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Funeral for Pope Francis Held in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome; Thousands from Around the World Visit Rome for Funeral of Pope Francis Including World Leaders; President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Meet in Rome During Funeral of Pope Francis to Discuss Ongoing War between Russia and Ukraine; Pope Francis Buried Outside Vatican City. Aired 10-11a ET.

Aired April 26, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:00]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: -- hey, that's Elon Musk, that's Tucker Carlson. And then people suit up in their partisan jerseys and decide whether they think this is a real crisis or it's some invented circumstance.

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If you missed any of today's program, you can always listen anywhere you get your podcast. Thank you for watching. See you next week.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Victor Blackwell in Atlanta, and welcome to CNN's special coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis.

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BLACKWELL: The spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Francis is remembered as the Pope among the people, a leader who never lost his humility and showed tireless devotion to the poor and the powerless. Yet the most people -- the most powerful people in the world gathered to honor him, presidents, royals, head of states, setting aside the political divisions to come together, if only for a few hours. The popularity of the Pope has drawn a pilgrimage from around the world, and the Vatican estimates a quarter-million people attended. Crowds of people unable to squeeze into Saint Peter's Square spilled into the surrounding streets and across neighboring Rome.

Over the next hour, we will revisit the most poignant moments of this very moving farewell. We're going to hear from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, one of the Pope's closest advisors, who delivered the heartfelt homily. And we'll show you more of the stunning images of the Pope's procession, whisking past Rome's landmarks. And as many as a million people lining the streets. The Pope and a simple, zinc lined wood coffin shattered over a century of tradition, choosing to be buried outside the Vatican.

Now, before we get to those moments, I want to take you to a very special place, Buenos Aires, Argentina, where there is a mass happening now. Pope Francis was born there in 1936, and he served there until he was selected as the 266th Pope in 2013. Thousands have been gathering overnight in honor of the Pope.

CNN's David Culver is joining me now from the cathedral. And a lot of activity behind you. David, what are you seeing?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, we've been here, as you mentioned, a few days now, and we've seen isolated pockets of memorials for Pope Francis. But this, this is the mass gathering. This is where you have seen people of all ages coming through here starting in the early morning hours. I'm going to walk here a little bit. This is mass, but there's a procession going on right now. You have people who have come in here, Victor, from all parts of the city, Buenos Aires, and then on the outside of the city, they've come in from the provinces, and they've come in from the villas. And that's a really important part, because the villas are those simple, humble, lower income neighborhoods that Pope Francis, when he was then Cardinal Bergoglio and before that, Father Bergoglio, would spend so much of his time in giving of himself and was very present there. I mean, he talked to folks. I rode a bus in with a group of people from one of those villas, and they said he was always there for whatever we needed.

And so now this is their time to say goodbye to one of their own. This is the mass that they're celebrating here. The archbishop is up there, and they're doing final blessings in this moment as well. And you've also got this mix of, I would say, joyfulness, and there's almost a rally like attitude. I mean, you see people, they've got their banners, they've got t-shirts they've had made, music has been playing. For them this is, well, a difficult moment, a celebratory one to.

BLACKWELL: David, what I really appreciate about your reporting is not only are you showing us the images and bringing us the sentiment, is that you're getting those personal stories from people who've had these interactions with the late Pope. I wonder if you'd share one of those.

CULVER: Do you know what? That has just shocked me, Victor, in the sense of you go into one of these villas and you ask, did you know Pope Francis before he was Pope Francis? And it was so matter of fact and calming that people say, oh, yes, of course. He baptized my granddaughter, or he washed my son's feet. I mean, they're so at ease with who he is as a human being.

They had him for 76 years here. I think one thing that constantly comes back to me is even as he was described as being serious as a cardinal here.

[10:05:03] And he, in his book, wrote that he was worried about making mistakes as a cardinal. Once he became Pope, he really felt more at ease to make jokes. And one of those, he said, a man who spent a lot of time with him, a very good friend, said that the last time he saw him was in January. And he said to the end, Pope Francis said, let me see you to the door. And he said, Holy Father, you don't have to do that. And he said, I do. I want to make sure you're leaving. I mean, he just had this lightheartedness.

BLACKWELL: David Culver for us there in Buenos Aires. David, thank you.

Let me take you back to Rome now. The Pope has just been buried at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a solemn, simple service in honor of the man who chose to walk in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, the champion of the disadvantaged. We begin this morning in Saint Peter's Square.

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BLACKWELL: There's some of the pictures from the funeral mass this morning. We know that there are more than 250,000 people who attended the Pope's funeral, including many of the world's leaders, 130 delegations attended President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump among them. Trump also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shortly before the service. Administration officials say they had a productive discussion.

