Pope Francis Emotional Burial drew a massive outpouring of grief and unity as the world bid farewell to the 88-year-old pontiff who transformed the Catholic Church with his humility, courage, and compassion.
Under the soft glow of Rome’s spring skies, more than 250,000 mourners filled St. Peter’s Square on Saturday.
Heads of state and religious leaders from across the globe, including U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Britain’s Prince William, stood shoulder to shoulder in a rare moment of shared mourning.
Breaking from centuries of tradition, Pope Francis was laid to rest not within the Vatican walls but at the Basilica of St. Mary Major — a sacred site close to his heart.
His simple wooden coffin, lined with zinc and free from ornate decorations, reflected the radical humility that defined both his life and his papacy.
Security around Vatican City was unprecedented, with Italian authorities deploying more than 2,500 police officers and 1,500 soldiers, alongside the closure of Rome’s airspace.
Despite the tight security, the atmosphere remained peaceful and deeply reverent.
The Requiem Mass, led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, was marked by raw emotion. “Francis was a sinner whom the Lord looked upon,” Cardinal Re said, echoing the Pope’s own words and drawing tears from many in the crowd.
Red-robed Cardinals, bishops, priests, and thousands of faithful worshippers stretched beyond the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square, united in grief.
Thunderous applause erupted as Pope Francis’s simple casket emerged from St. Peter’s Basilica, carried by 14 white-gloved pallbearers.
In a historic and emotional procession, his body was taken through the ancient streets of Rome in a 4-kilometer journey to his final resting place at St. Mary Major.
Along the route, an estimated 150,000 mourners lined the streets, waving flowers, shedding tears, and whispering heartfelt farewells.
As the golden Roman sunlight faded, so too ended an extraordinary chapter in the history of the Catholic Church. Yet Pope Francis’s enduring legacy lives on — not in grand monuments, but in the millions of lives he touched with his profound message of love, service, and humility.
