THOUSANDS of mourners have queued to visit the white marble tomb of Pope Francis in the Basilica of St Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore), Rome, as the Vatican’s outgoing Secretary of State urged young people to make his legacy “part of their lives”.
“Only mercy heals and creates a new world, putting out the fires of distrust, hatred and violence: this is the great teaching of Pope Francis,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin told a congregation of 200,000 in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday in the Roman Catholic calendar.
“Pope Francis was a shining witness of a Church that bends with tenderness towards those who are wounded and heals with the balm of mercy. He reminded us that there can be no peace without recognition of the other, without attention to those who are weaker. Above all, there can never be peace if we do not learn to forgive.”
The Cardinal was preaching to young people participating in the “Jubilee of Teenagers” festival, on the second day of the Novendiali, or nine days of mourning for Pope Francis.
He said that sadness and bewilderment over the death on 21 April of the Pope, who would have liked to greet them, resembled the bewilderment of the Apostles at the death of Jesus, but should also be dispelled by the “joy of the gospel”, which Francis frequently recalled.
The Pope was laid to rest, at his own request, in a side-nave niche in St Mary Major, after his televised open-air funeral on Saturday, attended by 250,000 people, including the Prince of Wales and Sir Keir Starmer, as well as crowned heads, presidents, and other premiers, officials, and ambassadors from at least 160 countries.
The Vatican said that a further 250,000 had earlier waited up to four hours to file past the open coffin in St Peter’s Basilica from 23 to 25 April.
An Anglican Communion delegation, led by the Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, the Most Revd Marinez Bassotto, included the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally.
At least 40 ecumenical representatives also attended the funeral, including the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Revd Professor Jerry Pillay, and the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, who was assigned a place of honour at the mass, during which an open book of the Gospels was placed on the Pope’s plain oak coffin before the St Peter’s Square altar.
In his funeral homily, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, said that the “outpouring of affection” for Francis highlighted how his “profound pontificate” had “touched hearts and minds”, as he followed a “path of self-giving” with a “resolute personality” and marked attention to “the marginalised and least among us”.
The Cardinal listed the Pope’s care for refugees and displaced people, and encouragement of a “worldwide aspiration to fraternity”, as well as his work for Creation, peace, and interreligious dialogue, and his view of the Church as a “field hospital”, easing the “great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart”.
“He was a Pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone — a Pope attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the Church,” Cardinal Re said.
“Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings, and hopes of this time of globalisation. . . His charisma of welcome and listening, combined with a manner of behaviour in keeping with today’s sensitivities, touched hearts and sought to reawaken moral and spiritual sensibilities.”
The funeral service, sung by the Sistine Chapel Choir mainly to Gregorian chant and polyphony (unattributed in the order of service), included readings and prayers in various languages, including Chinese and Arabic.
Italian police said that 150,000 people had later lined the streets of Rome as the Pope’s coffin was carried on a retrofitted popemobile across the Tiber, passing the mother church of his Jesuit order and the ancient Forum and Colosseum, where his Good Friday meditations had been read aloud just a week earlier.
The coffin was greeted at St Mary Major by what the Vatican described as a “group of poor and needy”, including inmates from the Rebibbia Prison in Rome, before being led to final burial, presided over by the Camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell.
Dates of the conclave to elect the next Pope were to be announced on Monday after a meeting of the Church’s 252 cardinals — 135 of whom are eligible to participate in the closed event — expected to last two to three days.
Media reports said that bookmakers were accepting bets on cardinals judged most “papabile”, amid rival warnings from liberal and conservative groups against any changes to Church doctrine and practice.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Sunday programme, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said that the question “What kind of Pope?” would be the “on everyone’s mind”, as the Cardinal-electors assembled “a mosaic of the Church and the world, and how the two relate together”.
The Cardinal said that the need to “listen and discern” had been helped by the Church’s “recent experience of synodality”, but a shared commitment to Christ was “the only point of unity” among the cardinals, who would be “telling their stories” from “every corner of the globe”.
Asked about fears that the Church risked “going backwards” under a more conservative Pope, Cardinal Nichols said that the conclave would be choosing “the successor to St Peter, not solely to Pope Francis”.
“So forwards or backwards is not a great analogy; deeper or more outward-going are better directions to take,” said the Cardinal, who will be one of three English participants. “Who will take us deeper into the saving mystery of Christ? Who will understand the dialogue and interface that broadens the scope and the influence of the Church?”
In a statement, the secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt Revd Anthony Poggo, said that Anglicans had “deeply appreciated” Pope Francis’s “remarkable leadership”, which had “touched the hearts of millions, transcending the boundaries of Christian divisions and inspiring people of all faiths to join hands in pursuit of a more just and compassionate world”.
The late Pope’s “commitment to dialogue, understanding, and shared mission” had, he said, opened “new avenues of collaboration” between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, and a “way towards healing the wounds of division”.
Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, who will take part in the conclave, told the Church Times on Monday that Pope Francis had “reached out to people, right until the end”, and had been grateful for being able “to make one last visit” to St Peter’s Square on Easter Day, a day before his death.
“Now he rests in joy, though we grieve,” the Cardinal said.
