
Greater Nashua
Mighty and meek say farewell to Pope Francis during Vatican funeral and last popemobile ride
VATICAN CITY (AP) — World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter's Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis' coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town. According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral Mass at the Vatican and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered "Papa Francesco" as his simple wooden coffin travelled aboard a modified popemobile to St. Mary Major Basilica, some 6 kilometers (3.5-miles) away. As bells tolled, the pallbearers brought the coffin past several dozen ...