‘I went to Pope’s funeral and it was like pageant – however temper abruptly modified’

A news reporter has shared their experience of attending Pope Francis’ funeral, revealing the morning felt like a festival in Vatican City, but the atmosphere quickly changed

An attendee of Pope Francis’ funeral has revealed that it felt like a ‘festival’ in Vatican City – but one thing quickly made the atmosphere change.

Yesterday (Saturday 26), the late pontiff was laid to rest after he passed, aged 88, on Easter Monday having suffered a stroke and heart complications.

The 1.39billion Catholics entered a state of mourning, with many flocking to Vatican City to witness the ceremony in St. Peter’s Square. World leaders were in attendance too, with Donald Trump performing a string of controversial moments.

Here, we here from journalist Matthew Young, from the Mirror, who has detailed what is was exactly like being witness to a historic event.

Matthew Young writes…

Nuns scurried in the dark at 5.30am, weary police manned security barriers and queues formed as the faithful made their bid to gain access to St Peter’s Square for the rare, historical event of a Pope’s funeral.

Shortly after 6am, worshippers, having filed through security, sprinted to get one of the 5,000 seats in prime location on the cobbles in front of the basilica. Within 20-minutes, all the seats were gone, and then the masses built backwards from the wooden, waist-high fences of the square to fill the iconic Via Della Conciliazione, the road which leads to the home of the Catholic Church.

We were near the front, with around 250,000 people standing behind us. As the moment drew closer, prayers were read out before the official funeral mass. Played over huge speakers, the Italian words were echoed around this iconic, ancient arena, and worshippers responded in low, haunting tones.

Security helicopters circled the Vatican, an official drone buzzed ahead and thousands of photographers focused their cameras from vantage points on top of the colonnade, awaiting the arrival of the most powerful people on Earth. The large screens fixed to archways of the plaza gave us a different perspective, showing aerial views of this awe-inspiring event.

Amid the chaos of the morning, the 4am starts, the jostling for position, somehow – a perfect congregation of around a quarter of a million people had gathered to witness this historic spectacle. On Friday, UK cardinal Vincent Nichols said that Rome and The Holy See are ‘geniuses’ at staging big events. “I think they’ve been doing it since the emperors ruled Rome,” he added.

With all eyes fixed up towards royalty and world leaders in a location so cinematic it is hard to believe it is real, you could be mistaken for thinking they still did. Silence fell as dignitaries arrived, only pierced by the noise of seagulls flying above and the murmuring of a security helicopter’s propellers.

Prince William and Sir Keir Starmer took their seats, as did US President Donald Trump and wife Melania. Applause was reserved for only one person, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.

Then there was complete stillness until 10.04am when images on the large screens showed Pope Francis’s coffin being brought from inside the basilica, and applause broke out once more. Holy hymns playing loudly across St Peter’s Square and all along the Via Della Conciliazione reached a crescendo as Francis’s coffin emerged and was placed in the altar at the top of the basilica’s steps.

There had been an air of excitement in the hours before the service as people of all ages and nationalities took their positions in anticipation. People slept in sleeping bags, sat huddled on the cobbles and ate snacks they had packed in preparation for the early start.

It felt like a festival, a celebration. But when his coffin was placed outside for this open air ceremony, the atmosphere changed. Worshippers looked on solemnly, some with their hands clasped, some with tears in their eyes.

Just six days earlier, near this very spot, Francis took his final tour of St Peter’s Square in the popemobile as he surprised crowds after a blessing from the basilica balcony. “Thank you for taking me back to the Square,” he later told his personal assistant.

Now, lying in his coffin in front of the masses, it was impossible not to be moved by what was taking place before our eyes. Francis’s eulogy was read by Giovanni Battista Re, 91, and applause frequently broke out in the crowd.

Of all the hymns and prayers during the service, and the powerful eulogy, it was the silent moments that were the most moving.

The moments of reflection when pilgrims, who were celebrating the life of Francis, had a second to gather themselves and focus on the lonely, wooden coffin sat in front of the spectacular, towering basilica which was, at that point, the focal point of the entire world. “To see him here like that today – he’s gone,” said US student Madison Gifford, 20, who was also in the square just six days earlier when Francis made his surprise appearance.

Worshippers in the seated areas of the square close to us received communion towards the end, before Francis’s coffin was picked up and slowly taken back inside the basilica following the near two-hours service.

Applause began as he was collected and the noise built steadily until reaching its apex as Pope Francis was carried back through the ornate doors of the church, and out of sight. Different nationalities’ flags were waved, including his native Argentinian, and signs were held aloft in Francis’s honour.

Some people were smiling, some were hugging, some were crying. It was a moving, emotional spectacle. For the thousands in this crowd, it was the last time they would see Francis. In yet another break in tradition, he decided to be buried away from The Vatican and instead at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in central Rome.

His coffin was driven the four miles in the popemobile through the streets of this historic city and in front of the Colosseum, past adoring crowds before being welcomed at his favourite church.

He was then buried in a private ceremony.

As he was taken inside the St Peter’s Basilica and out of view of the crowd for one last time, a large flag was raised, held by schoolchildren and reading simply in his native Spanish: “Adios Padre, Maestro y Poeta” – goodbye father, teacher and poet.