Pope Francis was laid to rest in Rome on Saturday with a moving, multi-lingual ceremony that reflected his humble approach to the papacy and the global adoration he enjoyed as the “People’s Pope.”
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the streets around St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to pay their final respects to a man whose message, from the very first days of his papacy in March 2013 to his last on 21 April 2025, was that the church was a home for all—no matter their race, class, religion, or sexual orientation.
Presidents, cardinals, key world figures, and royalty attended the requiem mass held in front of St. Peter’s Basilica as Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re eulogized a man who spoke to everyone “especially to the marginalized, the least among us.”
“Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings, and hopes of this time of globalization,” Re told an audience that included President Donald Trump, former President Joe Biden, Britain’s Prince William, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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The proceedings were broadcast on large screens set up along the Tiber River and throughout the city to accommodate the mass crowds. Sister Margaret Wyrodek, of Poland, tells TIME that she wanted to accompany Pope Francis on his final journey because he had accompanied so many through their own difficult journeys. “He was the parish priest to the whole world,” she says. “He comforted the marginalized, the poor, the people who were abused, the people on the sidelines.”
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis was the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and the first non-European Pontiff in more than 1,200 years. He was a man loved for his genial humility and how he ushered the Catholic Church into a contemporary era by preaching tolerance…
