VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is being laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony reflecting his priorities as pope and wishes as pastor: Presidents and princes will attend his funeral in St. Peter’s Square, but prisoners and migrants will usher him into the basilica where he will be buried.
The Associated Press has a livestream from Vatican City, scheduled to start at 2 a.m. ET here:
As many as 200,000 people are expected to attend the funeral, which Francis choreographed himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope’s role as a mere priest and not “a powerful man of this world,” the Vatican said.
It was a reflection of Francis’ 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to emphasize its pastors as servants, and to construct “a poor church for the poor.” It was a mission he articulated just days after his 2013 election and explained the name he chose as pope, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” according to the official decree of the pope’s life that was placed in his coffin Friday night.
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Nevertheless, the powerful will be in attendance Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, the U.N. chief and European Union leaders are joining Prince William and the Spanish royal family in leading official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis’ Argentine nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and Francis alienated many Argentines by never returning home.
Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will buried in the St. Mary Major Basilica, near Rome’s main train station, where a simple underground tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus. As many as 300,000 people are expected to line the 2.5 mile motorcade route that will bring Francis’ casket from the Vatican through the center of Rome to the basilica after the funeral.
Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia.
