Mighty and meek say farewell to Pope Francis during Vatican funeral and last popemobile ride (2025)

By NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful bade farewell toPope Francisin a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis’ coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town.

According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 peopleflocked to the funeral Mass at the Vatican and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered “Papa Francesco” as his simple wooden coffin traveled aboard a modified popemobile to St. Mary Major Basilica, some 3.5 miles away.

As bells tolled, the pallbearersbrought the coffin pastseveral dozen migrants, prisoners and homeless people holding white roses outside the basilica. Once inside, the pallbearers stopped in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary that Francis loved. Four children deposited the roses at the foot of the altar before cardinals performed the burial rite at his tomb in a nearby niche.

“I’m so sorry that we’ve lost him,” said Mohammed Abdallah, a 35-year-old migrant from Sudan who was one of the people who welcomed Francis to his final resting place. “Francis helped so many people, refugees like us, and many other people in the world.”

Earlier, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re eulogized history’s first Latin American pontiff during the Vatican Mass as a pope of the people, 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,” the 91-year-old dean of theCollege of Cardinalssaid in a highly personal sermon. He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis’ constantconcern for migrants, exemplified by celebrating Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and traveling to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, when he brought 12 migrants home with him.

“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, noting that with his travels, the Argentine pontiff reached “the most peripheral of the peripheries of the world.”

An extraordinary meeting about Ukraine on the sidelines

Despite Francis’ focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral.U.S. President Donald Trumpand former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and continental European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had pride of place given Francis’ nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the pope alienated many in his homeland bynever returning there.

Mighty and meek say farewell to Pope Francis during Vatican funeral and last popemobile ride (1)

In an extraordinary development, Trump and Zelenskyymet privatelyon the sidelines. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Francis often preached the need for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Tens of thousands flocked before dawn to the Vatican

Francischoreographed the funeral himselfwhen 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 ofFrancis’ 12-year projectto 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.

The white facade of St. Peter’s glowed pink as the sun rose Saturday and throngs of mourners rushed into the square to get a spot for the Mass. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn’t get close.

The coffin of Pope Francis is carried into St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

The coffin of Pope Francis arrives at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A view of the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A view of St Peter’s Square during the funeral of Pope Francis, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The coffin of Pope Francis is transported in front of the Colosseum on its way to St. Mary Major where he will be buried, Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

The book of the Gospels lies on the coffin of Pope Francis during his funeral ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The coffin of Pope Francis makes its way to St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Faithful holding white roses wait for the burial ceremony of Pope Francis at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Faithful gather to follow the burial ceremony of Pope Francis at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

People wait for the funeral procession of Pope Francis in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Faithful gather to follow the burial ceremony of Pope Francis at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

The coffin of Pope Francis leaves St. Peter’s Square on its way to St.Mary Major where he will be buried, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The coffin of Pope Francis makes its way to St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A nun holds a phot of Pope Francis while attending his funeral in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

The coffin of Pope Francis arrives at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

People wait for the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Faithful listen to mass during the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Nuns and faithful listen to mass during the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A special relationship with the basilica

Francis, who was also the first Jesuit pope,died Easter Mondayat age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering from pneumonia.

Even before he became pope, Francis had a particular affection forSt. Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani. He would pray before the icon before and after each of his foreign trips as pope.

The popemobile that brought his coffin there was made for one of those trips: Francis’ 2015 visit to the Philippines, and was modified to carry a coffin.

The choice of the basilica was also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis’Jesuit religious order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass in the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.

The basilica is the resting place of seven other popes, but this was the first papal burial outside the Vatican since Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was entombed in another Roman basilica in 1924.

Following the funeral, preparations can begin in earnest to launch the centuries-old process ofelecting a new pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May. In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Re, who is organizing the secret voting in the Sistine Chapel.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who will participate in the conclave, said the outpouring of support for Francis at his funeral showed the clear need for the next pope to continue his legacy.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Over three days this week, more than 250,000 peoplestood for hoursin line to pay their final respects while Francis’ body lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7 p.m. Friday, mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back, some recalling the words Francis uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

“We are here to honor him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,’” said Nigerian Sister Christiana Neenwata. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”

Associated Press writers Vanessa Gera in Vatican City and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Originally Published: April 25, 2025 at 9:38 PM PDT

Mighty and meek say farewell to Pope Francis during Vatican funeral and last popemobile ride (2025)

An extraordinary meeting about Ukraine on the sidelines

Tens of thousands flocked before dawn to the Vatican

A special relationship with the basilica

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

References