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The 88-year-old, who had led the Catholic Church since 2013, died on Monday after suffering a stroke.
The choice of a simple wooden coffin was due to Pope Francis’ wish to have “the funeral of a “shepherd, not of a sovereign”, as Catholic Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravell put it recently. Source: AAP / Domenico Cippitelli / LiveMedia / ipa-agency.net / Sipa USA
More than 200,000 people were expected to attend the funeral outside St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday.
SBS chief international correspondent Ben Lewis, reporting live from Vatican City, said the ceremony was sometimes so quiet one could have heard a pin drop.
Some 160 foreign delegations are attending the funeral alongside world leaders including United States President Donald Trump.
US President Donald Trump was accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump at the funeral of Pope Francis. Source: AAP / marco iacobucci / ipa-agency.net/PA
In front of hundreds of world leaders attending the funeral, Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re called for care for migrants, an end to wars, and action on global climate change — Francis’ favourite political themes.
Pope Francis touched people’s hearts “in a direct and immediate way”, Cardinal Re said at the funeral. Source: AAP / Pool / CatholicPressPhoto
About 250,000 people from around the world had lined up to say farewell since Francis’s body was brought to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday to lie in state, the Vatican said.
St Patrick’s Cathedral in Parramatta, Sydney, and St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Adelaide will hold special masses to honour Pope Francis.
A view of the funeral of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Source: AAP / Gregorio Borgia/AP
Australia’s only cardinal and highest-ranking Catholic official, Melbourne-based Mykola Bychok, said from Rome the event would be “a profoundly sacred moment for the church and the world”.
Cardinal Bychok, who Francis made a Cardinal late in 2024, said the period since the pontiff’s death on Easter Monday had been “a most challenging time”.
