Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to get an applause from the crowd as he entered St. Peter’s Square, NBC News’ Tom Llamas reports.
President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron were nearby along with delegations from scores of other countries.
As we near the end of the funeral service, Cardinal Re is giving the final commendation, the prayer in which Francis’ soul is entrusted to God, and seeks consolation for the Catholic faithful.
Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
As people in the crowd in St. Peter’s Square were encouraged to shake hands with those around them as a sign of peace, President Donald Trump was seen pressing the flesh with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and several other world leaders.
Although he was not sitting near President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he was nonetheless surrounded by some of Ukraine’s strongest allies, including Polish President Andrzej Duda who is sitting behind him.
Martina Ucci
Reporting from Vatican City
In addition to the 40,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, there are an estimated 100,000 more on Via della Conciliazione, the wide street leading to this historic site.
Among them is Like Lea Lenoci, 16, who came from the Italian city of Genoa with 30 of her classmates. Like many other groups of young people, Lenoci and her friends have been here since dawn.
People watch late Pope Francis’ funeral ceremony on a large screen in Via della Conciliazione. Henry Nicholls / AFP – Getty Images
“We had already planned to come to Rome for the canonization of Carlo Acutis,” she said, referring to the teenager who died of leukemia aged 15 in 2006 and was set to become the first millennial saint. “When that was postponed, we decided to come anyway and be here in this very important moment,” she said.
Nearby, Christoph Hensel, 47, a priest from Munich, was accompanying some young people from his parish. “It was a last-minute decision,” he said. “We wanted to be here and we left last night, arriving this morning at 7 a.m. Tonight we will sleep as guests of another parish here in Rome.”
After he liturgy of the Eucharist comes the communion rite. The blessing turns the bread into the body of Chris, according to Catholic belief.
Reporting from Vatican City
Katherine Gilligan, 59, was visiting Rome last week from Jacksonville, Florida, and decided to postpone her return journey when Pope Francis died.
“Yesterday we stood in line five hours to see the pope’s body,” said Gilligan, sitting on the ground in St. Peter’s Square with 4 of her 14 children. “Today the line was much less long.”
Katherine Gilligan, second from right, with her children at the Vatican this morning. Martina Ucci
“I could not have been anywhere else today, for me Pope Francis was a wonderful pope, a gift that the lord gave us,” she said. “He has loved us and taught us piety. It will be difficult for there to be another pope like him.”
The crowds in St. Peter’s Square broke into applause as Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re recalled in his homily that Francis’ first trip as pope was to Lampedusa, the Italian island where boats full of migrants land after making the dangerous Mediterranean crossing from North Africa.
Calling the visit “significant,” Re said the island represented “the tragedy of emigration, with thousands of people drowning at sea.”
“In the same vein was his trip to Lesbos,” Re noted, the Greek island where many migrants from Syria and other countries had landed, escaping war. During a trip to Mexico, Francis also visited the border with the U.S., he said.
But the longest and loudest applause came after the cardinal talked about the need to end wars, bringing the homily to a close.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist, a celebration of the Last Supper, where Jesus broke bread and shared a cup of wine with his disciples, has now started.
The center of Catholic masses, it begins with an offertory chant, which accompanies the procession that brings the bread and wine to the altar.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re is now delivering the homily for Pope Francis, who he said “touched hearts and sought to reawaken moral and spiritual sensibilities.”
“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,” he said.
Jeff Pachoud / AFP via Getty Images
Francis, he added “established direct contact with individuals and peoples, eager to be close to everyone, with a marked attention to those in difficulty, giving himself without measure, especially to the marginalized, the least among us.”
“He was a Pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone. He was also a Pope attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the Church,” Re said.
Large crowds are filing in and around Saint Peter’s Square as people gather to say goodbye to Pope Francis.
Authorities are expecting 500,000 people to attend and huge screens have been set up so people can watch the services.
Reporting from Vatican City
Among the tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square is Anna Lamberti, an 18-year-old from Milan, Italy.
Martina Ucci
She had traveled to Rome last week for the Jubilee for Teenagers, an event that was supposed to be one of religious celebration for 80,000 young people — but has instead turned into a mass youth gathering mourning the late pope.
Martina Ucci
“Pope Francis was very attentive to us, he made us feel heard and loved,” she said, sharing sunscreen with friends under the warm, blue sky. “We’ve been here since 7 a.m., we stood in line for a while and then tried to get as far ahead as possible.”
The “entrance antiphon” that started the ceremony was taken from Psalm 64, verses 2-5. “Praise is due to you in Zion, O God. To you we pay our vows in Jerusalem,” it began.
An antiphon is a passage from scripture, usually one of the psalms, sung as a refrain at the start of liturgical ceremonies.
Reporting from Vatican City
Police and the authorities have told NBC News that the biggest challenge of today is that procession route with Francis’ coffin will move at walking pace through the heart of Rome after the funeral at St. Peter’s Square.
It will travel about 4 miles from St. Peter’s Square to his final resting place in Santa Maria Maggiore, or St. Mary Major, a church he visited 125 times, including on the first day he was named Pope. He prayed there often.
