• Francis reshaped church, faced traditional pushback.
• Funeral tradition, burial outside the Vatican.
• The presidents of the United States, France, Argentina among VIPs.

The Vatican City: Royalty, Presidents, Prime Ministers and a Legion of Faithful Paying their last respect to Pope Francis on Saturday at a burial mass at St. Peters Square to honor his sometimes turbulent papacy.

Among those who participate from more than 150 countries will be US President Donald Trump, who collided with Francis on several occasions over their sharp contrast positions for immigration.

The Argentine pope died on Monday, 88 years old, after a stroke that introduced a carefully planned period of the transition of the Roman Catholic Church of 1.4 billion, marked by the old ritual, pomp and grief.

Over the past three days, about 250,000 people filed past his body, which was laid out in a chest before the altar of the cavernous, 16th century St. Peter’s Basilica.

His coffin is passed through the front doors on Saturday to outdoor funeral, which starts at 1 p.m.

Alongside Trump will be the presidents of Argentina, France, Gabon, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, Poland and Ukraine with Prime Ministers in Britain and New Zealand and many European royals.

The Vatican says that approx. 250,000 mourners will fill the huge, cobbled esplanade and main access route to the basilica to follow the ceremony, which will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista re, a 91-year-old Italian prelat.

The first non-European pope in nearly 13 centuries, Francis struggled to reshape the Roman Catholic Church during his 12-year reign, sit with the poor and marginalized, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and vice versa 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.

Break with tradition

The pope avoided much of the pomp and the privilege, usually associated with the papacy during his reign, and will bear this desire for greater simplicity in his funeral, after writing the detailed, book -long funeral rites previously used.

While Pope John Paul II’s funeral in 2005 lasted for three hours, the service on Saturday will take 90 minutes.

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

In a further break with tradition, he will be the first pope buried outside the Vatican for more than a century, preferring Roma’s basilica of St. Mary Major, about 4 kilometers (2.5 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.

His funeral motorcade will drive him through the city for the last time, so the Romans can say their goodbye.

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

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.