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World bids farewell to Pope Francis
The Argentine pope, who reigned for 12 years, died at the age of 88 on Monday after suffering a stroke, Reuters reported.
“Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings and hopes of this time,” said Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who presided over the funeral Mass.
In spiritual language, the 91-year-old Re gave a simple message: there was no going back. The first pontiff from Latin America had been “attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the Church,” he said.
Applause rang out as Francis’ coffin, inlaid with a large cross, was brought out of the basilica and into the sun-filled square by 14 white-gloved pallbearers at the start of the Mass.
The Vatican estimated more than 250,000 people attended the ceremony, cramming the square and the roads around.
The crowds clapped loudly again at the end of the service when the ushers picked up the casket and tilted it slightly so more people could see.
Aerial views of the Vatican showed a patchwork of colors - black from the dark garb of the world’s leaders, red from the vestments of some 250 cardinals, the purple worn by some of the 400 bishops and the white worn by 4,000 attending priests.
After the funeral, as the great bells of St. Peter’s pealed in mourning, the coffin was placed on an open-topped popemobile and driven through the heart of Rome to St. Mary Major Basilica.
Francis, who shunned much of the pomp and privilege of the papacy, had asked to be buried there rather than in St. Peter’s -- the first time a pope had been laid to rest outside the Vatican in more than a century.
The burial itself was conducted in private.
Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Abbas Salehi also attended the funeral ceremony in Rome.
Francis’ death ushered in a meticulously planned period of transition, marked by ancient ritual, pomp and mourning. Over the past three days, around 250,000 people filed past his open coffin, laid out before the altar of the cavernous basilica.
Francis, the first non-European pope for almost 13 centuries, battled to reshape the Church, siding with the poor and marginalized, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and reverse climate change.