As the world paid its final respects to Pope Francis, a great number of people, in all their diversity, were united in their common dream of a better world.
By Paolo Ruffini
All. Everyone. Everyone really was there today in St. Peter's Square, which was so full of people that no one else could fit. Even on the Via della Conciliazione leading to the Square, in the streets around it, and along the way to St. Mary Major. Everyone was there, everyone. As Pope Francis repeated so many times from World Youth Day to his final greeting on the day of the Lord's Resurrection: “Happy Easter to all.”
There were old people and children, even babies just a few months old, brought by their parents to be witnesses of a special moment in the very earliest days of their lives.
And there were many, many teenagers, themselves not so much older (not so much older after all), as if called by a direction that transcends them and us to take the baton of faith from a Pope who knew how to speak their language and challenge them to believe, to hope, to dream, to show that it is possible to live in peace, and to build a better world step by step. They saw with their own eyes that hope, which brought them here for their Jubilee, transcends death.
There were countless priests concelebrating. Bishops, Cardinals, and baptized laypeople, all confirming one another in the faith.
There were the powerful of the earth, the rich, but also the poor, greeting Pope Francis and thinking about what the future holds. There were also non-believers, or believers of other religions. Friends as well as enemies.
For more on this article: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2025-04/everyone.html