Pope Francis I, the humblest of popes, was laid to rest in an irresistible orgy of pomp and splendor at the Vatican on Saturday, during a funeral attended by kings, queens, and heads of state.
President Donald Trump was unexpectedly allocated a front-row seat, as was President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Trump and his wife Melania, who arrived in Italy on Friday night on Air Force One, and spent the night at Villa Taverna, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador, were given a privileged moment with the pope’s coffin inside St Peter’s Basilica, before the casket was brought outside for the funeral mass in Saint Peter’s Square.
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The White House said that Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelensky before the ceremony, just hours after the president talked up a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. It was the first time the two leaders had met in person since a furious televised row in the Oval Office. A White House spokesman, Stephen Cheung, called it a “very productive discussion,” but gave no details, the New York Times said.
Zelensky’s appearance in the square triggered a spontaneous outburst of applause from the assembled crowds.
Joe Biden, the former president, also attended the funeral.
The decision to seat Zelensky and Trump in proximity could be seen as Pope Francis’ final act of peace-making.
The late pope might, however, have raised an eyebrow at the apparent hypocrisy of the president of his native Argentina, Javier Milei, who was also seated in the front row despite having referred to the pope as a “filthy leftist,” an “imbecile who defends social justice,” and “the representative of evil on Earth.”
Around 40,000 people packed into St Peter’s Square when the gates opened at 6 a.m. local time, and another 100,000 squeezed into Via della Conciliazione and adjoining streets, under blue skies and bright sunshine.
Homeless people, along with migrants brought to Italy from a refugee camp in Greece in 2016, and others rescued from the Mediterranean, were invited to attend today’s funeral, in accordance with Francis’ veneration of the poor and the peripheral.
With over 130 heads of state and international officials gathering for the funeral, authorities were implementing some of the most intense security operations in recent history. Around 4,000 law enforcement personnel were on duty, with marksmen stationed on rooftops, while canine teams and explosive ordnance squads monitored the premises. Patrol boats secured the Tiber River, a naval warship was positioned nearby, and Italian air force fighter jets guarded the airspace, enforcing a flight ban.
The Vatican said on Friday evening that a private ritual was held behind closed doors, attended by eight high-ranking cardinals, including Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Carmelengo, and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Dean of the College of Cardinals.
Known as the Rite of Sealing, the ceremony marked the formal conclusion of the public lying-in-state at St Peter’s Basilica, where nearly 250,000 mourners had come to pay their final respects. During the rite, a Latin text recounting the most significant events of the pope’s leadership was read aloud and placed inside the coffin, along with a rosary and commemorative coins from his time as pontiff.
A white silk veil was gently laid over his face, followed by the recitation of a prayer: “May his face, which has lost the light of this world, be forever illuminated by the true light whose inexhaustible source is in you.”
After the funeral mass, the pope’s coffin was driven through the streets of Rome to the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, where Francis had elected to be buried.
It was yet another display of a desire to be a man of the people, rather than an elevated, distant figure by Francis—a papal title he took in honor of Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint who gave up a life of luxury to help the disenfranchised.
Francis reportedly insisted that his tomb remain simple, stressing that people should come to the basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary “to venerate the Madonna, not to see the tomb of a pope.”
Other gestures included getting rid of the custom of papal funerals having three coffins—of cypress wood, lead, and elm, placed one inside the other—instead opting for a single, simple coffin made of wood and lined with zinc.
