Pope Francis’s funeral: The unprecedented procession of the coffin and another 3 significant moments of the farewell to the pontiff in Rome

His trip to Lampedusa, the mass he offered on the border between Mexico and the United States or his constants called La Paz.

Pope Francis had in his pontificate the disinherited, the migrants and those who suffer from the wars, as the cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the Cardinal College and in charge of officiating the homily of the funerals recalled on Saturday.

Some 400,000 people fired in the Vatican and its surroundings to Pope Francis, in a solemn ceremony and marked by the symbolism that could be followed at a distance by millions of people worldwide.

A multitude arrival of all the confines of the planet crowded the Plaza de San Pedro and the route of conciliation, which gives entrance to the Vatican, to offer the last goodbye to a Pope who, for his close and warm personality, has been very dear to the faithful.

“In contrast to the culture of discard, he talked about the culture of the encounter,” Re in an emotional Mass said that he remembered the simple life of the first Latin American pontiff, who died on April 21 at age 88.

The ceremony was attended by delegations from 148 countries and territories, and about 50 heads of state and government, as well as representatives of different real houses.

After the funeral, the Pope’s coffin was transferred in procession to the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, where he was buried and his remains are already resting.

Here we tell you 4 of the most outstanding moments of this historical day.

By the will of Francisco himself, who simplified the Papal funerals so that they resemble “a pastor and disciple of Christ, and not that of a powerful man of this world”, his funeral was simpler – Vaatican through – than those of previous pontiffs.

And perhaps the most powerful and emotional moment of the entire ceremony were the words of Giovanni Battista re recalling the life and work of the Pontiff, that at times they sounded as political as those of Francisco himself, and that were received with a long and deafening applause by the crowd that attended the funeral.

Especially when he mentioned any of the moments that marked his pontificate most, such as his first trip outside the Vatican, which he made to Lampedusa Island in 2013, to which hundreds of migrants fleeing from the war in Syria and other places arrived daily in precarious vessels.

Or when he remembered the Mass that Francisco offered in Mexico, a few meters from the wall that US President Donald Trump ordered to contribute to his first mandate to avoid the entry of migrants.

“Building bridges and not walls,” was something that Pope Francis repeated many times, recalled Cardinal Re before the attendees, among which was Trump himself.

Francisco “was a Pope among the people, with his heart open to all”, who faced the fierce wars of recent years, said the cardinal, and that “the voice raised incessantly” to ask for peace.

“War causes the death of people and the destruction of houses, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: it is always a painful and tragic defeat for all,” said the cardinal citing the Pope.

Even in his last public appearance, on Sunday of Resurrection, to give the blessing “City and a disk“Francisco had words to denounce the violence of wars, specifically mentioning the conflict of Gaza and Ukraine conflict, among others.

“Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to current challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anguish, sufferings and hopes of this globalization time,” he added before the attendees.

Giovanni Battista Re, 91, also recalled Francisco’s efforts to boost the interreligious dialogue, or his historic trip in 2021 to Iraq, which was “a balm for the wounds of the Iraqi population.”

“His gestures and exhortations in favor of refugees and displaced are innumerable. His insistence on working for the poor was constant,” added the cardinal.

The funeral began shortly after 10:00, local time (8:00 GMT), when the bells of the Basilica of San Pedro folded by the death of the Pope.

The coffin with the remains of Francisco was then taken to the shoulders of the pontifical thirsty, the people who were at the service of the Pope, who came out through the central door of the Basilica of San Pedro to the square of the same name, where the funeral mass was held.

The Pope was followed by the more than 200 cardinals that make up the Cardenalicio College.

Before, the dignitaries invited to the funeral said goodbye to the Pontiff privately within the Basilica of San Pedro, in front of the Bernini Baldaquino, where the Pope’s coffin was placed last Wednesday for his burning chapel.

