Pope Francis laid to rest as politics hangs over farewell

Hundreds of thousands of mourners line the streets of Rome

- SAM KILEY

Mourners packed into St Peter's Square, many kneeling on the black cobbles, matching spiritual grief with physical suffering as the sun beat down on the Vatican funeral of Pope Francis yesterday.

At the farewell for a pontiff who blurred the line between religion and the real world, it was no surprise that politics hung in the air. As tens of thousands of Catholics poured through Rome towards the Vatican, there was a clear divide among the faithful: between those who bade Francis farewell and those who mourned his loss.

Pope Francis modernised Catholic liturgy in the West, but it was his championing of causes often associated with “liberals” – notably the rights of homosexuals, the trans community, migrants, and the old-fashioned economics of charity and fairness – that marked his rule.

John Maher, a visitor from Cardiff, said Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, “was a proper theologian”. Benedict was a conservative who held tradition dear within the church and took less interest in secular and political matters, preferring to shy away from the church’s left and liberation theology.

Mr Maher said Francis, a Jesuit from Argentina who lived through South American dictatorships, had taken a more inclusive approach. “I don’t think Pope Francis was in the same vein. He made quite a few changes in his pontificate, whether we all believe they’re for the good or not,” Mr Maher said.

He preferred not to be drawn on where the last pope “went too far” but replied “don’t get me going” when asked about migrants and homosexual rights which were, perhaps, issues Mr Maher preferred left to politicians.