the funeral of Pope Francis has taken place in the Vatican The man who led the Catholic Church for 12 years steering it through a period of change died on Monday morning Well Cardinal Giovanni Batista Ree who led the mass said the Pope had touched minds and hearts and wanted to build bridges not walls An estimated quarter of a million mourers have packed the streets with tens of thousands inside St Peter Square itself Well Pope Francis's body will be interred in the church of Santa Maria Marjor the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican for
more than a century It's a place close to the Pope's heart which he visited after every trip abroad to pray Well among the many global heads of state and leaders attending were Presidents Trump and Zilinski After paying their respects they held their first meeting since the bitter exchange at the White House in February President Trump said it had been very productive President Zalinski said as well as being symbolic it had the potential to be historic if we achieve joint results Well we'll have more on the meeting later in the program But first our World News
correspondent Joe Inwood reports on the main events from today's funeral Even for a pope defined by his humility determined to be buried in a way that reflected the poverty of the people he served there was no avoiding the grandeur of the setting or the history of this moment Pope Francis had chosen a simple wooden coffin And it was in front of this that world leaders including President Trump paused to pay their respects They came from all over the world not only Christian nations [Music] Prince William was representing the king The prime minister also paying his
respects There was a ripple of applause as President Zilinski of Ukraine appeared on the big screen This was not a moment for politics but reflection and remembrance Next the cardinals filed past For the first time the majority of these men who will choose his successor a non-European A sign of the impact Pope Francis had on the church [Music] [Applause] [Music] Pope Francis wanted his coffin not raised but on a level with the people as the funeral mass began Then the liturgy of the word Two Bible readings A reading from the Acts of the Apostles In
those days Peter opened his mouth and said "Truly I understand that God shows no [Music] partiality Let [Music] me service led by the dean of the college of cardinals He was a pope among the people with an open heart towards everyone He was also a pope attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the church with his characteristic vocabulary and language rich in images and metaphors He always sought to shed light on the problems of our time with the wisdom of the gospel In front of world leaders many
of whom won power with messages contrary to that of Pope Francis there was praise for his championing of the poor and the disadvantaged His gestures and exaltations in favor of refugees and displaced persons are countless His insistence on working on behalf of the poor was constant The Vatican says 250,000 people attended the funeral Many took communion from the poorest to the most [Music] powerful As final prayers were said the Vatican the wider Catholic community and much of the rest of the world said their farewells to Pope [Music] Francis He passed through St Peter's Basilica one
final time starting the journey across Rome to his final resting place at the church of Santa Maria Major His burial in a poorer area of the city an example in death of the principles by which he lived his life Joe Inwood BBC News