Let's bring in both CNN's Ben Wedeman in Rome, Kevin Liptak, who is following the president. Ben, first to you. More than 50 heads of state there. We showed the president highlighted at the top. What stuck out to you? What did you notice?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, this is probably the biggest gathering of world leaders in one place and one time for quite some time. What we saw was the Italian police laid on a lot of security. There were drones overhead. The city of Rome deployed more than 2,000 police officers. There were undercover anti- terrorism squads. There were anti-drone teams walking around, sharpshooters on the roof.

Now, what was interesting during the homily given by Cardinal Giovanni Re, who is the head of the -- he's the Dean of the College of Cardinals, he did make a mention of the fact that over the years, Pope Francis had spoke up against people who are in favor of building walls. And he suggested at some point the Pope, Pope Francis, that is, that those who talk about building walls and not building bridges aren't Christians. So that was something of a backhanded swipe against President Trump, who until the best -- to the best of our knowledge, has yet to react to that. Other VIPs in the crowd included Keir Starmer, the British prime

minister, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France. There were around a dozen reigning monarchs, including King Abdullah of Jordan, and representing the royal family in the U.K. was Prince William, the Prince of Wales. So it was very much a VIP occasion, although, obviously, Pope Francis was somebody who has always made it clear he was much closer to the ordinary people who were crammed into Saint Peter's Square than all those VIPs who were in the front row of this funeral today. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Yes, we saw them shaking hands, and they were asked to show messages and symbols of peace to one another during the ceremony this morning.

Kevin Liptak, to you. We knew that there was this opportunity for conversations on the sidelines between President Trump and President Zelenskyy. What do we know about this meeting?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the White House is calling it very productive. It lasted about 15 minutes.

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And it was quite a remarkable scene there. You see the two men sort of perched on their chairs inside Saint Peter's Basilica, appearing quite deep in conversation. These are two men who have made no secret of their distrust, even their dislike of each other. You know, President Trump just said within the past week that he was not a fan, his quote, of President Zelenskyy. And this meeting comes 57 days after that explosive Oval Office meeting that resulted essentially in Trump evicting Zelenskyy and his delegation from the White House.

This meeting did not appear quite as contentious, but it certainly did come at quite a critical moment as President Trump grows more and more frustrated that he is unable to bring the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to an end. The United States has proposed a peace plan that would essentially give Russia some of the territory that it has gained during this war, and also include American recognition of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Zelenskyy has said that that's not something he can sign off on, and that is part of what has led to this great amount of contention between the two men.

And so certainly as they sat there inside Saint Peter's Basilica, this is something that they will have wanted to discuss. Now, both sides are sort of keeping the precise details of this meeting under wraps, but we did hear from Zelenskyy as he was departing. Listen to how he framed this meeting.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, how did the meeting with Trump go?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Really, really we had a productive meeting. I don't want to go to a lot of details if it's possible, because the questions were sensitive questions on, of course, totally it's about how to bring peace closer. And how was resulted in positive Paris and London. And we want to continue such meetings to bring peace to Ukraine.

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LIPTAK: Now Trump is now flying back from Rome here to New Jersey, where I am. As he's flying back, he did post something very interesting on Truth Social when it comes to the Russia conflict. He says that "there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns over the last few days." And you'll remember, Russia bombarded Kyiv just last week, its worst attack in nine months. Trump says, "It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along and has to be dealt with differently through banking or secondary sanctions."

So quite a shift in tone from the president there. You know, I asked him on Thursday whether he still believed that Putin wanted peace. He said that he believed both sides were interested in peace here. But now the president, after his meeting with Zelenskyy, taking a somewhat different view, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Keir Starmer, who we saw there, the prime minister of the U.K., has long been saying that Putin has been dragging this out. Kevin Liptak for us there, traveling with the president. Thank you.

You are watching CNN's special coverage of Pope Francis's funeral. We'll be right back.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When I arrived at the square, there were tears of sadness and also joy that came over me. I think I truly realized that Pope Francis had left us, and at the same time there is joy for all he has done for the Church.

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BLACKWELL: Welcome back to our special coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis. Cardinal Giovanni Re delivered a touching homily. He described the late pontiff as a Pope among the people with an open heart towards everyone. Here's that moment.

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CARDINAL GIOVANNI BATTISTA RE, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS (through translator): The decision to take the name, Francis, immediately appeared to indicate the pastoral plan and the style on which he wanted to base his pontificate, seeking inspiration from the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi. He always sought to shed light on the problems of our time with the wisdom of the Gospel. It did so by offering a response encouraged by the light of faith, and encouraging us to live as Christians amid the challenges and contradictions in recent years, which he loved to describe as an epochal change.

