Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Tens of thousands of people poured into St. Peter's Square starting at dawn Saturday to honor Pope Francis with a farewell ceremony reflecting his priorities as pope and wishes as pastor: Presidents and princes will attend his funeral Mass at the Vatican, but prisoners and migrants will welcome him into the basilica across town where he will be buried.
As many as 200,000 people are expected to attend the funeral, which Francis choreographed 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 priest and not "a powerful man of this world."
It was a reflection of Francis' 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress pastors 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 will be at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, the U.N. chief and European Union leaders are joining Prince William and the European royals leading official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis' Argentine nationality, even if the two didn't particularly get along. The pope also alienated many Argentines by never returning home.
The white facade of St. Peter's Basilica glowed pink as the sun rose early Saturday and hordes of mourners rushed into the square hours before the funeral. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn't get close. The Mass and funeral procession - with Francis' coffin carried on the open-topped popemobile he used during his 2015 trip to the Philippines - is also being broadcast live around the world.
Some mourners spent the night camped out in surrounding piazzas, and the mood was almost festive as helicopters whirled overhead. Many had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for a special Holy Year Mass honoring young people, and groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.
"The Lord wanted it this way, so we came all the same,'' said Sandra De Felice, who was among a group of 13 from southern Calabria who camped out Friday night after deciding to come to Rome a day early. "For me, this is a sign that we need to be truly humble and charitable. Otherwise, we are nothing."
Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia.
Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will be buried in the St. Mary Major Basilica, near Rome's main train station, where a simple underground tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus. As many as 300,000 people are expected to line the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) motorcade route that will bring Francis' coffin from the Vatican through the center of Rome to the basilica after the funeral.