Follow the Pope's funeral here
The funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, has begun in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, where hundreds of thousands of the Catholic faithful have gathered to bid farewell to the pontiff.
Moments before, the huge crowd that had come from all over the world had fallen silent. Only the heavy ringing of bells could be heard, interrupted at times by the hum of helicopters – a sign of the security measures for the ceremony.
Pope Francis died from complications following a stroke and heart failure. His funeral is being presided over by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals. Universal prayers for the late pontiff were recited in several languages, including Arabic.
The ceremony has drawn an extensive list of international dignitaries, including at least 50 heads of state, 10 reigning monarchs and 130 national delegations. French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Donald Trump, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Britain’s Prince William and former US president Joe Biden are in attendance.
Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, is representing the UAE at the funeral. In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista referred to the historic visit of Pope Francis to the UAE six years ago.
“In 2019, during his trip to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis signed a document on human fraternity for world peace and living together, recalling the common fatherhood of God,” Cardinal Battista said.
King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife Queen Rania, and Joseph Aoun, President of Lebanon, which is home to a sizeable Christian community, are also among the dignitaries from the Middle East.
Pope Francis lay in state for three days at St Peter’s Basilica, where people from around the world came to pay their final respects. Many, such as Anna Tabat, waited for hours before being able to enter the Basilica. "We went at 5am just to see him,” Ms Tabat, a Filipina who has lived in Italy for 16 years, told The National.
“I was lucky because I got to pray next to his coffin for 30 minutes. I wanted to cry.”
Emil Anton, an Iraqi Finnish man, also arrived in the early morning, hours before the funeral is set to take place. "I woke up at 4am, I couldn’t sleep more."
As a Syriac catholic, he praised Pope Francis’s dedication to the Middle East. "Pope Francis was the first Pope to go to Iraq. This was one of the most important things of his papacy."
During the three days leading up to the funeral, emotion was palpable. For many of the faithful, Pope Francis was seen as a transformative figure, committed to giving a voice to the marginalised.
“It is really very, very important for me to be here at the funeral of Pope Francis to bid him farewell,” said Father Bagare Matthew from South Sudan. “I’m speaking with tears in my eyes, tears of happiness and sorrow, because we have lost Pope Francis, the man who stood for peace, who valued us, and who believed that we South Sudanese could live better lives than we do now.”
The pontiff was seen as a leading voice in calling for ending some of the world’s deadliest conflicts, including in war-torn South Sudan, which he visited in 2023.
The public viewing closed at 7pm on Friday, and the Pope’s coffin was sealed at 8pm during a private ceremony led by senior cardinals.
A 'simple' funeral
From St Peter's Square, the casket will be transferred to the Basilica of St Mary Major, where Pope Francis will be buried in a “simple tomb” according to his will. He is the first pontiff in more than a century to be buried outside the Vatican.
“The tomb must be in the earth; simple, without particular decoration and with the only inscription: Franciscus,” the pontiff said in his will, published by the Vatican.
The funeral of Pope Francis is expected to move away from the traditional pomp associated with papal funerals. Last year, he significantly simplified the funeral rites, breaking with centuries-old practices.
He requested, for instance, a simple wooden coffin lined with zinc, instead of the three nesting coffins made of cypress, lead and oak traditionally used.
Additionally, his casket was not raised on a platform, as had been the case with previous popes.
For many, this simple funeral reflects the values of humility and simplicity that he was praised for upholding throughout his papacy.
“Of course, his lifestyle was very simple. He wanted it that way. He has wanted to be close to the people and did not want to live secluded where the public couldn’t reach him,” Lebanese priest Father Youssef Chedid, Procurator General of the Antonine Maronite Order to the Holy See, told The National. “The Pope used to be a figure you could not approach; but Pope Francis made sure he was approachable.”
