World leaders and Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for the "most peripheral of the peripheries" and reflected his wishes as pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter's Square, prisoners and migrants were also set to welcome him at the basilica across town where he'll be buried, per the AP. Some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral, where Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered a lengthy, spirited, and highly personal homily. He eulogized Francis as a pastor who knew how to communicate to the "least among us" with an informal, spontaneous style. "He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone," Re said, drawing applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis' constant concern for migrants.
"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," Re said. The Argentine pontiff choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican's rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope's role as a mere pastor and not "a powerful man of this world." It was a reflection of Francis' 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants, and to construct "a poor church for the poor." He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election, and it explained the name he chose as pope, honoring St. Francis of Assisi, "who had the heart of the poor of the world," according to the official decree of the pope's life that was placed in his coffin before it was sealed Friday night.
Despite Francis' focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. US President Trump and former President Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis' nationality, even if the two didn't particularly get along. Trump and Zelensky met privately on the sidelines of the funeral: A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter's Basilica. After the Mass, Francis' coffin left the Vatican en route to his burial place in St. Mary Major Basilica. "We are here to honor him because he always said, 'Don't forget to pray for me,'" said one Nigerian nun in attendance. More here.
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