Crowds gather outside of the Basilica of St. Mary Major this morning.Michael Robinson Chávez / Getty Images
At the basilica in the center of Rome, there will be a crowd including poor and marginalized people, lining the steps as he enters that Basilica.
This is what Pope Francis designed. This is what he wanted, to end the day with people from the marginalized communities that he cared so deeply about.
Reporting from Vatican City
There was a huge round of applause when the crowd here saw the coffin being taken out of St. Peter’s Basilica and into the square on the huge jumbotron.
It’s a beautiful sunny day here, not a single cloud in the sky, a perfect day for a solemn occasion.
Reporting from Vatican City
Thousands gather for the funeral in St. Peter’s square.Martina Ucci
There are at least 4,000 police officers on duty as the funeral takes place and at least 3,000 volunteers are helping those who have come to pay their respects.
The order of service, published by the Vatican, contains the prayers and hymns of today’s mass in English and Italian.
The second reading comes from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians.
“Brothers and sisters, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
The liturgy is now taking place with the first reading the funeral coming from the Acts of the Apostles.
Michael Robinson Chávez / Getty Images
Henry Nicholls / AFP via Getty Images
Crowds gather beneath a banner reading “Thank you, Francisco,” in Italian, as others spilling to the streets surrounding the Vatican to watch the funeral ceremony on a large screen.
The funeral service is being led by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re.
Born in Brescia, Italy, the 91-year-old has spent five decades serving in the Roman Curia since being ordained in 1957. In 2001, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him as a cardinal.
In January, he became the dean of the College of Cardinals, the body comprised of the most senior figures of the Catholic Church, and the one which will decide the next pope in a highly secretive ritual known as the conclave.
However, he won’t participate in the upcoming conclave as cardinals over the age of 80 are excluded from voting.
Franco Origlia / Getty Images
Pope Francis’ coffin has been laid in the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, signalling the start of the funeral service which will be led by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.
Tiziana Fabi / AFP – Getty Images
Reporting from Vatican City
The late pope’s tombstone is made of marble from the northern Italian region of Liguria, where Francis’ grandparents were from, according to the Vatican.
President Donald Trump is one of the many world leaders to join the crowds in St. Peter’s Square for the funeral, which has now been closed to the public after reaching full capacity of 50,000 people.
Tiziana Fabi / AFP – Getty Images
His predecessor Joe Biden is also attending along with Britain’s Prince William. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia, will be among other European royal families represented, along with Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Britain’s Prince William ahead of the funeral ceremony.Alberto Pizzoli / AFP – Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General António Guterres are among the 164 foreign delegations invited to attend. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, are also in Rome for the funeral.
The guests will be seated according to French alphabetical order.
Reporting from Vatican City
A group of poor and needy people will welcome Pope Francis body at St Mary Major, where he will be buried later today, symbolizing the legacy left behind the late pontiff, who chose his papal name to emphasize the spirit of poverty and peace embodied by Saint Francis of Assisi.
“For this reason, a group of poor and needy people will be present on the steps leading to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major to pay their final respects to Pope Francis before the entombment of his casket,” the Vatican said Thursday.
It is very symbolic of the Pope’s life, pontificate and legacy that the rich and powerful, including the heads of state, cardinals, and clergy of the world will bid him farewell when he leaves St. Peter’s Square one last time after the funeral, and the poor and destitute will welcome him on the steps of the Basilica where he will rest in peace.
Reporting from Vatican City
About an hour before the funeral of Pope Francis gets underway, St. Peter’s Square looks close to reaching its full capacity of 40,000 people, police said.
An estimated 100,000 people are already present on Via della Conciliazione, the large road which leads up to St. Peter’s Square and along the access roads, the force said in a statement, adding that 140 delegations have already entered the Vatican this morning.
In life, Pope Francis strayed from the more conservative path forged by his predecessors Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict.
But in death, Francis will follow many of John Paul’s footsteps.
The demise of the first Argentine to lead the Roman Catholic Church set into motion a series of rituals, some of which go back more than 2,000 years and have been used to bury more than 250 popes.
They are compiled in a more than 400-page tome called the “Ordo exsequiarum Romani pontificis,” which includes the liturgy, music and prayers used for papal funerals over the centuries.
As thousands are set to gather for Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, security will be on high alert with thousands of police and special forces on the ground, aerial surveillance, and an anti-drone military unit in the area. NBC’s Molly Hunter reports for TODAY.
Most internal promotions don’t get this much attention. Most job selection processes don’t have centuries of history behind them — and few, if any, have a special name.
But then, most job selections don’t end with a new pope.
Catholic cardinals from around the world are converging on Vatican City in advance of the conclave that will elect the successor to Pope Francis, who died Monday. Favorites have emerged, and once the conclave begins it likely won’t be long before a new pope is announced, as data shows that conclaves don’t take as long as they used to.
Conclaves were first used to elect a pope about eight centuries ago, with early elections lasting months, even years.
