Pope Francis’ funeral begins at St Peter’s Square
Joshua McElwee, Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella |
Pope Francis’s coffin has been brought from St Peter’s Basilica to the altar in the square as world leaders and the faithful gather for his funeral.
Royalty, presidents, prime ministers and a legion of faithful arrived to pay their last respects to the pontiff and honour his sometimes turbulent papacy.
Among those attending from more than 150 countries are US President Donald Trump, who clashed with Francis on numerous occasions over their starkly contrasting positions on immigration.
Thousands of ordinary mourners hurried towards the Vatican at first light.
Many camped out to try to secure spots at the front of the crowd for the ceremony.
The Argentine pope died on Monday, aged 88, following a stroke.
His death ushered in a meticulously planned period of transition for the 1.4-billion member Roman Catholic Church, marked by ancient ritual, pomp and mourning.
In the past three days, about 250,000 people filed past his body, which was laid out in an open coffin before the altar of the 16th-century St Peter’s Basilica.
His casket was carried through the main doors on Saturday for the outdoor funeral, which started about 10am (6pm AEST).
Massed ranks of foreign dignitaries are at one side of the stone colonnade, facing hundreds of red-hatted cardinals on opposite banks of seats.
Alongside Trump are the presidents of Argentina, France, Gabon, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, Poland and Ukraine, together with the prime ministers of Britain and New Zealand, and many European royals.
The Vatican said some 250,000 mourners would fill the vast, cobbled esplanade and main access route to the basilica.
The ceremony is being presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, a 91-year-old Italian prelate.
The first non-European pope for almost 13 centuries, Francis battled to reshape the Roman Catholic Church during his 12-year reign, siding with the poor and marginalised, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and reverse climate change.
Traditionalists pushed back at his efforts to make the church more transparent, while his pleas for an end to conflict, divisions and rampant capitalism often fell on deaf ears.
The Pope shunned much of the pomp and privilege usually associated with the papacy and will carry that desire for greater simplicity into his funeral, having rewritten the elaborate, book-long funeral rites used previously.
While Pope St John Paul II’s funeral in 2005 lasted almost three hours, the service on Saturday is due to take 90 minutes.
Francis also opted to forgo a centuries-old practice of burying popes in three interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead and oak.
Instead, he has been placed in a single, zinc-lined wooden coffin, which was sealed closed overnight.
In a further break with tradition, he will be the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century, preferring Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major, some 5.5km from St Peter’s, as his final resting place.
His tomb has just “Franciscus”, his name in Latin, inscribed on the top.
His funeral motorcade will drive him through the city for one last time, allowing Romans to say farewell.
Italy has mounted one of the biggest security operations the country has seen since the funeral of St John Paul II.
As soon as Francis is buried, attention will switch to who might succeed him.
The secretive conclave to elect a successor is unlikely to begin before May 6.
And might not start for several days after that, giving cardinals time to hold regular meetings beforehand to sum each other up and assess the state of the church, beset by financial problems and ideological divisions.
Reuters
