Pope Francis was “a Pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the Pope on Saturday. Source: CNS.
An estimated 200,000 people were present as 14 pallbearers carried Pope Francis’s casket into St Peter’s Square and set it on a carpet in front of the altar for the funeral Mass.
Security around the Vatican was tight because of the number of mourners expected and the presence of kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers from more than 80 countries and official representatives from scores of other nations.
Also present were the residents of a Vatican palace Pope Francis had turned into a shelter for the homeless and the 12 Syrian refugees he brought to Rome with him from a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2016.
The Gospel reading at the funeral was John 21:15-19, where the Risen Jesus asks Peter: “Do you love me?” And when Peter says yes, Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep.”
“Despite his frailty and suffering toward the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life,” Cardinal Re said in his homily. “He followed in the footsteps of his Lord, the Good Shepherd, who loved his sheep to the point of giving his life for them.”
The 91-year-old cardinal told the crowd that the image of Pope Francis that “will remain etched in our memory” was his appearance on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica the day before he died to give his Easter blessing urbi et orbi (to the city and the world) and then to ride in the popemobile among the people who had come to celebrate Christ’s victory over death.
“The outpouring of affection that we have witnessed in recent days following his passing from this earth into eternity tells us how much the profound pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts,” Cardinal Re said.
The Vatican estimated that 250,000 people – many of whom waited in line for three or four hours – filed past the late Pope’s body in St Peter’s Basilica.
FULL STORY
Poor and powerful pray for eternal repose of a Pope ‘with an open heart’ (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
