• Presidents, Royalty, Pilgrims participate in Pope Francis’ funeral mass.
• Pope Francis’ funeral breaks the tradition of burial outside the Vatican.
• Huge crowds gather for funeral ceremony at St. Peters Square.
  

Presidents, Royalty and a host of simple mourning asked goodbye to Pope Francis on Saturday at his funeral, where a cardinal said the pontiff’s heritage to nurture migrants, the worn -out and the environment must not die with him.

On one side of Francis’ coffin in the huge St. Peters Square set US President Donald Trump, who collided with the pope on these issues.

On the other hand, Cardinals set out to decide whether Francis’ successor should continue with his push for a more open church or give up conservatives who want to return to a more traditional papacy.

“Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis really shared the anxiety, suffering and hope of this time,” said the Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who presided the funeral mass.

The Argentine pope, who had ruled for 12 years, died at the age of 88 Monday after suffering a stroke.

The applause called out at the start of the ceremony when 14 white gloves Pallbearers wore the coffin, admitted with a large cross, out of St. Peter’s basilica and into the square.

Air view of the Vatican showed a patchwork of colors – black from the dark clothing of the world’s leaders, red from the westments of about 250 cardinals, purple carried by some of the 400 bishopes and whites carried by 4,000 participating in priests.

Choir sang Latin hymns and prayers were recited in various languages, including Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Arabic, reflecting the global reach of 1.4 billion member Roman Catholic Church.

They faithfully rushed to St. Peters from the early hours while many camped to try to secure stains at the front of the crowd. The Vatican estimated that about 200,000 people had gathered at the start of the service.

“We will say goodbye because he (was a) living saint, very humble and simple,” said Mary James, a Franciscan nun who had stayed overnight to guarantee a good place.

Foreign values

Francis’ death led into a carefully planned period of transition, marked by the old ritual, pomp and sorrow. Over the past three days, about 250,000 people filed past his body, which was laid in an open coffin before the altar of the 16th century basilica.

Before taking their seats, Trump and his wife, Melania, paid their respect for Francis’ Coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica. The coffin was sealed closed on Friday night.

Among the other heads of state who flew into Rome were the presidents of Argentina, France, Gabon, Germany, the Philippines and Poland with the Prime Ministers in Britain and New Zealand and many royals, including the king and the queen of Spain.

Many people in the square clapped when Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared. Zelensky met Trump while both were in Rome and had a “very productive discussion,” said an official in the White House. Their meeting came at a time when Trump is pushing for an appointment to end the war in Ukraine.

Breaking tradition

Francis, the first non-European pope for nearly 13 centuries, struggled to reshape the Roman Catholic Church, sit with the poor and marginalized, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and turn climate change.

“Francis all left behind a wonderful testimony of humanity, a holy life and universal paternity,” said a formal overview of his papacy, written in Latin and placed next to his body.

Traditionalists pushed back on his efforts to make the church more transparent, while his pleas for a cessation of conflict, divisions and violent capitalism often fell on deaf ears.

The pope avoided much of the pomp and the privilege usually associated with the papacy. He wore this desire for greater simplicity in his funeral, after rewriting the detailed, book -long funeral riterate used.

Francis also chose to waive a centuries -old practice of burying popes in three interconnected boxes made of cypress, lead and oak. Instead, he was placed in a single, zinc -lined wooden list, which was sealed closed overnight.

In a further break with tradition, he will be the first pope buried outside the Vatican for more than a century, and prefer Roma’s basilica of St Mary Major, approx. 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) from St. Peters, like his last resting place.

His grave has just “Franciscus”, his name in Latin, inscribed on top. A reproduction of the simple, iron -covered cross he used to carry around his neck hangs over the marble plate.

Funeral motorcade will drive him through the city for one last time so the Romans can say goodbye.

Italy mounted one of the biggest security operations that the country has seen since the funeral of John Paul II. It closed the airspace over the city and called extra security forces with anti-aircraft missiles and patrol boats that protected the event.

As soon as Francis is buried, the attention is changed to who might succeed.

The secret conclave to choose a successor begins unlikely before May 6 and may not start for several days after it, giving Cardinal’s time to hold regular meetings in advance to summarize each other and assess the state of the church, possessed by financial problems and ideological divisions.