Pope Francis’ funeral, celebrated this Saturday (26) in St. Peter’s Square, was marked by a homily made by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, in which he highlighted the legacy of the pontiff in favor of the union of peoples, peace and the construction of “bridges and not walls”.
The ceremony brought together about 200,000 people and more than 50 heads of state, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentine Javier Milei. The number of participants exceeded four times the public of Pope Benedict XVI funeral in 2023.
In the homily, he said Francis’s struggle against war, exclusion and poverty:
“Building bridges and no walls is an exhortation that he has repeated many times, and the service of faith as successor of the apostle Peter has always been united with the service of man in all its dimensions.”
The cardinal also recalled that the Pope saw the church as a “campaign hospital” that should welcome everyone, regardless of faith or social condition:
“He was a pope among the people, with a heart open to all.”
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The homily, with a strong appeal to tolerance and fraternity, stressed values that went into shock with the migratory policies defended by Trump, one of the most visible faces of hardening against refugees and immigrants worldwide.
“In this majestic Square of St. Peter, where Pope Francis has celebrated the Eucharist so many times (…) before the outbreak of so many wars, Pope Francis lifted his voice incessantly begging peace and inviting the honest negotiation to find possible solutions. The war, he said, is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone,” Cardinal Giovanni re.
