Pope Francis's funeral: a day of selfies, souvenirs, and silent prayer in St Peter’s Square

Clergy, dignitaries and other pilgrims attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

From the moment it began, Pope Francis’s funeral Mass was, fittingly, as somber as any other — even if the near-400-year-old venue itself was unrivalled.

But before prayers started to echo around the historic Italian Baroque basilica, bouncing off the colossal Tuscan colonnades embracing the piazza below from about 9.30am, you could have been forgiven for thinking the hundreds of thousands arriving were actually heading to a concert.