts.'
Conclave to begin within days
On the opposite side of the coffin to the foreign dignitaries was a phalanx of cardinals, archbishops, bishops and patriarchs, resplendent in their robes and mitres.
Among them is the next pope – he just does not know it yet. That will only be known at the culmination of the conclave, the secretive and arcane election held inside the Sistine Chapel, which will choose a successor to Francis with a series of ballots.
Gathering to make the momentous decision some time after May 5 will be 133 cardinal electors – those of the Church's cardinals who are eligible to participate because they are under the age of 80.
The world will only learn that a new pope has been chosen when white smoke starts to billow from a chimney installed on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.
Soon after there will be the announcement of 'habemus papam' – Latin for 'we have a pope'. The new pope will then appear on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica.