‘A home for all’: 400,000 farewell ‘open-hearted’ Pope in Rome

Pope Francis was ‘a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone,’ said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the Pope, who died on 21 April at the age of 88.

And the people—an estimated 250,000 of them—were present in St Peter’s Square and the neighbouring streets as 14 pallbearers carried Pope Francis’ casket into the square and set it on a carpet in front of the altar for the funeral Mass on Saturday 26 April, with hundreds of millions around the world also watching the Mass on television and online.

His burial took place later the same day in Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major after being driven in a motorcade through the centre of the city where he served as bishop from the day of his election to the papacy on 13 March 2013.

A gathering of the poor and the powerful

Security around the Vatican was tight, not only because of the number of mourners expected but especially because of the presence of kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, government officials and ambassadors.

The Australian Church was represented by President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, and Bishop Anthony Randazzo, President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania, was also present. Describing the Mass as ‘solemn and dignified’, Archbishop Costelloe noted the fact that it was preceded by the praying of the Rosary and ended with the Magnificat, as the Pope’s casket was carried into St Peter’s Basilica. ‘The presence of Mary, the mother of the Lord, was therefore very real,’ he said.

Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn represented the Australian government, along with Australia’s Ambassador designate to the Holy See Keith Pitt, Trade Minister Don Farrell and former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack.

More than 160 nations sent delegations to the funeral, including many on the ‘peripheries’, such as Timor-Leste, Cuba, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Mongolia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Palestine and many others.

Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life.

Among the world leaders present were Prince William of the United Kingdom, English Prime Minster Keir Starmer, US President Donald J Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Argentine President Javier Milei, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Also present were the residents of a Vatican palace Pope Francis had turned into a shelter for the homeless, and the 12 Syrian refugees he brought to Rome with him from a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2016.

A pope who ‘built bridges not walls’

The gospel reading at the funeral was John 21:15–19, where the risen Jesus asks Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ And when Peter says yes, Jesus tells him, ‘Feed my sheep.’

‘Despite his frailty and suffering toward the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life,’ Cardinal Re said in his homily. ‘He followed in the footsteps of his Lord, the Good Shepherd, who loved his sheep to the point of giving his life for them.’

The 91-year-old cardinal told the crowd that the image of Pope Francis that ‘will remain etched in our memory’ was his appearance on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica the day before he died to give his Easter blessing ‘urbi et orbi’ (to the city and the world) and then to ride in the popemobile among the people who had come to celebrate Christ’s victory over death.

‘The outpouring of affection that we have witnessed in recent days following his passing from this earth into eternity tells us how much the profound pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts,’ Cardinal Re said. The Vatican estimated that 250,000 people—many of whom waited in line for three or four hours—filed past the late Pope’s body in St Peter’s Basilica from 23 to 25 April.

‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times, and his service of faith as successor of the Apostle Peter always was linked to the service of humanity in all its dimensions.

Within the Church, the cardinal said, ‘the guiding thread’ of Pope Francis’ ministry was his ‘conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open’.

With President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olga Lyubimova, Russian Minister of Culture, seated near the altar, Cardinal Re said that ‘faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions.’

‘“Build bridges, not walls” was an exhortation he repeated many times, and his service of faith as successor of the Apostle Peter always was linked to the service of humanity in all its dimensions,’ the cardinal said.

Cardinal Re also recalled Pope Francis’ constant concern for migrants and refugees from his first papal trip outside of Rome to pray for migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, his visit to Lesbos and his celebration of Mass in 2016 on the US–Mexican border.

At the end of the Mass, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Papal Vicar of Rome, offered special prayers for the city’s deceased bishop, Pope Francis. Then Eastern Catholic patriarchs and major archbishops gathered around the casket and led funeral prayers from the Byzantine tradition in honour of the pastor of the universal Catholic Church.

A final journey through Rome

After the funeral Mass, pallbearers carried Pope Francis’ coffin through St Peter’s Basilica, stopping briefly at the steps leading to St Peter’s tomb before placing it on a retrofitted popemobile parked outside.

Hundreds awaited outside and applauded as the vehicle, accompanied by four police officers on motorbikes, left the grounds of Vatican City for the last time.

According to the Vatican and Italian police, some 150,000 people watched the Pope’s casket pass by.

Along the route, tourists and bystanders packed the streets, some teetering on top of the stone walls, while residents leant out of their upper-story apartment windows. When the motorcade passed, people clapped and cheered, some shouting ‘Grazie, Papa Francesco’ (‘Thank you, Pope Francis’) and ‘Viva il Papa’ (‘Long live the Pope’).

The cortegé bearing the first Jesuit pope passed by the Gesu Church, the mother church of the Society of Jesus in Rome’s historic centre, where the body of the order’s founder, St Ignatius of Loyola, is buried.

Among the tens of thousands of people hoping to catch a glimpse of the papal casket outside Rome’s famed Colosseum was a group of 50 young people from the Diocese of Verona who were in Rome for the Jubilee of Adolescents.

For 23-year-old Samuele Simoni, the death of Pope Francis, which happened while the group made their way to Rome for the Jubilee pilgrimage, was ‘unimaginable’.

Speaking to Catholic News Service, Mr Simoni said bidding the Pope farewell along the route to his tomb was a way for the group to witness ‘the strength of the Church in such an important time of mourning’.

Coming to rest

When the casket arrived at Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major, pallbearers carried it in a solemn procession down the central nave.

The basilica was dear to Pope Francis throughout his pontificate as he would often go to pray before the icon Salus Populi Romani (Health—or salvation—of the Roman people), especially before and after his papal trips.

Before reaching the Pope’s final resting place, the pallbearers stopped in front of the chapel where Pope Francis often laid flowers and prayed before the icon of Mary. This time, two boys and two girls carried baskets of white flowers and set them before the altar under the Marian icon.

The pallbearers then made their way to Pope Francis’ tomb, where acting head of the Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell presided over the burial rite, which was not broadcast live.

In a statement released on 24 April, the Vatican press office said ‘a group of the poor and needy will be present on the steps’ leading to the papal basilica to welcome his casket. Corriere della Sera also reported that five prisoners from Rome’s Rebibbia Prison were given special permission to be present at the basilica and attend the Pope’s burial, a gesture reflecting the late Pope’s special affection for prisoners.

‘With sorrow, but not without hope’

Melburnian Susan Pascoe AM, who served as a member of two groups supporting the planning and preparation of the global Synod on Synodality, happened to be in Rome for the funeral, joining the crowds in St Peter’s Square.

Having been moved by ‘the global outpouring of grief and gratitude’ when the Pope’s death was announced, she was also impressed by the spirit of ‘respectful familiarity’ among the mourners in the square. ‘Our presence was proof enough of shared belief, or at least shared respect for a holy man,’ she said.

It was an honour to be among the mourners, to give thanks for his presence among us.

As the Pope’s casket emerged from the basilica, the crowd around her applauded—‘a strange response at a funeral, but somehow fitting in the huge crowd of people of all ages from every corner of the globe’.

There was a sense of being ‘in a holy place’, she said. ‘The Spirit was among us; we were celebrating the essence of the Eucharist as we do at home.‘

She was also ‘struck by the grandeur of the setting, the simplicity of the coffin, the beauty of the singing, the power of the eulogy, and the collective presence of the most senior members of the Church. It was a fitting tribute to a life of witness and servant leadership.‘

For Ms Pascoe personally, ‘it was an honour to be among the mourners, to give thanks for his presence among us. And it was an opportunity to pray for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to be among the cardinals when they assemble to elect the next successor of Peter.’

Cardinal Mykola Bychok, Eparch for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, was also among those who gathered at the Vatican for the funeral, an occasion he described as ‘a profoundly sacred moment for the Church and for the world’.

‘As a newly appointed cardinal, this experience is still very new to me,’ said the cardinal, who concelebrated the funeral Mass and who will be among the cardinals voting to elect a new Pope.

‘We come here with sorrow, but not without hope,’ Cardinal Bychok said at a media conference in Rome on 25 April, noting that Pope Francis ‘himself often said, “The name of God is mercy.” And indeed, if there was ever a Pope who proclaimed, lived and embodied God’s mercy, it was Francis.

He was a bridge builder. A man who never stopped hoping that peace, even in the most hopeless of situations, is possible with God.

‘He was a Pope of mercy—not just in word, but in action. He reached out to the poor, the excluded, the wounded. He taught us not to judge but to accompany. He reminded us again and again that no one is beyond the reach of God’s love.’

Cardinal Bychok said he had been especially moved by the late Pope’s closeness to Ukraine, noting that ‘In our darkest hours, he did not forget us. He spoke often of our suffering. He prayed for peace. He wept with us. He appealed to the world not to grow indifferent.’ What the Pope offer, he said, was ‘something uniquely Christian: a pastoral closeness, a fatherly concern, and an unceasing call for peace—not revenge, not escalation, but peace rooted in justice and reconciliation.

We entrust Pope Francis to God and thank God for the gift he has been to us.

‘He was a bridge builder. A man who never stopped hoping that peace, even in the most hopeless of situations, is possible with God.’

Reflecting after the funeral on the events of the past week, Archbishop Costelloe reminded Australian Catholics that the life of the Church goes on.

‘This is the Jubilee Year of Hope and as we entrust Pope Francis to God and thank God for the gift Francis has been to us, the Church is celebrating the Jubilee of Young People,’ he said, describing the presence and enthusiasm of the young pilgrims who have flocked to Rome for the Jubilee as ‘a gift of hope to the whole Church’.

Urging the People of God to ‘surround the cardinals with our prayerful support’ as they prepare to elect a new pope—not necessarily the pope we want, but ‘the pope that the Church and the world really needs at this time’—Archbishop Costello declared that ‘The Church is alive, it lives by faith, and it is guided and sustained by the power of God’s Spirit. That is why we can move forward in confidence, trusting that the Lord who has been faithful to his Church through the ages will not cease to be faithful to his Church today.’