Joe Biden Attends Pope Francis’ Funeral in Rome with 200,000 Mourners Remembering a Peace-Seeking Saintly Figure Today

World leaders, dignitaries and tens of thousands of mourners are gathering in St Peter’s Square to bid farewell to Pope Francis, one of the most radical Catholic leaders of modern times.

US President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Prince of Wales are among attendees at the requiem mass in St Peter’s Square, which begins at 10am local time (9am UK).

Others include French President Emmanuel Macron, former US president Joe Biden and Irish President Michael D Higgins.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky arrived on Saturday morning and will attend with his wife Olena Zelenska, following uncertainty over where he could attend after his travel plans were disrupted by air strikes in Kyiv.

Up to 500,000 people are expected to gather for the open-air service, some of them camping out in the streets on Friday night after travelling from across the world.

Francis, heralded as the ‘people’s pope’ due to his focus on society’s neediest, died aged 88 on Monday just hours after greeting crowds to mark Easter.

He had been lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica for three days, with some 250,000 mourners passing him day and night, before his coffin was formally sealed in private on Friday, with his face covered by a simple white shroud.

Nuns who gathered in St Peter’s Square ahead of the service told the Associated Press news agency that the late pontiff had been a ‘saintly man… a man of peace, who wanted peace for the whole world’.

Sister Nilma Navarro from the Philippines said that Francis was ‘the most humble person I have ever met,’ adding that he shepherded people ‘not only in the Catholic Church. He also embraced other religions.’ 

Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru, lined up from 7am to enter the square. ‘He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind,’ he said.

A parish group from Calabria, in Italy’s south, camped out all night to get a prime spot. 

They had been planning a trip to Rome for the planned canonisation of the first millennial saint Carlo Acutis, which has been postponed following Francis’ death.

Instead, they drove up a day early and slept in the streets.

‘The Lord wanted it this way, so we came all the same,’ said Sandra De Felice of Anoia in the Calabria region. 

‘For me, this is a sign that we need to be truly humble and charitable. Otherwise, we are nothing.’

A seating order was published on the eve of the funeral, showing Francis’s birth country of Argentina, then Italy, take precedence.

Thereafter, leaders are seated ‘in alphabetical order’ in French – considered the language of diplomacy.

Ireland’s delegation comes ahead of both Prince William and the British Government delegation in the official order of precedence, because it is led by head of state Mr Higgins.

Haakon, the Crown Prince of Norway, and William follow soon after in a category set aside for crown princes.

The British Government delegation includes Sir Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, as well as Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

President Trump and his wife First Lady Melania are seated ahead of both the Irish and British delegations. 

Joe Biden, who is attending with his wife Jill, will not be sat with Trump as he does not form part of the official US delegation. 

While the service is being attended by the world’s top leaders, the Pope will be ushered into his final resting place by prisoners and migrants – a nod to his focus on the needy and the poor during his time as leader of the Catholic church.

Scaffolding has been erected to provide international media with the best vantage points overlooking St Peter’s Square while there is a strong Italian police presence managing numbers and security.

The complex security operation, estimated to cost five million Euros (£4.3m), comprises 8,000 security staff members, including 2,000 uniformed police officers and 1,400 plainclothes officers. 

The Vatican has a small ceremonial army of Swiss Guards and there is also the Vatican Security Service, the Pope’s bodyguards.

But the main security will be provided by the Italian government and there will be thousands of police and soldiers in and around the Vatican and along the four-mile route from St Peter’s to the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica where Francis will be buried.

Anti-drone technology is being deployed to jam any UAVs that attempt to film proceedings from above. 

The operation also includes special forces sharp-shooters on rooftops, undercover units, security teams on horseback, helicopter patrols and boats on the nearby River Tiber. 

Following the funeral, Francis will be taken through the streets of Rome in a break with tradition as he is carried to his final, unconventional resting place. 

Rather than in the Vatican, where popes are typically buried, Francis will be laid to rest in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in the centre of Rome, where he regularly prayed before and after trips overseas.

He will be conveyed on a modified popemobile converted to carry his casket. 

The vehicle had previously been used on his 2015 trip to the Philippines, and has been altered to ensure Francis can be seen by mourners on the route to Santa Maria Maggiore.

His simple coffin will be entombed in an alcove that had previously been used to store candlestick holders. 

Per his request, it will not be decorated and will be inscribed only with his papal name in Latin, Franciscus.

It is another departure from tradition for the liberal Pope, who held progressive views on the rights of immigrants and LGBT rights, as well as climate change and the ethics of modern technology such as social media and artificial intelligence.

The last pope who asked to be buried outside of the Vatican was Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903. 

And while today marks the first of nine days of mourning, speculation regarding the next pope is likely to begin shortly after the funeral.

Conclave, the secret meeting of cardinals to elect Francis’s successor, is thought likely to begin on May 5.

One Vatican expert has said she thinks it is ‘totally unpredictable’ at this point as to who the next pope might be.

UK theologian Professor Anna Rowlands said: ‘That’s partly because the process is genuinely both secret, so it happens in private, but also because the make-up of this College of Cardinals is very different from anyone that’s been here to elect a pope before.

‘It’s going to be, I think, a surprise conclave, that is totally unpredictable at this point, but I think will produce, potentially, a really interesting candidate who possibly none of us will know.’

Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell – the camerlengo or senior Vatican official – has been responsible for carrying out the administrative and financial duties of the Holy See until a new pope takes over.

He had the role of announcing the Pope’s death on Easter Monday, coordinating meetings with the cardinals ahead of conclave and ensuring the Sistine Chapel is ready to accommodate them when that process begins in the coming weeks.