Last multitudinous farewell to Francis, the pope of the people

RomeThe late Pope Francis received his final farewell this Saturday. in a sober ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in front of some 250,000 people, before being buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the center of Rome, where the Argentine pontiff had expressed his wish to be buried because he was very devoted to the Virgin Mary. The pontiff's funeral was officiated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, the 91-year-old Italian Giovanni Battista Re, whose position the Pope recently renewed. As Francis requested, the funeral was marked by simplicity and closeness, faithful to his legacy.

A loud applause greeted the appearance of the simple wooden coffin containing the pontiff's remains, which were carried on the shoulders of twelve sediarios, the bearers of the ancient gestatory chairs, to the atrium of Piazza Sant Pere. The funeral chapel was set up inside, where 250,000 people passed through in three days to bid farewell to the pope of the people.

The coffin was placed in front of the altar as the death bells rang, and an open Gospel book was placed on top of it before the rosary began, which preceded the ceremony. The first readings of the Mass began just after 10:00 a.m. and were given in English, Latin, and Spanish. Following this, Gregorian chants were heard again in Sant Pere, accompanied by an organ played by the official Vatican organist, the Catalan Josep Solé.

Cardinal Re began his homily by recalling the last image of Pope Francis., "who will remain in our eyes and in our hearts": "[Last Sunday] In this majestic St. Peter's Square, despite his health problems, he wanted to give us his blessing and then came down to this square from the popemobile to greet the gathered crowd."

"He was a pope with an open heart to everyone."

The dean of cardinals recalled with strong emotion how Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen to succeed Pope Benedict XVI and, from the very moment he chose his name, Francis, made clear the style that would define his pontificate, dedicating himself immeasurably, above all, to the least of the people of the Earth and the marginalized. He was a pope among the people with a heart open to everyone." "In the face of the outbreak of so many wars in recent years, with inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis has not ceased to raise his voice, imploring peace and calling for common sense and honest negotiation to find possible solutions," proclaimed Giovanni Battista Re before the fine subsided.

Words that have a particularly powerful meaning because they were spoken before more than a hundred official delegations and international leaders, including in the front row the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and a few meters away his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he met shortly before the start of the funeral. which has left an iconic image of the two leaders sitting in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Pope, who with 47 apostolic journeys "reached the peripheries of the world," also received farewells from the last, the most vulnerable, those who didn't have a place reserved by strict Vatican protocol among the ranks of the authorities, but who came anyway to bid the pontiff their final farewells. These included the three Syrian families the Pope took on his plane during the return trip from the Lesbos refugee camp in 2021. They have since lived in Rome and for whom the Pope never ceased to care. An innovative gesture among the many that plagued his twelve years as papacy.

Funeral procession to the basilica

A crowd accompanied the funeral procession from St. Peter's through the center of Rome to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he was buried. The pontiff's coffin traveled six kilometers aboard an adapted popemobile that he had used on one of his trips.

The funeral procession, made up of the Pope's closest relatives and cardinals, left the Vatican through the Porta Perugino and partly traveled along the ancient Via Papalis, the procession traditionally made by popes after their appointment between St. Peter's and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. It passed through Piazza Venezia, through the Imperial Forums to the Colosseum, and reached the basilica along the Via Merulana, a journey faster than expected, flanked by thousands of people who applauded as it passed and shouted: "Francis!"

And so, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been saying goodbye to the Petrine See, to the streets of Rome where he walked so many times, even in private, to meet the homeless and those most in need, but also to buy records in a small shop he always visited when he traveled to the capital as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Or to buy shoes: black, simple, and with soles worn from walking the outskirts. The same shoes he was buried in.

The pontiff's coffin was received on the steps of the basilica by a group of vulnerable people; poor, prisoners, transsexuals and homeless people who have honored him until his burial inside the temple, where he will rest forever in a simple grave, with a headstone in the ground made of Ligurian marble, the Italian region where his maternal grandparents were from. Above it will be a single inscription: Franciscus.