Canadians at pope's funeral say ceremony reflected his vision and values

But in both spaces, mourners said Francis’s vision for the Catholic Church shone through.

“As a Catholic I found it very powerful that the service is so reminiscent of the services that we are familiar with right in Toronto,” said Falguni Debnath, who was with the general public near the back of the square.

She said the late pope’s humility was evident in the funeral rites, which he simplified last year to reflect his view that the leader of the Catholic Church should not be assigned undue grandeur.

“The simplicity of his casket being moved for the final time in contrast to the enormity of his life and of his position was extremely moving for me,” she said.

Debnath, who became a Catholic in adulthood, bought her ticket to Rome within hours of hearing of Francis’s death on Monday. 

“I feel Pope Francis was somebody who was much needed in this time, and it feels lonely to have his voice lost to us, though of course we have his writings and his preachings.”

For Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous governor general, the ceremony reminded her of all Francis did — not only for Catholics, but for marginalized people all over the world.

“I thought about his trip to Canada and how he inspired me and others to continue to be compassionate and understanding and respectful, because that was his way of life,” she said by phone from Rome.

She described being among the mourners at his funeral as extremely powerful.

“It just seemed that it was a time in history that stopped, while the world was moving on, to recognize this man that has done so much for humanity,” Simon said.

Wilton Littlechild, a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, said he also took time at the funeral to look back.

“I was there when Pope Francis said his first mass, and then to reflect back on our journeys parallel together and to bid farewell to His Holiness was pretty emotional,” he said. 

Littlechild met Francis several times over the years, including when the pontiff travelled to Canada to apologize for the Church’s role in the atrocities of the residential school system.

Like Debnath, Littlechild was struck by the simplicity of some aspects of the ceremony.

“He was such a humble and simple man. To witness and look at his coffin… It’s a very simple wooden box and that’s how dedicated he was with his work,” he said. “He always sought to help poor people.”

That desire was on full display Saturday. Dignitaries and heads of state, including Prince William and U.S. President Donald Trump, were present, but so too were prisoners and migrants, who welcomed Francis’s coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town.

According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people attended the funeral in St. Peter’s Square and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century, as recent pontiffs have opted to be buried at the Vatican.

Though the mood inside Vatican City was sombre, it was a “hive of activity” on the streets of Rome where Montreal’s Mirjam Guesgen watched the funeral on a large screen.

She said she’s not religious, she was already on vacation in Rome when the pope died so she decided to attend.

It seemed as though all of Rome had descended on the Vatican, she said, and by the time she and her partner made it there, St. Peter’s Square had already filled up.

“It was really sort of a once-in-a-lifetime experience because of the chanting and the prayers, which were echoing all across — probably as far as the Tiber — from the square,” she said. 

She said she was surrounded by other tourists, speaking many different languages.

That experience was reflected in the ceremony itself, which included portions in languages including Italian, English, Spanish and Greek.

Francis died Monday at age 88 and is being remembered as a pontiff dedicated to building bridges and offering compassion to marginalized groups during his 12-year papacy. The Vatican said Francis died of a stroke and heart failure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron were among the heads of state in attendance Saturday. 

In addition to Canada’s Governor General, major Indigenous leaders and Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner were in attendance.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was not present because of Monday’s federal election.

Nearly 11 million Canadians identified as Catholic in the 2021 census, second only to those without a religious affiliation.

Back in Canada, a few dozen faithful gathered at Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral for a memorial mass for Pope Francis on Saturday morning, presided over by the Archbishop of Montreal.

“I admire all the calls that he’s been making for peace, and it looks like our big leaders are not listening, and it’s unfortunate,” Michelina Lavoratore said, discussing Francis’s legacy before the mass. 

“I think he’s a real human being, down to earth, who put himself at our level, and I think that needs to be admired and always remembered.”

-with files from Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2025.