World Leaders Gather in St. Peter’s Square as Pope Francis is Remembered: St. Peter’s Square under a glorious blue sky. It is a stunning, beautiful day here in Italy. There you see actually applause breaking out right now, if you can hear them in the background here, for Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy. James, I will let you pick up on that point.
Pope Francis was quiet for a time but not fully when it came to Russia and Ukraine. In the end, made it clear that he stood with the Ukrainian people.
We were watching actually the crowd just below us here clapped as soon as they saw President Zelenskyy on the big screens because there are screens around the square. As you say, the funeral will take place on this square.
I was struck by the contrast here today, because we are seeing world leaders, the presidents, prime ministers, monarchs are here, and yet also today will be marked with celebrating the poor, the most needy of Rome. They will be there when Pope Francis is buried, and that’s who Pope Francis was.
Yes, he spoke about Ukraine and Russia and all conflict and he focused on the situation in Ukraine, and he spoke about Gaza and weapons of peace. That is what he was about, but also interdenominational dialogue as well, pleading with the Church in Russia, the Eastern Orthodox Church there, his brothers in the Church to see if they could figure out a way to bring the two parties together.
This was a man who felt very, very strongly about going out into the margins to places where there was conflict, there was strive, there was drought, there was famine. He spoke about turning the Church into a field hospital for the needy, for the injured, for the dispossessed.
Source: raialkhalij + aljazeera