Royals, dignitaries and world leaders have joined mourners for the funeral of Pope Francis. Follow the latest below.
Saturday 26 April 2025 15:30, UK
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Live reporting by Ollie CooperandBhvishya Patel
Rome emergency services say they rescued 82 people during the funeral due to hot weather.
Of those, eight were taken to hospital.
Temperatures have hovered around 23C in the city, as a quarter of a million people turned out for the funeral.
Pictures taken by our team in Rome give us an insight into the atmosphere on the ground.
Crowds can be seen gathered, some with hands clasped together, others looking to the heavens, following the funeral service.
Banners and balloons displayed images of the late pope.
The mayor of Rome has praised the funeral service as historic.
“The city of Rome has offered the entire world an extraordinary and exceptional event that will mark history,” said Roberto Gualtieri.
More than 250,000 people are thought to have attended the two-hour ceremony.
Aerial views of the Vatican showed a patchwork of colours – black from the dark garb of the world’s leaders, red from the vestments of some 250 cardinals, purple worn by some of the 400 bishops and white worn by 4,000 attending priests.
Choirs sang Latin hymns and prayers were recited in various languages, including Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Arabic, reflecting the global reach of the Roman Catholic Church.
Events today will have been watched keenly in the west of Ireland.
His visit to the Emerald Isle in August 2018 was the first by a pontiff since John Paul II in 1979.
It’s a trip that will live long in the collective memory of Knock’s residents for one particular moment on the tarmac at Ireland West Airport.
Mary McCarthy, there with her family to greet the pontiff, decided to plant a kiss on both his cheeks in what she described as “an Irish welcome, maybe with an Italian twist”.
The moment made international headlines, with surrounding diplomats clearly frustrated by McCarthy’s egregious breach of protocol.
“I don’t think he was too upset,” she said. “I’ve a picture to prove that he was okay about it.”
Here, Ireland correspondent Stephen Murphy looks back at that memorable moment in Knock.
Donald Trump has shared a lengthy post on social media following his meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy inside St Peter’s Basilica this morning.
After criticsing the New York Times for its coverage of his efforts to broker peace in Europe, Trump says:” There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘banking’ or ‘secondary sanctions’?
“Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting was descried by one clergyman as “Pope Francis’s miracle” (see 13.20 post).
By Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter
With the death of Pope Francis, the wheels are in motion to select a new pontiff.
The rituals for choosing a new pope are elaborate and date back centuries. So how does it work?
Here’s what will be happening at the Vatican…
The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has told Sky News it’s “intimidating” to be one of those responsible for choosing the next pope.
Vincent Nichols was among four UK cardinals in Rome for the Pope’s funeral today.
After nine days of mourning, cardinals from around the world will gather in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to cast their votes, with white smoke announcing to the world when a new pope has been elected.
Cardinal Nichols told Sky’s Anna Botting: “I hope nobody goes into this conclave, as it were, with the sole purpose of wanting to win. I think it’s very important that we go in wanting to listen to each other… It has to be together, trying to sense what God wants next. Not just for the church.”
He described the procession that took Pope Francis to lie in state as “the most moving thing I’ve ever attended here”.
Describing the Pope as a “master of the gesture and the phrase”, he also recalled the pontiff’s last journey away from the Vatican.
Cardinal Nichols said Pope Francis had visited the Regina Coeli prison, telling the inmates: “You know, except for the grace of God, it could well have been me… Don’t lose hope, God has you written in his heart.”
Watch more of his interview here:
The Italian prime minister has thanked everyone involved in today’s extensive security operation.
“At the end of the funeral ceremony at St Peter’s and the procession that accompanied Pope Francis’ coffin along the streets of Rome to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, I would like to underline the great commitment and the extraordinary proof of efficiency demonstrated under the coordination of the Department of Civil Protection,” Giorgia Meloni said.
“I express my heartfelt thanks to all the administrations involved,” she added.
“The government and I would like to thank everyone for having ensured with professionalism, dedication and a spirit of service the peaceful unfolding of a historic day for Italy and for the entire world.”
Get a peak inside the security operation by clicking here.
Pope Francis has been buried, according to the Vatican.
A closed ceremony in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore took around half an hour, it said.
“The [burial] rite took place according to the prescriptions of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, presided over by the Cardinal Camerlengo, in the presence of those indicated in the relevant Notification of the Office of Liturgical Celebrations and the relatives of the deceased Pope, and concluded at 1.30pm (12.30pm UK time),” a Vatican statement read.
It also shared these images…
By Barbara Serra, news presenter
If you are in Rome for a bit of shopping, the best place is Via Condotti, just opposite the Spanish Steps.
But if you’re a member of the clergy, the place to head to is a small shop tucked away in a small piazza near the Pantheon: Gammarelli.
The Gammarelli family has been providing ecclesiastical clothing to the Vatican since 1798. They were the personal tailors to Pope Francis, as well as his predecessors.
Everything in this shop is meticulously hand-made and the shelves are heavy with rolls of exquisite silk damask.
Unsurprisingly, Pope Francis preferred to dress more simply, as Lorenzo Gammarelli told me: “Pope Francis was one of the easiest customers we ever had. He never requested anything in particular.”
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