People attend the funeral Mass of Pope Francis, in St. Peter's Square, as seen from Rome, Italy, April 26, 2025. Hannah McKay / REUTERS

About 250,000 people attended the funeral service for Pope Francis on Saturday morning in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, before the late leader of the Catholic Church was transported to the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore) in Rome to be buried. While the ceremony followed many traditions developed over centuries of church history, there were some details uniquely chosen by Pope Francis. Watch the ceremony here on CBS News, and find answers to some of your questions about the historic event below.

What time did Pope Francis' funeral start?
Pope Francis's funeral began shortly after 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. Eastern, 1 a.m. Pacific) at the Vatican, outside St. Peter's Basilica. The ceremony was presided over by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

The funeral followed the Vatican's liturgical book for papal funeral rites, called the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis. It was broken down into three separate phases, or "stations": The preparation of the body, the viewing of the body, and then the burial.

An updated edition of the ancient papal funeral rites was approved by Pope Francis last year, changing some longstanding traditions, including the type of coffin used.

Saturday's service began with music sung by the Sistine Chapel Choir. The first reading was done by American Vatican News journalist, Kielce Gussie.

During the homily, Cardinal Re said "mercy and the joys of the gospel" were two priorities of Pope Francis, "in contrast to the culture of waste."

"He often reminded us... that we all belong to the same human family and that no one is saved alone," Re said.

Re said Pope Francis "raised his voice, imploring peace," because "war always leaves the world worse than it was before. It is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone."

He said Pope Francis encouraged people to "build bridges, not walls."

Who attended Pope Francis' funeral?
Pope Francis' funeral was attended by thousands of members of the public, as well as religious leaders and heads of state from around the world.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended, as did former President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.

When Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska arrived to take their seats ahead of the service, the gathered crowd erupted in applause. Mr. Trump, who is trying to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, met privately with Zelenskyy earlier in the day.

The Vatican said there were delegations from about 130 countries at the ceremony, with 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs in attendance, including:

o Britain's Prince William
o U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer
o French President Emmanuel Macron
o Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
o Outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
o Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
o United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres
o EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen
o European Council President Antonio Costa
o Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
o Argentina's President Javier Milei
o Honduras' President Xiomara Castro
o Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
o India's president Droupadi Murmu
o President of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera
o President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi
o President of Cape Verde, Jose Maria Neves
o Sen. Susan Collins led a bipartisan delegation of Catholic U.S. senators to attend the pope's funeral.

Where is Pope Francis buried?
In a break from tradition, Pope Francis chose to be buried outside the Vatican at the Basilica of St. Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, where he often went to pray during his papacy. Seven earlier popes are buried there, but he is the first in centuries.

The coffin was transported through the city in an open-topped popemobile, and huge crowds gathered along the procession route to pay their final respects to the late pontiff.

Those gathered outside St. Mary Major cheered as the procession arrived.

Many popes have been laid to rest inside the Vatican, in the Vatican grottoes, a system of vaults on the lower level of St. Peter's Basilica — but in his last will and testament, Francis requested he be laid to rest in the church that had special meaning for him.

"I wish that my last earthly journey conclude precisely in this ancient Marian sanctuary where I went for prayer at the beginning and end of each Apostolic journey to confidently entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and thank Her for her docile and maternal care," Francis said in his will.

"The tomb must be in the earth; simple, without particular decoration and with the only inscription: Franciscus," he wrote.

Burial rites were to be led at the site by the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

Among those that were gathered for the arrival of the pope's coffin at St. Mary Major were individuals from communities Pope Francis supported, including prisoners with special permission, homeless people, members of the trans community and victims and survivors of sex trafficking, the Vatican said.

When will they choose the next pope?
After the funeral, nine days of mourning began, called the Novemdiales.

Eligible cardinals under the age of 80 — currently a group of about 135 — will gather in Rome to prepare for the papal conclave, the centuries-old process to select the next pope. The conclave usually begins around two weeks after a pope's death, so in this case, likely in early May.

During the conclave, eligible cardinals will isolate themselves and, behind closed doors in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, they will cast ballots for their choice, repeating the process until a candidate receives a two-thirds-plus-one majority. The ballots, which are paper, are burned after each round of voting.

If no choice has been reached, the ballots from that round send up black smoke from the chimney as they burn. When a new pope is finally selected, a cloud of white smoke is sent up to signal the momentous news to the world.


Crowds gather to watch the procession carrying the coffin of the late Pope Francis through the streets of Rome to his final resting place on April 26, 2025. Andrei Pungovschi / Getty Images

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