World leaders, dignitaries, and thousands of mourners gathered to pay their last respects to Pope Francis, who was laid to rest on Saturday.
The burial ceremony, held at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, drew an extraordinary assembly of global figures, including Heads of state, royalty and religious leaders.
Leading the world leaders are: the Presidents of United States of America, France, Finland, and Switzerland, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Alexander Stubb and Karin Keller-Sutter respectively.
Others are the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, Olena, Irish President, Michael D Higgins, Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Tomas Tayebwa, and Nigerian Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The seating plan was based on a complex order of precedence, with Argentina – the country of the Pope’s birth – and Italy at the front.
Other sovereigns, heads of state, and heads of government were then seated in alphabetical order of their countries’ names in the French language – used because French is considered the language of diplomacy.
Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died Easter Monday at 88 from a stroke, weeks after recuperating from respiratory ailments.
On Easter Sunday, the frail but resolute Pope, who championed the poor and marginalised and was often called “the people’s pope,” thrilled crowds with an impromptu popemobile outing into St. Peter’s Square.
The Argentine Pope, whose 12-year papacy was described as transformative and compassionate, contended with Catholic Church traditionalists opposed to his reforms.
About 250 cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and priests, as well as consecrated religious and lay people, joined Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he delivered the liturgy.
Cardinal Battista Re lauded Pope Francis in his homily as “a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone.”
“He (Pope Francis) established direct contact with individuals and peoples, eager to be close to everyone, with a marked attention to those in difficulty, giving himself without measure, especially to the marginalised,” he said.
The Mass began with readings from the Scripture after Pope Francis’ simple wooden coffin, adorned by a large cross, was carried into the square by white-gloved pallbearers. Applause echoed through the square as bells tolled.
After the Mass, the Pope’s coffin was placed on an open-air popemobile and transported to the burial site outside the Vatican by a motorcade that traversed the streets of Rome, lined by cheering crowds.
The coffin was transported about 2.5 miles to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where the Pope was buried in a private service.
As the popemobile made its way to the basilica, thousands of onlookers waved and clapped along the streets.
Meanwhile, President Trump had a brief “private” meeting with Zelenskyy ahead of the funeral, White House communications director Steve Cheung said.
Cheung said the two leaders had a “very productive” conversation and that further details of the meeting would be made public in the coming hours. Ukraine said they would meet again later in the day. The White House has not confirmed that.
It was the first meeting since Trump and Zelenskyy had a fiery clash in the Oval Office in February about how to reach a peace settlement with Russia over their war.
