Over 2,50,000 in attendance as Pope Francis laid to rest

WORLD WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HIS SERVICE TO SOCIETY: PM MODI

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World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor.

Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St Peter's Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis' coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town.

According to Vatican estimates, some 2,50,000 people flocked to the funeral Mass at the Vatican and 1,50,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered "Papa Francesco" as his simple wooden coffin travelled aboard a modified popemobile to St Mary Major Basilica, some 6 kilometres away.

As bells tolled, the pallbearers brought the coffin past several dozen migrants, prisoners and homeless people holding white roses outside the basilica.

Once inside, the pallbearers stopped in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary that Francis loved. Four children deposited the roses at the foot of the altar before cardinals performed the burial rite at his tomb in a nearby niche.

"I'm so sorry that we've lost him," said Mohammed Abdallah, a 35-year-old migrant from Sudan who was one of the people who welcomed Francis to his final resting place. "Francis helped so many people, refugees like us, and many other people in the world."