Some mourners had spent the night sleeping in the streets near the Vatican, and they started lining up at dawn on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square to bid farewell to Pope Francis. Hours later, world leaders took their seats in rows near an altar set up in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The scene was appropriate for the funeral of a head of state, with red-robed cardinals, royalty and dignitaries attending the open-air Mass. But for a pope who had spent over a decade defending people at the margins of society, many had also come to pay their respects to someone who occupied a deeply personal space in their lives.
“More than a pope, he was a fatherly figure for us migrants,” said Virginia Munos Ramires, 30, an El Salvador native, as she held onto a railing in St. Peter’s Square under the beating sun. “He represented Latinos, immigrants — he was a reference for all of us.”
Some of the mourners wore suits, others the blue and white soccer jerseys of Francis’ native Argentina. Still others were dressed in traditional Polish garments or colorful cloths from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Many broke into loud applause when Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who was officiating the Mass, recalled in his homily that the pope’s first trip had been to Lampedusa, a southern Italian island that has become emblematic of large numbers of migrants arriving in Europe over the past decade.
Pope Francis was “giving himself without measure, especially to the marginalized,” Cardinal Re said, as he stood within sight of a giant statue of St. Peter, the Roman Catholic Church’s first pope.
