On the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, the Roman Catholic Church rested for the first South American pope, Pope Francis, at a solemn funeral on Saturday, the first Pope in South America, whose simple style, pastoral vision and footprint on the world stage both revitalized and led him to an additional institution for more than a decade.
The head of state, royal family and religious leaders sat in a series of Catholic bishops wearing bright red robes surrounding a closed Cypress coffin holding Frances's body, which died at 88 on Monday.
Thousands of faithful people emanate from St. Peter's Square and flow along the long Avenue River to the Tibre River. In the previous days, about 250,000 people were waiting to say goodbye to the Pope, whose body was wearing red clothes and black shoes as he was in a state in front of the altar of the cathedral.
“The guiding thread of his mission is also the belief that the church is the home of all, always open houses,” Cardinal College dean Giovanni Battista Re was in his sympathy during Saturday’s Requiem Mass.
When the Cardinal was listed around him, preparing to enter Francis’ successor next month, the Cardinal avoided a distinct political flair but emphasized Francis’ pastoral and inclusive approach, as well as his humble style, the key to Francis’s reverence inside and outside the church.
Francis was filled with joy, spreading faith “great spontaneity and informal ways to all”, he said. But Francis also “really shares the anxiety, suffering and hope of this era of globalization.”
Francis is perhaps the loudest voice in the world, as his advocates left the world when they were being deported by mass deportations, warning against authoritarianism is on the rise and he hopes that he hopes that the peaceful World War II coalition is inverted. In a sense, Saturday’s funeral was the last scene for the pope, who had been seeking to bring people together.
President Trump's Christian Francis once questioned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also there, meeting at St. Peter's Basilica before the funeral, which the White House called “very productive discussion.”
European heads of state and EU leaders also attended the funeral, which Mr Trump said was “to screw up the formation of the United States.” Many countries Francis visited also have leaders – he begged them to build peace or do a better job in defending human rights. Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
When the bell rang out the knees of death, silence fell on the square, quiet, except for the sound of seagulls. Inside the cathedral, 14 Pallbearers brought the Pope's coffin into the Cardinal's corridor, dressed in red costumes, and followed the steps of the church. From above, the Cardinal part on one side of the coffin is an excellent red rectangle opposite the noble rectangle in the dark suit.
The whole square looks like a patchwork: purple, white, black, depending on the type of clergy and the colors that blend together in the faithful crowd from the square to the Tiber River.
Next to the coffin was sprinkled with the Cardinal's coffin, the cardinal's prayer and the burden of the coming session was chosen, and the 267th leader of the church was chosen. With this choice, they will also decide whether the church follows or deviates from Francis’ vision of the church, which emphasizes mercy and inclusion more than rules and doctrines.
Some of them want to further allow women to become deacons or married male priests. Others want to back down. Some people want to enter Asia or Africa to spread their faith for the new pope. Others hoped to bring the Pope back to Italy so that it would be organized and sometimes destabilizing a steady thriving after an event.
But on Saturday, all the attention caught Francis, an Italian heritage Argentinian born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who grew up near an inconspicuous Buenos Aires, became a Jesuit pastor and rose to the pinnacle of the church. Once there, he tried to eliminate the church from the walls, after decades of conservative rule and bring it closer to 1.3 billion faithful faithfulness, both geographically and lifestyle.
“He is the pope among the people, open heart to all,” the Cardinal stood behind Francis' coffin on the steps of St. Peter's Square. “He is also the Pope who is focused on signs of the times, and what has the Holy Spirit awakened in the church.”
Mr. Trump sat a few yards away, and the Cardinal recalled the late pope’s trip to the border between Mexico and the United States, one of his many “people who supported refugees and displaced people” when Francis talked about the need to “build bridges rather than walls.”
In the past, only the Cardinal and the Patriarch could celebrate the Pope’s funeral, but Francis allowed all clergy to participate in the role in order to maintain his efforts to create a humble, top-down church image. Francis takes social justice and companionship, rather than teaches their core.
As time passes, as the liberals fade away from the world stage, he becomes an increasingly lonely voice, speaking for immigrants and marginalized people.
“He is our only global moral leader,” said the Jesuit, the assistant of Francis, Pastor Antonio Spadaro, who recalled just as much as he said to Francis, who frolicly hit him in the hand and told him that he was talking nonsense. But a few years later, when he repeated his observations of Francis, the Pope entertained the possibility, keeping silent.
Francis, named after the medieval saints, was a pope of gestures and symbols that expanded his view of a more modest church. He paid his hotel bill as elected Pope. He rides a bike in a simple car. He washed the criminal's feet and ate with the poor in the soup kitchen.
Even in death, these symbols remain. Charities bring the poor to the front row to highlight Francis’ focus on marginalization.
“He was the pope of Pueblo, living for the poor,” said Christian Rivas of Ecuador, who sat in the crowd during the funeral. “My heart was beating when he was first elected.”
Francis asked to be buried in the town's cathedral next to his respected idol of the Virgin Mary, who used a simple, unadorned tomb marked “Francis Franciscus”, his name in Latin. The coffin contains commemorative medals and coins minted during his Pope; brief text describes his figure in the metal tube. and Bishop Pall, the white wool costume worn around her neck symbolizes the bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
But while Francis’s focus was on modesty, his funeral, the ruling pope, was much bigger than his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who shocked the church and the world, when he became the first pope to resign in about 500 years. Frances himself presided over the funeral of the Pope’s honorary Benedict, an unprecedented moment for a pope, presided over the final farewell of another pope.
Rome is essentially paralyzed by all the world leaders in the town. On Friday night, authorities closed a bridge so that France's Emmanuel Macron and his wife could stroll on it. The sirens kept coming out. On Saturday, the helicopter rotor chopped off the warm spring air. But everyone remained silent at the funeral.
The conclusion was that the Pope's coffin was sent back to the cathedral and then loaded into Popemobile, which carried Pope Francis thousands of times around St. Peter's Square and met with believers from all over the world. His body is now buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Magill.
At the funeral, the cardinal pointed out Francis' lasting image will begin on Easter Sunday, the day before his death, and despite his apparent illness, he came to a balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square for his blessing, before descending down to greet the crowd on his last trip on his pop car.
The Cardinal recalls that Francis often ended the negotiations at an invitation to prayer, concluding: “Dear Pope Francis, we ask you to pray for us now.”
