Rome and the world bid farewell to Pope Francis with massive funeral and humble burial

Presidents, royalty and simple mourners bade farewell to Pope Francis on Saturday at a solemn funeral ceremony, where a cardinal appealed for the pontiff’s legacy of caring for migrants, the downtrodden and the environment to be kept alive.

US President Donald Trump, who had clashed with the pope on those issues, sat with the rows of foreign dignitaries on one side of Francis’ coffin in the vast St Peter’s Square.

On the other side sat cardinals who will pick Francis’ successor at a conclave next month, deciding if the new pope should continue with the late pontiff’s push for a more open Church or cede to conservatives who want to return to a more traditional papacy.

The Argentine pope, who reigned for 12 years, died at the age of 88 on Monday after suffering a stroke.

“Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings and hopes of this time,” said Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who presided over the funeral Mass.

In spiritual language, the 91-year-old Re gave a simple message: there was no going back. The first pontiff from Latin America had been “attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the Church,” he said.

Francis repeatedly called for an end to conflict during his papacy. His funeral provided an opportunity for Trump, who is pushing for a deal to end Russia’s war with Ukraine, to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inside St Peter’s Basilica.

Applause rang out as Francis’ coffin, inlaid with a large cross, was brought out of the basilica and into the sun-filled square by 14 white-gloved pallbearers at the start of the Mass.

The Vatican estimated more than 250,000 people attended the ceremony, cramming the square and the roads around.