Pope Francis' funeral begins in hours: who will be there and who will be absent.
ROME.—Just as when he took office on March 19, 2013, he brought together the powerful of the Earth with the least, the Pope of the end of the world, who preached the culture of encounter throughout his life, will do the same again this Saturday, as he established, in his final farewell.
At a solemn funeral that he wanted to be simple, because the one saying goodbye “is a shepherd and not a monarch” , as they recalled this Friday morning at the Vatican, there will be Donald Trump, his predecessor, Joe Biden , Giorgia Meloni , Emmanuel Macron , Javier Milei , Lula da Silva , Don Felipe and Doña Letizia , Ursula von der Leyen and the list goes on...
At the solemn funeral, which will take place at 10 a.m. local time (5 a.m. in Argentina) in a packed St. Peter's Square, sealed off by extreme security measures, there will be at least 50 heads of state, a dozen reigning sovereigns, ministers, governors, ambassadors, religious leaders of various faiths, and diplomats . But, as was his wish, his favorite sons will also be present: his friend the cartonero, Sergio Sánchez —who also attended the inaugural Mass—as well as trans people, the poor, prostitutes, migrants, and detainees who obtained special permission.
It will be an unprecedented funeral, not only because of this summit of the powerful and the marginalized. Also because, for the first time in decades, the Pope will not be buried in St. Peter's Basilica. Francis's coffin—which was closed this Friday in a private ceremony presided over by the Cardinal Camerlengo after being bid farewell by more than 250,000 people—will then be carried in a procession, sure to be impressive, to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. His hearse will, in fact, travel the 6 kilometers that separate the two papal basilicas, passing at a snail's pace through the historic heart of Rome—Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Piazza Venezia, Fori Imperiali—to give the thousands of people who will not be able to access the Vatican area the opportunity to also say goodbye to the so-called "People's Pope."
In a farewell he had evidently planned for many years, upon arriving at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, his favorite, where his favorite Virgin is located, he will be greeted on the steps by a group of the world's forgotten, holding a white rose—his favorite flower.
Hours earlier, at the solemn Mass, which will be presided over by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re , dean of the College of Cardinals, and concelebrated by cardinals, bishops, and priests, there will be many young people present. Although the canonization of Carlo de Acutis, which was supposed to have taken place on Sunday, was canceled due to the Pope's death, the Jubilee for Adolescents was not. And this Saturday, the number of young people who came to the Vatican to bid farewell, with great joy, banners, and songs, to an 88-year-old Pope, yet young at heart and open to "all, all, all."
Argentines will also be present, both anonymous—the vast majority—and well-known. President Milei will have a privileged position, in the front row, in a VIP section to the right of the altar, as the President of the Pope's country. He will be seated next to the Italian delegation, led by his friend Giorgia Meloni , President Sergio Mattarella, and others, who will follow later with their crowned heads. And then, as protocol dictates, with the other countries, arranged to avoid jealousy and envy, according to an order based on the French alphabet. Instead of United States of America, it will be États-Unis.
Also present will be several of Pope Bergoglio's relatives, including direct nephews and kinsmen from more distant branches, such as one from Córdoba, as well as from the Piedmontese branch. The Pope's only surviving sister, Maria Elena, the youngest of the five Bergoglios, who has been in poor health for years and was never able to see her brother dressed as Pope, will not be present .
José María del Corral , one of the presidents of the Scholas Occurrentes movement, who was in the front row at Francis' inauguration Mass in his white smock, will also be present. Several other Argentine friends will also be present, including his former spokesman during his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the priest Guillermo Marcó , who traveled with Muslim leader Omar Abboud and Rabbi Daniel Goldman , the three founders of the Institute for Religious Dialogue.
“We were with Daniel and Omar, the three of us together, praying for a while in the chapel in front of his coffin, a prayer of responsability, Omar in his language and Daniel in Hebrew, thanking God for the gift of their friendship and so many things we experienced together, especially the fruits of the IDI,” Marcó told LA NACION.
And dressed in his worker's clothes and shoes, his cardboard collector friend, Sergio Sánchez, will also be there.
“Francis has accustomed us to certain words that help us better understand the Gospel: brotherhood, closeness, the discarded, discernment, tenderness, mercy… These are words that with Francis have taken on a completely new freshness and flavor. Francis has managed to translate the Gospel for ordinary people. This is something that is clearly seen in the thousands and thousands of people, mostly ordinary people, who have passed through St. Peter's Basilica these days to pay homage to Francis and bid him farewell,” Neapolitan Capuchin friar Agnello Stoia, who has been parish priest of St. Peter's Basilica since June 2021, told LA NACION.
“The vast majority of the 250,000 who passed through these three days were ordinary people, ordinary people. I've seen people of other religions, I've seen many disabled people who have waited for hours in line to greet Francis, I've seen many, many young people… A huge variety of people, which shows how deeply transversal his message was ,” he added. “I don't know how much attention the great people of the Earth who will come to the funeral will have paid to Francis, how much they will have listened to the words of a pope who has borne witness to peace, but his message certainly resonated with the ordinary people ,” he emphasized.
The Capuchin friar last saw Pope Francis on Sunday, April 6. Then, after a stop at the Basilica, he appeared in public for the first time since his discharge from the Gemelli Hospital, wearing nasal cannulas, at the end of the Mass for the Jubilee of the Sick. “I think Francis wanted to die with his boots on, and thank God, he didn't die in the hospital. He wasn't afraid to show that he was a sick, fragile man. His death, the day after his Urbi et Orbi blessing and his final ride in the popemobile around St. Peter's Square, has the scent of Easter,” he concluded, moved.
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