Royals, dignitaries and world leaders joined mourners for the funeral of Pope Francis. Follow the latest below.
Saturday 26 April 2025 20:36, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Live reporting by Brad Young,Ollie CooperandBhvishya Patel
Pictures show crowds gathered for an ongoing prayer service at Santa Maria Maggiore, where Pope Francis has been buried.
Prayers are being read outside the Santa Maria Maggiore church, where Pope Francis was laid to rest.
Candles are lit and flowers placed beneath the Salus Populi Romani, an icon of Mary beloved by Francis.
According to tradition, it was made by Saint Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of painters.
Pope Francis entrusted his apostolic journeys to the protection of the Salus Populi Romani, visiting it before every departure and after every return.
By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent in Vatican City
It was dark when we arrived in the early hours of the morning.
Normally, the streets around the Vatican are quiet at that time, dotted with a few rough sleepers and passing security personnel.
Not this time.
Via della Conciliazione is the road that runs from the Tiber all the way up to St Peter’s Square and, before the sun had risen, there were long queues to get through the checkpoint and secure a prime viewing location.
When the gates were opened, and as more and more people came through, the rush became greater.
A trickle became a torrent – first people strolled towards the front, then they jogged and then, eventually, I saw three nuns, sprinting as fast as they could.
But what I had expected to see in St Peter’s Square was not, in fact, what I did see.
I thought I’d bear witness to a lot of sobbing and sadness. Instead, in our section of St Peter’s Square, we were surrounded by dozens of teenagers; all affiliated with church youth groups, sitting on the ground and playing Uno.
They stayed for the day, watching on the big screens along with the rest of the crowd.
They applauded, watched patiently and then, when they saw President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, cheered their approval.
Nobody, other than the Pope, got a warmer ovation than the Ukrainian president.
What we didn’t know at the time was that Zelensky had just met Donald Trump, nor that Trump had second thoughts about Vladimir Putin’s reliability. But come the end of the service, the news had filtered through.
So could the funeral have been a catalyst for an outbreak of peace, or at least a step or two in the right direction? As if by providence, at the very moment our team was discussing this, Michelle O’Neill, first minister of Northern Ireland, wandered past.
“Well that would be some legacy indeed from Pope Francis wouldn’t it? And I hope that’s the case,” she said.
So does she worry that the Catholic Church will choose a more conservative successor to Pope Francis, I asked? Would she rather a Pope who continues Francis’s path of reform and, by comparison with his predecessor, liberal thinking. She nods, smiling.
“I think that his legacy is something that we want to be able to carry on.
“We want him to be a living legacy. I hope the incoming Pope has the same qualities, that same approach to the leadership role they provide.
“I think Pope Francis is a lesson to so many people in terms of what we need, which is inclusion. What we need is a more unified society.”
Crowds have gathered for the rosary – a set of prayers – outside the Santa Maria Maggiore in Vatican City.
The bells are ringing through the church and we expect a cardinal to lead the prayers shortly.
Among those at the funeral was Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse in Chile.
Nobody believed Cruz and his friends, including Pope Francis, when he spoke up about the abuse, he told chief presenter Anna Botting.
But he later “realised he had made a big mistake” and apologised to Cruz and his friends in person, Cruz said.
After speaking with them for three days, Francis “summoned all the bishops from Chile and fired them all”.
“He and I developed this incredible friendship that I am ever so privileged to have.”
Cruz said he had carried “a rucksack of anger and pain” into his first meeting with Francis, but he was disarmed by the Pope’s apology.
“I was weeping inside because I didn’t know how to behave in front of a Pope.”
In that same meeting in 2018, Francis made headlines with his remarks on Cruz’s sexuality.
“He said to me the fact that you are gay doesn’t matter, God made you like that, God loves you, the Pope loves you, you need to be happy with yourself.
“How can you not be a friend of man who is like that?”
Cruz became an adviser to the Pope, spending birthdays and a Christmas with him.
Asked how he felt after the funeral, Cruz said: “I get emotional thinking that I’m in Rome and he’s not here.”
He added that he would “make sure that his memory is never forgotten”.
Some of those who travelled from the UK and Ireland have told of the importance of being present to celebrate Francis’s reign as pope.
Phil Callaghan, from Manchester, said he booked flights as soon as the Pope died, describing the crowds gathered in the city as “astounding” and that “it’s shown just how much Pope Francis meant to people”.
Fellow Mancunian Kate Wilkinson said it had been “an incredible opportunity to witness history”, describing it as “the most amazing moment of my life”.
Her partner Brian Casey, from Galway, said it had been important to “come here to pay homage to a man that we both have huge respect for and indeed affection for and love for”.
In New York, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, has been leading Mass for the late Pope at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Irish President Michael Higgins has said the Pope remains “an incredible source of hope”.
Higgins led the Irish delegation by attending the mass for the late pontiff with his wife Sabina Higgins.
“He mentioned about a diplomacy of hope. Another thing that he had, which was so moving and interesting, was his proximity to the human body – his embrace of people,” said Higgins.
“There was a kind of empathy in his thinking and his practice.”
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill was also in attendance.
The Sinn Fein vice president described Francis as a man of “immense courage”.
“We said goodbye to a leader of great stature, immense courage, and deep humility – a man who carried forward a powerful vision for a fairer, more just, and peaceful world.”
While respects were paid by hundreds of thousands, not everyone at the funeral was there for the right reasons.
Police say they arrested four people on suspicion of pickpocketing.
Some 249 delegations, including presidents, heads of state, royals and religious representatives, attended the funeral, according to Rome police chief Lamberto Giannini.
In 2005, for John Paul II’s funeral, there were 169.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free