Pope Francis buried after funeral attended by world leaders, royals and 400,000 mourners – as it happened (2025)

The pope’s funeral provides an unexpected opportunity for impromptu international diplomacy and uncomfortable encounters. The 10am start means most heads of state and political leaders will arrive in Rome on Friday evening, with a brief window for meetings if desired.

Should Donald Trump be kept away from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Or the French president, Emmanuel Macron, or Brazil’s leftist leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or any Iranians that might appear? There may be relief that Vladimir Putin has said he will not attend, but will everyone expect front row seats?

“There will be some potentially really interesting dynamics at the funeral,” said Francis Campbell, who was the UK’s ambassador to the Holy See between 2005 and 2011.

The last comparable occasion, the funeral of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, was the “diplomatic event of the year”, according to the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. It “brought numerous world leaders together, including many that would not normally appear in the same country, let alone the same room”.

The funeral came amid the intensity of the Iraq war – which John Paul II had opposed. When a closeup image of President George Bush’s face appeared on large outdoor television monitors, jeering erupted from the crowd.

Bush found himself sitting close to the leaders of Iran, Syria and Cuba. He and his ally Tony Blair gave them the cold shoulder.

In contrast, Prince Charles committed a diplomatic faux pas by shaking the hand of Zimbabwe’s pariah president Robert Mugabe, who had side-stepped an EU travel ban to attend the service. Charles was apparently caught by surprise when Mugabe leaned over to greet him. A statement later noted “the prince finds the current Zimbabwean regime abhorrent”.

Another handshake, between the presidents of arch-enemies Israel and Iran, was seen as a potentially historic moment – until Mohammad Khatami of Iran later denied the handshake ever happened.

Meanwhile, China boycotted the funeral because of the attendance of the Taiwanese president. The Vatican is one of only a handful of nations to have diplomatic relations with Taiwan – though its president will not be in Rome on Saturday.

Prince William, attending the funeral on behalf of King Charles, has arrived.

Dignitaries can be seen taking their seats on live TV coverage, with Pope Francis’s funeral mass to begin in just a few minutes.

US president Donald Trump paid his respects to Pope Francis at his coffin after arriving at the Vatican on Saturday for the pontiff’s funeral.

Official Vatican images showed Trump and his wife, Melania, stopping by the closed coffin in St Peter’s Basilica after his motorcade had arrived at the Vatican.

Here are images of some of the dignitaries arriving for Pope Francis’s funeral today:

During Pope Francis’s funeral heads of state and dignitaries will be seated on the right side, facing St Peter’s Basilica.

It’s reported that Argentine president Javier Milei, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian president Sergio Mattarella will be seated in the front row. Reigning sovereigns will be seated in the next row, followed by the various heads of state, according to the French alphabetical order corresponding to the name of their country.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires. His father Mario’s parents had travelled to Argentina in 1929 from Portacomaro in Piedmont, northern Italy, wanting to escape a country swept up with the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Mario married Regina Sivori in 1935. The following year, Jorge, the oldest of their five children, was born.

The family spoke Spanish at their single-storey home, 531 Calle Membrillar, in Flores, but with his grandparents – who lived just round the corner in the Almagro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires – the young Jorge learned Italian, or the Piedmontese dialect of their upbringing. His father worked for an accounting firm and, while the family was not poor, money was always tight. At school, Jorge excelled in chemistry, though he later insisted he was never top of the class. Outside it, he liked football (following a local team, San Lorenzo), tango and girls. There was even a girlfriend, Amalia Damonte.

Aged 17, he attended mass in his local church of San José de Flores and was so moved by the sermon of a visiting priest, Enrique Pozzoli, that he sought him out in the confessional. In the course of their exchange, he recalled later, he discovered his religious vocation. His mother was not pleased, he recalled. “She experienced it as a plundering.”

He fell seriously ill at 21 with pneumonia and doctors feared for his life. Three cysts were found on his right lung and part of it was removed in a brutal operation. The brush with death strengthened his determination to become a priest and he entered a Jesuit seminary soon afterwards. Mother and son were finally reconciled in December 1969 when he was ordained after 12 years’ training.

By that stage, Bergoglio was 33 and had gained a philosophy degree at the Catholic University of Buenos Aires. He taught for a while – philosophy and literature – before in 1973 he was elected as the youngest-ever provincial of Jesuits in Argentina. It turned out to be a poisoned chalice.

His six years in charge overlapped with the military junta that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983, during which period between 15,000 and 30,000 Argentinians “disappeared” or were killed. Like the country’s Catholic church, the Jesuits were divided in how to react to events. Both contained progressive elements opposed to the dictatorship and more conservative ones, including prominent military chaplains privy to human rights abuses.

You can read more about the life of Pope Francis here:

State-of-the-art defence and security mechanisms have been deployed across Rome and in the skies above the capital, including anti-drone weaponry, a no-fly zone patrolled by fighter jets, and sophisticated jamming technologies. Anti-terrorism and anti-sabotage units are also already on the ground.

The basilica and the surrounding area are being patrolled by more than 2,000 police officers between now and the end of the conclave that is expected to take place early next month in order to choose Pope Francis’s successor. They will be supported by 400 traffic police officers who will help manage the movement of the diplomatic convoys.

It’s a sunny spring morning in Rome as long queues file into St Peter’s Square, hymns are played and TV crews marked their spots on the edge of the square in preparation for Pope Francis’s funeral. More than 2,000 journalists from around the world have descended on Rome to report on the event.

Among the pilgrims were Rosa Cirielli and her friend Pina Sanarico, who left their homes in Taranto, in southern Italy, at 5am, and managed to secure themselves a decent position in front of a huge TV screen positioned on Via Della Concillazione, the road connecting Rome to Vatican City, from where they’ll follow the ceremony.

“When Pope Francis was alive, he gave us hope. Now we have this huge hole,” said Cirielli. “He left us during a very ugly period for the world. He was the only one who loudly called for peace.”

Virginio and his wife, Anna Maria, travelled to Rome from Naples. They’re here to reflect on Francis but are also contemplating who will follow him.

“We hope the new pope continues along the same line as Francis,” said Anna Maria.

How to watch the pope’s funeral in Australia

Australian viewers can tune in to watch Pope Francis’s funeral on free-to-air television, or stream it online.

The service, set to begin at 10am local time in the Vatican, will be shown on the ABC’s news channel and streamed on YouTube. Programming is expected to start from 6pm in the eastern states, 5.30pm in the Northern Territory and South Australia and 4pm in Western Australia.

Nine Go, 7news, Sky News and SBS are also covering the events.

Joe and Jill Biden have also now arrived.