Royalty and presidents joining multitude of mourners at Pope Francis’ funeral
Royalty, presidents, prime ministers and a legion of faithful will pay their last respects to Pope Francis on Saturday at a funeral Mass in St Peter’s Square to honour his sometimes turbulent papacy.
Among those attending from more than 150 countries will be US President Donald Trump, who clashed with Francis on numerous occasions over their starkly contrasting positions on immigration.
The Argentine pope died on Monday, aged 88, following a stroke, ushering in a meticulously planned period of transition for the 1.4-billion member Roman Catholic Church, marked by ancient ritual, pomp and mourning.
Over the past three days, around 250,000 people filed past his body, which had been laid out in a coffin before the altar of the cavernous, 16th-century St. Peter’s Basilica.
His casket will be carried through the main doors on Saturday for the outdoor funeral with massed ranks of foreign dignitaries to one side of the stone colonnade, facing hundreds of red-hatted cardinals on opposite banks of seats.
Alongside Trump will be the presidents of Ireland Argentina, France, Gabon, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, Poland and Ukraine, together with the prime ministers of Britain and New Zealand, and many European royals.
The Vatican says some 250,000 mourners will fill the vast, cobbled esplanade and main access route to the basilica to follow the ceremony, which will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, a 91-year-old Italian prelate.
Mourners were hurrying towards the Vatican on Saturday morning. Some had camped out overnight to try and secure spots at the front of the crowd for the funeral.
“We have been waiting all night,” said Spanish pilgrim Maria Fierro. “Accompanying (Francis) in his last moments is very emotional.”
James Mary, a Franciscan nun, also waited overnight. “I was up the whole night,” she said. “We want to say goodbye because he (was a) living saint, very humble and simple.”
The first non-European pope for almost 13 centuries, Francis battled to reshape the Roman Catholic Church during his 12-year reign, siding with the poor and marginalised, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and reverse climate change.
“Francis left everyone a wonderful testimony of humanity, of a holy life and of universal fatherhood,” said a formal summary of his papacy, written in Latin, and placed next to his body.
Traditionalists pushed back at his efforts to make the Church more transparent, while his pleas for an end to conflict, divisions and rampant capitalism often fell on deaf ears.
Reuters
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