He had great spontaneity and an informal way of addressing everyone, even those far from the Church. Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today's challenges, Pope Francis truly shared the anxieties, sufferings, and hopes of this time of ours. His gestures and exhortations in favor of refugees and displaced persons are countless. His insistence on working on behalf of the poor was constant. It is significant that Pope Francis's first journey was to Lampedusa, an island that symbolizes the tragedy of immigration, with thousands of people drowning at sea.

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In the same vein was his trip to Lesbos together with the ecumenical patriarch and the archbishop of Athens, as well as the celebration of a mass on the border between Mexico and the United States. He often reminded us that we all belong to the same human family and that nobody can save himself alone.

In 2019, during his trip to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis signed a document on human fraternity for world peace and living together, recalling the common fatherhood of God. Addressing men and women throughout the world in his encyclical letter "Laudato si'," he drew attention to our duties and our shared responsibility for our common home.

Pope Francis used to conclude his speeches and meetings by saying "Do not forget to pray for me." Now, now, Dear Pope Francis, we now ask you to pray for us. And we ask you to bless the church from heaven, bless Rome, and bless the whole world as you did last Sunday from the balcony of this Basilica in a final embrace with all the people of God, but also embrace humanity in its entirety that seeks the truth with a sincere heart and holds high the torch of hope.

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BLACKWELL: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re delivering the homily there, 91 years old.

We'll have much more coverage of Pope Francis's funeral after a break.

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BLACKWELL: That was the part of the liturgy of the Eucharist where bread and wine are consecrated into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and then priests dispersed it into the crowd to distribute communion. I mean, we've shown you the pictures. Look at the crowds here. More than 250,000 mourners, according to the Vatican, gathered in Saint Peter's Square to bid a solemn and final farewell to Pope Francis.

Let's bring back CNN's Ben Wedeman and bring in now Barbie Latza Nadeau. Do they both live in Rome. Ben, first to you. You have noticed that there was a more diverse crowd than at previous papal funerals, specifically Saint John Paul II. What does this say about Pope Francis?

WEDEMAN: Yes, when I was here in 2005, when John Paul II's funeral took place, and suddenly Rome, an Italian city, felt like Warsaw. So many buses of Poles came in because, of course, John Paul II was from Poland. So that was very much reflective of him and his legacy in terms of sort of the deposing of the Soviet empire in eastern Europe.

With Pope Francis, however, what I've seen is a much more diverse crowd, the people coming from all over the world. And as this man from Portugal told us, he was somebody who touched people in a very personal way. This is what he said.

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WEDEMAN: You came here on vacation for the jubilee, and the Pope died. What was your reaction?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sadness. He was a great Pope, a Pope who opened the church to everybody. We were with him in jubilee in Granada or Juventud in Lisbon, and he said that the church was for everybody, everybody, everybody. He was an open Pope. We hope that the next Pope has the same ideas. We, when we knew about the death of the Pope, we became sad. But we have already reservations to vacation for the jubilee. So we can come with our adults, and our young men.

WEDEMAN: And what was it to be here on this day for his funeral?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very special. It's a way to say thank you and say goodbye of a great man.

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WEDEMAN: And what I also noticed, Victor, was how many young people were here this morning. In fact, this area to my left was full of Italian school kids, school kids who were also, many of them, part of church groups who had specifically come here. We spoke to one young Italian teenager who told us that they had slept in sleeping bags all together in a church before coming here. And many of these young people were here well before the sun rose at 6:00 in the morning. Victor?

BLACKWELL: And there were hundreds of thousands of people along that route from the Vatican to the final resting place, Barbie. And as the late Popes coffin was on the back of the Popemobile, it passed some important landmarks. Explain the path and why it was so important.

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: You know, I mean, this particular path that he took from the Vatican here to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore behind me is important for a lot of reasons. It was this old papal route that the Popes used to take for hundreds of years when they left Saint Peter's Square after they had been elected to go take control of the Basilica of San Giovanni.

And when you know that he was going down this road, past the Colosseum, through the ancient Roman forum, there was a reason for that. But it was also because, you know, Pope Francis, before he became Pope, was the son of Italian immigrants. And so to kind of leave Vatican City and come into Italy and to choose to be buried in Italy is also a significant aspect to all of this.

But it was it gave the people, he was the Pope of the people, as we've heard so many times, it gave the people a chance to say their farewells to him. And, boy, did they ever here in this square. It was as if the entire crowd was opening their arms and embracing him as that Popemobile turned into the square, backed up, and they took his coffin out and into the church. It was just really an emotional sort of journey, and one very befitting of Pope Francis. Victor?

BLACKWELL: We saw those large banners, "Grazie, Francesco," lining the path to that final resting place. Ben Wedeman, Barbie Latza Nadeau, thank you both.

CNN's coverage of Pope Francis's funeral continues in a moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very moved for me. This was the time when we say goodbye to the holy father. I lived here like one year, and I participate in many masses, and even the last one in Sunday. It was this -- I was, I saw him very close. And next day the information he passed away. It was very sad. But I am happy I can be here.

