(Updated) Canadian delegation among thousands of mourners at Pope Francis’s funeral

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Thompson, April 26, 2025

Canadians scattered among the crowds that descended on St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’s funeral said the relatively simple ceremony seemed a fitting farewell for the famously humble pontiff.

While those who made it into St. Peter’s Square described a solemn, reverent audience, complete with dignitaries such as Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon, crowds outside Vatican City’s walls were abuzz.

But in both cases, Francis’s vision for the Catholic Church shone through.

“As a Catholic I found it very powerful that the service is so reminiscent of the services that we are familiar with right in Toronto,” said Falguni Debnath, who was with the general public near the back of the square.

She said the late pope’s humility was evident in the funeral rites, which he simplified last year to reflect his view that the leader of the Catholic Church should not be treated as a monarch.

“The simplicity of his casket being moved for the final time in contrast to the enormity of his life and of his position was extremely moving for me,” she said.

Debnath, who became a Catholic in adulthood, bought her ticket to Rome within hours of hearing of Francis’s death on Monday. 

“I feel Pope Francis was somebody who was much needed in this time, and it feels lonely to have his voice lost to us, though of course we have his writings and his preachings.”

For Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous governor general, the ceremony reminded her of all Francis did — not only for Catholics, but for marginalized people all over the world.

“I thought about his trip to Canada and how he inspired me and others to continue to be compassionate and understanding and respectful, because that was his his way of life,” she said by phone from Rome.

She described being among the mourners at his funeral as extremely powerful.

“It just seemed that it was a time in history that stopped, while the world was moving on, to recognize this man that has done so much for humanity,” Simon said.

Though the mood inside Vatican City was sombre, it was a “hive of activity” on the streets of Rome where Montreal’s Mirjam Guesgen watched the funeral on a large screen.

She said she’s not religious, she was already on vacation in Rome when the pope died so she decided to attend.

It seemed as though all of Rome had descended on the Vatican, she said, and by the time she and her partner made it there, St. Peter’s Square had already filled up.

“It was really sort of a once-in-a-lifetime experience because of the chanting and the prayers, which were echoing all across — probably as far as the Tiber — from the square,” she said. 

She said she was surrounded by other tourists, speaking many different languages.

That experience was reflected in the ceremony itself, which included portions in languages including Italian, English, Spanish and Greek.

Francis died Monday at age 88 and is being remembered as a pontiff dedicated to building bridges and offering compassion to marginalized groups during his 12-year papacy. 

U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron were among the heads of state in attendance Saturday. The Vatican has said the funeral was expected to attract dignitaries and leaders from around the world, including roughly 130 delegations, at least 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns.

In addition to Canada’s Governor General, major Indigenous leaders and Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner were due to attend.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was not present because of the federal election taking place on Monday.  

All five of Canada’s cardinals were expected to attend, along with various bishops, Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand, Quebec’s International Relations Minister Martine Biron and Chief Wilton Littlechild, who gifted the pontiff a traditional headdress when he visited Canada in 2022. 

The event follows days of public viewings at St. Peter’s Basilica, where tens of thousands of mourners lined up for hours to pay their respects.

The Vatican has said Francis died of a stroke and heart failure.

Tributes have poured in from Catholics and non-Catholics alike, characterizing Francis’s tenure as head of the Catholic Church as one that called for inclusion, kindness and concern for the poor.

Francis faced criticism from conservatives who sometimes felt alienated by his progressive leanings.

Nearly 11 million Canadians identified as Catholic in the 2021 census, second only to those without a religious affiliation.

The pope will be buried in a niche within the St. Mary Major Basilica, home to his favourite icon of the Virgin Mary, to whom he was particularly devoted. Basilica, home to his favourite icon of the Virgin Mary, to whom he was particularly devoted. — with files from The Associated Press. 

Mighty and meek bid farewell to Pope Francis at funeral where he is remembered as pope of the people

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Nicole Winfield and Colleen Barry, April 26, 2025

A view of the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

 World leaders and Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for the “most peripheral of the peripheries” and reflected his wishes as pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants will welcome him at the basilica across town where he will be buried.

Some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral, held on a brilliant spring day that was supposed to have been a special Holy Year celebration for adolescents. Perhaps because so many young people were on hand, the somber ceremony still had a festive mood, with mourners taking selfies amid the hymns as Francis’ simple wooden coffin was brought out of St. Peter’s Basilica at the start of the Mass.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered a lengthy, spirited and highly personal homily, or sermon. He eulogized Francis as a pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to the “least among us” with an informal, spontaneous style.

“He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” Re said. He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis’ constant concern for migrants, including when he celebrated Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and travelled to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and brought 12 migrants home with him.

“The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” Re said.

The Argentine pontiff choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope’s role as a mere pastor and not “a powerful man of this world.”

It was a reflection of Francis’ 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants and to construct “a poor church for the poor.” He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election and it explained the name he chose as pope, honoring St. Francis of Assisi “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” according to the official decree of the pope’s life that was placed in his coffin before it was sealed Friday night.

Despite Francis’ focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis’ nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the pope alienated many Argentines by never returning home.

Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines of the funeral. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica.

After the Mass, Francis’ coffin left the Vatican en route to his burial place in St. Mary Major Basilica.

The white facade of St. Peter’s glowed pink as the sun rose Saturday and hordes of mourners rushed into the square. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn’t get close. The Mass and funeral procession across town — with Francis’ coffin carried on the open-topped popemobile he used during his 2015 trip to the Philippines — were also broadcast live around the world.

Police helicopters whirled overhead, part of the massive security operation Italian authorities mounted, including more than 2,500 police, 1,500 soldiers and a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported.

