Thank you Francis!

“We now ask you to pray for us. May you bless the Church from heaven”

“And now, let us begin this journey: bishop and people. This journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Chruches” . This invitation pronounced by Francis on the evening of his election on 13 March 2013 from the Loggia of the Blessings of the Vatican Basilica is the most appropriate caption to describe the white funeral car that this morning carried the Pope’s coffin through the city centre, where crowds of people lined the streets along the way from Saint Peter’s to Saint Mary Major.

In the end, as at the beginning of his Pontificate, that hoped-for “bishop and people journey” took visible form.  The holy People of God, as the Pope ‘from the end of the world’ liked to call them, accomplished this in the 12 years of Bergoglio’s Petrine ministry.

150,000 people among Romans and faithful from all around the world, but also tourists passing through the City during this Easter season, joined the 250,000 who had prayed before the coffin over  three days of public viewing of the deceased Pontiff's body in the Vatican Basilica. Under a bright sun, this morning, Saturday 26 April, together they attended the funeral Mass, presided over by the Dean Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re in a Saint Peter's Square. In his homily, the Cardinal highlighted Pope Francis’  pontificate on mercy and the joy of the Gospel, expressing  gratitude on behalf of all “we now ask you to pray for us. May you bless the Church” from heaven.

Among those present were humble and simple people, delegations of heads of state and government: including US President, Donald Trump, and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, who met inside the Basilica before the service began, opening signs of hope for peace.

Many people lined the 6-km route taken by  the vehicle carrying the coffin to reach St Mary Major. This resembled Francis’ rides during his 47 international journeys. Inside the Liberian Basilica, the coffin of the Bishop of Rome was held for a few moments before the icon of Mary Salus Populi Romani, as if for a last goodbye by Bergoglio to the Virgin, before his burial in the oldest Marian  shrine in the western world.