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BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis. We're bringing you some of the most poignant moments of the funeral mass. And during the service, priests distributed the Holy Communion, first among the cardinals, and then to mourners in the crowd.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign Language)

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BLACKWELL: You're watching CNN's special coverage of Pope Franciss funeral. Let's show you here the coffin being carried back into Saint Peter's Basilica this morning after the mass. And of course, then it was driven via Popemobile to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In his will, Francis gave the instruction for his burial that the tomb should be in the ground, simple, without particular ornamentation, bearing only the inscription "Franciscus."

We'll be right back.

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[10:51:15]

BLACKWELL: Pope Francis has now been buried at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, and that makes him the first Pope in more than a century to be buried outside the Vatican. He was remembered as a Pope among the people.

Joining me now is CNN Vatican analyst and the host of the "Katie McGrady Show" on Sirius XM, Katie McGrady, and editor of "Our Sunday Visitor," Father Patrick Mary Briscoe. Welcome to you both.

Katie, let me start with you. And we've been showing some of the moments from the funeral mass. I wonder, what stands out to you from what happened this morning?

KATIE PREJEAN MCGRADY, HOST, "THE KATIE MCGRADY SHOW," SIRIUS XM, THE CATHOLIC CHANNEL: There were two big things that I was really struck by as we were watching it in the early morning hours over here. The first was the spontaneous applause of the people in the crowd as Francis was brought out of Saint Peter's Basilica, and then as he was processed back into Saint Peter's Basilica for the then iconic final Popemobile journey from Saint Peter's through the streets of Rome over to Saint Mary Major. And there was this spontaneous joy, and from even 5,000 miles away, I could feel that.

The other big thing that I noticed was in those final moments of the procession, as Pope Francis's coffin was in a Popemobile, if you look at it at a certain angle, it's quite obvious that that's the Popemobile that the holy father would stand in as he would greet the faithful in younger years, before he was more infirmed and unable to move. And it was a striking image that it was empty as you were looking at it from head on. You knew his coffin was back there, and as it would go by, you'd see it. But it was this moment of, at least personally for me, of realization that he really is gone. And this beautiful funeral, this beautiful sendoff that world leaders and hundreds of thousands of people were present at, that Pope Francis was such a unifying figure that so many folks would come together to say that final farewell.

BLACKWELL: That's interesting. And I wonder how that unification, that unifying figure, will influence what will happen over the next several days as we look ahead to the conclave.

Father, let me come to you. And first, you've got this beautiful celestial background that is difficult to ignore. But how is it to be in in Rome today?

FATHER PATRICK MARY BRISCOE, EDITOR, "OUR SUNDAY VISITOR": Victor, things have been extraordinary. I'd like to echo what Katie said. "Joy" really is the word. And for some people, that might be a difficult thing to be talking about joy as we as we comment about Pope Francis's funeral, but it really was the sense in the square. I was in the square two years ago for Pope Benedict XVI's funeral mass, which was more subdued, was magnitudes smaller at the time when he passed. Pope Benedict, of course, was not the reigning Pope. He had already resigned. Today's spirit really was marked by a celebration, a sense of gratitude, of thanksgiving for what Pope Francis had done for the church. And you certainly felt that among the many thousands of priests and pilgrims who gathered in Saint Peter's Square.

BLACKWELL: Katie, was there a specific element that represented the simplicity, the humbleness of this Pope? I mean, for as much as a funeral mass for a pontiff can be, was there any element of that that you could see?

MCGRADY: So Pope Francis made a pretty significant modification to the coffin. A simple wooden coffin that was not elevated. In fact, you could see that they had to hold it up with great effort so that the people could see the coffin when they came out and when they went back in. And then it was just sitting on the very same ground where Pope Francis would have stood many times to greet the faithful.

[10:55:02]

There was a stark photo that Vatican News had posted of the coffin with the mourners in Saint Peter's Square beyond, and I was immediately brought back to COVID in 2020, when Pope Francis stood in that very same spot all by himself and prayed for the world. And so he was once alone praying for the world. And now the world was with him as he's alone in this coffin.

And that simplicity, the coffin on the ground, is pure Francis, that there was not this elevation. He was not buried as a sovereign. Yes, there were world leaders. Yes, there were sovereigns. He was buried as a shepherd, a shepherd returning to the earth, a shepherd with his sheep. And I truly was struck by that simplicity in that moment.

And then, of course, his location away from Saint Peter's Basilica at Saint Mary Major, a simple in the ground Franciscus with his pectoral cross, the good shepherd on the wall, some pretty stark visuals of the type of Pope he was.

BLACKWELL: Katie McGrady, Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, thank you both.

We'll be right back.

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