Dignitaries gather to join faithful in paying final respects to Pope Francis
CBC
Royalty, presidents, prime ministers and a legion of faithful will pay their last respects to Pope Francis on Saturday at a funeral mass in St. Peter's Square to honour his sometimes turbulent papacy.
Among those attending from more than 150 countries will be U.S. President Donald Trump, who clashed with Francis on numerous occasions over their starkly contrasting positions on immigration.
The Argentine pope died on Monday at age 88 following a stroke, ushering in a meticulously planned period of transition for the 1.4-billion member Roman Catholic Church, marked by ancient ritual, pomp and mourning.
Over the past three days, around 250,000 people filed past his body, which had been laid out in a coffin before the altar of the cavernous, 16th century St. Peter's Basilica.
His casket will be carried through the main doors on Saturday for the outdoor funeral, which starts at 10 a.m. local time, with massed ranks of foreign dignitaries to one side of the stone colonnade, facing hundreds of red-hatted cardinals on opposite banks of seats.
Alongside Trump will be the presidents of Argentina, France, Gabon, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, Poland and Ukraine, together with the prime ministers of Britain and New Zealand, and many European royals.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney announced earlier this week that he would not attend the Pope's funeral, and said that Gov. Gen. Mary Simon would represent Canada.
The Vatican says some 250,000 mourners will fill the vast, cobbled esplanade and main access route to the basilica to follow the ceremony, which will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, a 91-year-old Italian prelate.
The first non-European pope for almost 13 centuries, Francis battled to reshape the Roman Catholic Church during his 12-year reign, siding with the poor and marginalized, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and reverse climate change.
"Francis left everyone a wonderful testimony of humanity, of a holy life and of universal fatherhood," said a formal summary of his papacy, written in Latin, and placed next to his body.
Traditionalists pushed back at his efforts to make the Church more transparent, while his pleas for an end to conflict, divisions and rampant capitalism often fell on deaf ears.
The pope shunned much of the pomp and privilege usually associated with the papacy during his reign, and will carry that desire for greater simplicity into his funeral, having re-written the elaborate, book-long funeral rites used previously.
Whereas Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005 lasted three hours, the service on Saturday is supposed to take just 90 minutes.
Francis also opted to forego a centuries-old practice of burying popes in three interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead and oak. Instead, he has been placed in a single, zinc-lined wooden coffin, which was sealed closed overnight.
