CIta of the Vatican, Piazza San Pietro. April 26, 2025. Our story starts from the early hours of the morning but the time in the making will be remembered over the years as that of one of the days that has become history. Above the pediment of the Basilica of St. Peter, behind the imposing statue of the Christ the Redeemer, who together with that of St. John the Baptist and those of the eleven apostles (not twelve because there is no that of St. Peter) tell the history of the church, we see some snipers in dark dress that scrutinize with binoculars and myrini. Below them, a few meters away, there are the most important heads of state of the world: by the American president Donald Trump (in the front row because in this way the official language of Vatican diplomacy wants, or the French) sitting together with the First Lady Melania Trump, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky with his wife Olena. Not far away and always in the front row the King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letiziathe French president Emmanuel Macron with his wife Brigitte. To the left of the coffin, the premier Giorgia Meloni, Hair gathered and black suit as per protocol, sits next to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella Arrived with his daughter Laura. Present the presidents of Senate and Chamber, Ignazio La Russa and Lorenzo Fontana, the president of the Constitutional Court, Giovanni Amoroso, and the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani. Immediately after, the Argentine president Javier Milei accompanied by his sister Karina, secretary of the presidency. The Russian president Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are missing, there are two representatives in their presence. There are 249 delegations: for the funeral of John Paul II, twenty years earlier, on April 8, 2005, 169 were present.
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While the heads of state take place, the crowd of the almost four hundred thousand people who arrived for the last farewell to the Pontiff sings and prays. Then he becomes a single voice and recites the rosary. The bells play, the procession from inside the Basilica begins, the coffin is raised and brought to the churchyard. The sun is tall in heaven and heats up strong this day that seems suspended in space and time. Faced with all its people, including migrants, the former prisoners, “the last” to which Francesco was next to in any moment of his pontificate, arrives in a modest coffin in light woodthe protagonist of this story, the late Pope Francis. To make every moment of this funeral solemn the rites of the Church of Rome think about it, every gesture is solemn and it is the theological and Christian fruit of those who believe but also of those who arrived in St. Peter’s Square da Laico. Because Pope Francis, the pontiff who arrived “from the end of the world”, which he did not hesitate to define Today’s geopolitical situation as “a third world war in pieces” He had a voice capable of speaking to many and many, even outside the religious environment. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re repeats this, dean of the Cardinal College in thehomily of the funeral mass. “He was a pope in the midst of people with an open heart to everyone”. And again: “In the face of the infuriating of the many wars of these years, with inhuman horrors and with countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis has incessantly high his voice by implementing peace and inviting to reasonableness, to the honest negotiation to find possible solutions, because war, he said, is only death of people, destruction of houses, hospitals and schools. The war always leaves the worst world of how previously it was: It is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone. “Building bridges and non -walls” is an exhortation that he has repeated several times “. And that resonates in this crowded square, which today more than seems to stage, once again, the magisterium of Francesco and shows the geography of the world that we are: On the one hand the people, on the other the powerful.
There are many moments of this day that are already history, starting from the handshake as a sign of peace between the heads of state, At the pages of the Gospel placed on the pontiff’s coffin, browsed by the wind also on this occasion as already happens during the funeral of John Paul II, to the image that in a few seconds made the rounds of the world, shouting to the miracle, the first of Pope Francis since his death: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky sitting on two chairs in front of the other, Inside the Basilica of San Pietro, engaged in what has been called a peace interview by many.
“I left Lecco at midnight with a bus together with my parish.” Luca is 15 years old, the cell phone in hand with which he controls the names of the guests who came from all over the world and a hat to protect him from the sun. He is tired because he didn’t sleep anything but he wanted to be here. «It is an important day and Pope Francis always had a thought for us guys. Like one of the family ». This is how they remember him in many. Next to us there are people who came from France, Poland, Argentina, Uzbekistan, Germany. Many have traveled for a long time, without sleeping and will leave immediately after the burial. When the song of the Blessed Virgin Mary begins, the coffin is lifted for the last time. The square embraces him with a long applause. Someone shouts “Francesco”, many cry and raise their arms to the sky as if to greet him, in any way that you can. The funeral procession begins: crossing Rome, once again, the last, Pope Francis reaches the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Where he asked to be buried. There is silence on the street, above all the sirens of the machines that escort the heads of state at the start are heard. There is no corner of the latter journey traveled by the pontiff who is not full of people, everyone wants to be there. Even just to see a moment the papamobile, the same one that Francesco used for his trip to Mexico, in 2016. Arrived inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the coffin was buried while thousands of people out remained silent. It is all in this profound respect for the spiritual legacy of “Franciscus”a voice that is destined not to lose vigor and that resonates in anyone who has glimpsed a guide for a more right world in him.
Photo credits
(c) Alex Majoli / Magnum Photos X Vanity Fair. Part of “Open City 2025” / VI-VE-VE PROJECT Museum
Source: Vanity Fair
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