The coffin was placed in front of the altar, on a carpet and next to a candle on, after which a huge applause of the almost 200,000 faithful present was heard, 50,000 of them inside the square.

Above the simple coffin that Francisco chose for his burial, built in wood and covered with zinc, the book of the open Gospel was placed, while the square plunged into an absolute silence.

The concelebrant cardinals occupied their position on the left side of the Sacred, while the guests, among which Trump and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky were located on the right side.

The homily of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re was followed by the time of communion, in which a procession of priests dressed in white reached the end of the conciliation route, the street that leads to the Plaza de San Pedro, carrying golden canes full of hosts for the communion of the faithful.

Except for the moments in which those present cheered to Francisco’s coffin or the words of Re, the crowd maintained an overwhelming silence, only interrupted by the helicopters of the Italian security forces that flew over the Vatican.

The ceremony ended with the blessing with blessed water of the Pope’s coffin, by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who later burned incense in a censer, a symbol of purification.

The bells played three times at noon after the blessing of the coffin, which finally was transported again on their shoulders inside the basilica while many of those present said goodbye with a “Hi, Francesco“.

At the end of the Mass, Pope Francis’s coffin was taken in procession through the streets of Rome to the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, where his remains will rest.

Francisco’s coffin was transferred in the Papamóvil, the vehicle that the pontiffs use to move safely among the crowds and that allows the faithful to see the Pope.

For the transfer of the coffin, the rear of the Papamóvil had to be adapted.

This Saturday tens of thousands of people crowded the 6 -kilometer journey that separates the Basilica of San Pedro and that of Santa María la Mayor to be able to give a last goodbye to the Pontiff.

People from all over the world applauded to the Papamóvil, while the bells of the Basilica of San Pedro sounded.

Some 3,000 volunteers along the route were deployed to provide pilgrims indications, medical aid or water.

Most of the main roads of the center of Rome were curtice to traffic for the transfer of the coffin in the procession, which passed next to emblematic points of the Italian capital such as the Roman forum and the Colosseum.

If in the Plaza de San Pedro Francisco he was fired by the powerful and world leaders, upon his arrival in the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor the Pope was received by the disinherited, to which the Pontiff always had in the center of his preaching.

A group of transsexual people, prisoners, beggars and migrants accompanied the arrival of Francisco’s coffin to the basilica that he chose to be buried.

Francisco is the first Pope to be buried outside the Vatican in more than 100 years. The last one was Leo XIII, who died in 1903.

“I want my last earthly trip to end precisely in this former Marian sanctuary, where I always stop to pray at the beginning and end of each apostolic trip, trusting my intentions to the immaculate mother and giving thanks for her sweet and maternal care,” reads the testament of the pontiff.

The coffers of the coffin entered a section of the church away from the public’s view to celebrate a private ceremony.

The Pope was then buried in a simple grave on earth, as he wanted, in a small enclosure on a back of the basilica.

His tombstone will only carry the inscription “Franciscus”.

State funerals and, of course, also papal, are a moment of congregation of numerous world leaders, which also leads to diplomatic encounters.

It is what has occurred this Saturday inside the Basilica of San Pedro among the presidents of the United States and Ukraine, who have left a powerful image for posterity.

Trump and Zelensky, sitting face to face in two chairs and separated from the rest of the guests, a private conversation about peace negotiations with Russia could blanket, in which the US is mediating.

The White House described the 15 -minute meeting as “very productive” and Zelensky then described it as “very symbolic” with “potential to become historical.”

The meeting occurs a day after Steve Witkoff, a special envoy from Trump, met in Moscow with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for three hours.

It also happens two months after both leaders starred in a heated discussion in the White House, when Trump told Zelensky that he was not winning and that “he did not have the letters” to do so.

Ukrainian officials talked about a possible second meeting later, but Trump’s delegation left San Pedro Justo after the funeral and his plane left Rome shortly after.

Zelensky was photographed holding separate meetings with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, after the funeral, and planned to meet with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

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