Many mourners had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy Year canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, and groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.

“He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human,” said Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who said he had camped out near the piazza. “It is a very great emotion to say goodbye to him.”

The poor and marginalized welcome him

Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia.

Following his funeral, preparations can begin in earnest to launch the centuries-old process of electing a new pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May. In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Re, who is organizing the secret voting in the Sistine Chapel.

Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will be buried in St. Mary Major, near Rome’s main train station, where a simple tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus. As many as 300,000 people are expected to line the 6-kilometer (3.5-mile) motorcade route that will bring Francis’ coffin from the Vatican through the center of Rome to the basilica after the funeral.

Forty special guests, organized by the Vatican’s Caritas charity and the Sant’Egidio community, will greet his coffin at the basilica, honoring the marginalized groups Francis prioritized as pope: homeless people and migrants, prisoners and transgender people.

“The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God,” the Vatican quoted Francis as saying in explaining the choice.

A special relationship with the basilica

Even before he became pope, Francis had a particular affection for St. Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani, to which Francis was particularly devoted. He would pray before it before and after each of his foreign trips as pope.

The choice of the basilica is also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis’ Jesuit religious order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass in the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Over three days this week, more than 250,000 people stood for hours in line to pay their final respects while Francis’ body lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7 p.m. on Friday, mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back and ready to say a final farewell, some recalling the words he uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

“We are here to honor him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,’” said Sister Christiana Neenwata from Biafrana, Nigeria. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”

Canadians at pope’s funeral say ceremony reflected his vision and values

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Thompson, April 26, 2025

Canadians dotted throughout the crowds at St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’s funeral said the somewhat simple ceremony seemed a fitting farewell for the pontiff who saw himself as a pastor, not a monarch.

While those who made it into the plaza in front of the famous basilica described a solemn and reverent audience, complete with dignitaries such as Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon, the masses outside Vatican City’s walls were abuzz.

But in both spaces, mourners said Francis’s vision for the Catholic Church shone through.

“As a Catholic I found it very powerful that the service is so reminiscent of the services that we are familiar with right in Toronto,” said Falguni Debnath, who was with the general public near the back of the square.

She said the late pope’s humility was evident in the funeral rites, which he simplified last year to reflect his view that the leader of the Catholic Church should not be assigned undue grandeur.

“The simplicity of his casket being moved for the final time in contrast to the enormity of his life and of his position was extremely moving for me,” she said.

Debnath, who became a Catholic in adulthood, bought her ticket to Rome within hours of hearing of Francis’s death on Monday. 

“I feel Pope Francis was somebody who was much needed in this time, and it feels lonely to have his voice lost to us, though of course we have his writings and his preachings.”

For Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous governor general, the ceremony reminded her of all Francis did — not only for Catholics, but for marginalized people all over the world.

“I thought about his trip to Canada and how he inspired me and others to continue to be compassionate and understanding and respectful, because that was his way of life,” she said by phone from Rome.

She described being among the mourners at his funeral as extremely powerful.

“It just seemed that it was a time in history that stopped, while the world was moving on, to recognize this man that has done so much for humanity,” Simon said.

Wilton Littlechild, a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, said he also took time at the funeral to look back.

“I was there when Pope Francis said his first mass, and then to reflect back on our journeys parallel together and to bid farewell to His Holiness was pretty emotional,” he said. 

Littlechild met Francis several times over the years, including when the pontiff travelled to Canada to apologize for the Church’s role in the atrocities of the residential school system.

Like Debnath, Littlechild was struck by the simplicity of some aspects of the ceremony.

“He was such a humble and simple man. To witness and look at his coffin… It’s a very simple wooden box and that’s how dedicated he was with his work,” he said. “He always sought to help poor people.”

That desire was on full display Saturday. Dignitaries and heads of state, including Prince William and U.S. President Donald Trump, were present, but so too were prisoners and migrants, who welcomed Francis’s coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town.

According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people attended the funeral in St. Peter’s Square and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century, as recent pontiffs have opted to be buried at the Vatican.

Though the mood inside Vatican City was sombre, it was a “hive of activity” on the streets of Rome where Montreal’s Mirjam Guesgen watched the funeral on a large screen.

She said she’s not religious, she was already on vacation in Rome when the pope died so she decided to attend.

It seemed as though all of Rome had descended on the Vatican, she said, and by the time she and her partner made it there, St. Peter’s Square had already filled up.

“It was really sort of a once-in-a-lifetime experience because of the chanting and the prayers, which were echoing all across — probably as far as the Tiber — from the square,” she said. 

She said she was surrounded by other tourists, speaking many different languages.

That experience was reflected in the ceremony itself, which included portions in languages including Italian, English, Spanish and Greek.

Francis died Monday at age 88 and is being remembered as a pontiff dedicated to building bridges and offering compassion to marginalized groups during his 12-year papacy. The Vatican said Francis died of a stroke and heart failure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron were among the heads of state in attendance Saturday. 

In addition to Canada’s Governor General, major Indigenous leaders and Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner were in attendance.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was not present because of Monday’s federal election.

Nearly 11 million Canadians identified as Catholic in the 2021 census, second only to those without a religious affiliation.

Back in Canada, a few dozen faithful gathered at Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral for a memorial mass for Pope Francis on Saturday morning, presided over by the Archbishop of Montreal.

“I admire all the calls that he’s been making for peace, and it looks like our big leaders are not listening, and it’s unfortunate,” Michelina Lavoratore said, discussing Francis’s legacy before the mass. 

“I think he’s a real human being, down to earth, who put himself at our level, and I think that needs to be admired and always remembered.”

-with files from Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal.