An open casket with the body of Pope Francis is carried through St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on April 23, 2025. The faithful will pay their respects to Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at the age of 88, ahead of his funeral, which will be held on April 26 in St. Peter's Square. Photo: VCG

Royals, presidents, prime ministers, and a legion of faithful gathered on Saturday in St. Peter's Square in Vatican to bid farewell to Pope Francis at a funeral Mass marking his at-times turbulent papacy, Reuters reported. 

A ceremony for the late Pope Francis concluded at the Vatican, with more than 250,000 mourners in attendance. His body was then taken over the River Tiber to be buried in a tomb in Rome's Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The funeral, which took place in St. Peter's Square and lasted about 2 hours came six days after the first Latin American pontiff made his final public appearance for Easter, at the same location, according to a CNN report. 

According to a report published by the Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Bishops' Conference of Catholic Church in China mourned the death of Pope Francis in a condolence message sent to the Vatican. 

During the funeral, Cardinals delivered a short prayer in six languages: Italian, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Polish, German - and Mandarin. It was the first time that Mandarin had been included in a papal funeral, according to CNN.  

"Reading in Mandarin could be seen as a nod to Pope Francis' long-standing efforts to build bridges with China and the love that the Pontiff always had for the Chinese people and the great country he had always expressed the desire to visit," Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary for the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, told the Global Times on Saturday. 

When asked to comment on the legacy of Pope Francis and his significance to the relations between the Vatican and China as well as the Catholic community in China, Guo Jiakun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Tuesday's press briefing that China expresses its condolences over the death of Pope Francis.

In recent years, China and the Vatican have maintained constructive contacts and carried out beneficial exchanges. China is willing to make joint efforts with the Vatican side to promote the continuous improvement of China-Vatican relations, said Guo.

The first non-European pope in almost 13 centuries, Francis battled to reshape the Roman Catholic Church during his 12-year reign, siding with the poor and marginalized, while challenging wealthy nations to help migrants and reverse climate change, Reuters said. 

"Francis left everyone a wonderful testimony of humanity, of a holy life and of universal fatherhood," said a formal summary of his papacy, written in Latin, and placed next to his body, according to Reuters. 

BBC said in a story titled "Rome says farewell to the 'people's Pope'" on Saturday. 

His humility, sense of humor, approachableness, non-judgmental spirit; his willingness to engage in a conversation with the world rather than offer entitled proclamations; and his unpredictability, the sense we all had that he was unscripted and comfortable in his own skin - these were the aspects of Francis's personality that led some to describe him as "the people's Pope," BBC said. 

After Pope Francis is laid to rest Saturday, his successor will be decided by the Catholic Church's cardinal electors, a group of about 135 cardinals under the age of 80, who are expected to begin their conclave in early to mid-May to hold a secretive election for the next pontiff, CBS News said.