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CNN Live Event/Special

Mourners Gather In Buenos Aires To Pay Tribute To Pope Francis; Trump, Zelenskyy Meet Ahead Of Pope Francis' Funeral; Mourners Reflect On Pope Francis Connection To The Masses; Cardinals To Elect New Pope At Conclave In Sistine Chapel; Global Leaders And Faithful Mourn, As The World Bids Farewell To Pope Francis. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired April 26, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:48]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Welcome back to CNN's coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis. I'm Anderson Cooper live from just outside St. Peter's Square on what has been a solemn and historic morning. My colleague Victor Blackwell is in Atlanta.

World leader -- world leaders joined the cardinals and hundreds of thousands of mourners in St. Peter's Square this morning for the funeral of Pope Francis. It was an extraordinary ceremony held on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica to remember the life of a pope who was a champion of migrants and the poor and whose pontificate reshaped the Roman Catholic Church. Following the funeral mass, the pope's coffin was driven through the streets of Rome to his final resting place at Rome's basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. The church said Pope Francis dedication to the poor reflected his belief that they have a privileged place in the heart of God. To honor that, the church says a group of underprivileged people were present on the steps leading into the basilica.

They paid their last respects to the pope before he was taken inside to be laid to rest. There is much to talk about in the hours ahead. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau is just outside the basilica where Pope Francis has been laid to rest in that private ceremony.

Barbie, the late pope requested his tomb be very simple. Talk about their about all the people who were there to receive him. What this morning was like.

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yes, you know, it was really hard to describe the amount of emotion in this trip of this particular neighborhood. Who are -- these people here, who live here are so used to seeing Pope Francis. He comes into this church before all of his trips or did before all of his trips, after his trips, before -- after his hospitalization. He really means something to the people of this neighborhood. This is one of the most multicultural neighborhoods in all of Rome.

And that was reflected in the crowd of people who were here just to welcome him. And you really did feel like they were welcoming him. Everybody was clapping. There were people saying the rosary. There were people crying.

It was very, very emotional. And then we saw the group of about 40, 45 people who were among the marginalized. They were people who were homeless, who were impoverished. There was a group of transgender women who live in a convent not far from here. And all of those people meant something to Pope Francis.

And those people, those groups of marginalized people felt heard by this pontiff. And, you know, we talked to so many people in the crowd here who are from this parish who will go to mass every morning next to the tomb of Pope Francis. And it's so interesting that his simple tomb doesn't even have a mention of pontifex or pope on it. He is just a priest in a church, you know? Must be said, it's a very grand church here in Rome.

It's one of the major basilicas of the city. But it's also, I think, important to think about the fact that Pope Francis was the son of Italian immigrants who were -- who went to Argentina. And the fact that he's buried in Italian soil and not Vatican City was something that we heard a lot of people sort of speculating about the fact that he's buried in Italy, not Vatican City. So there's just all this sort of emotion.

There's still so many people here. The burial service is going on in the church behind me, and I think a lot of people are waiting to see those who took part of the burial come out and that's when we have the closure. The church won't open to the public until tomorrow morning. And then I think we'll see everyone in this beautiful part of Rome, this beautiful neighborhood go in and pay their last respects to someone who felt very much part of their community, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, it is. It is a -- it is such a beautiful basilica. Barbie Latza Nadeau, thank you very much.

This has been obviously a global event that we have been witnessing this morning. We go now to senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman.

Ben, you have been in the crowds here all morning long, talking with mourners who travel from all over the world. What have you been hearing?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we heard from a variety of people from around the world. One woman who flew in with her daughter from Dublin specifically to attend this funeral because they had seen Pope Francis when he went to Ireland. And sort of across the board, the one thing that everybody seemed to stress was just how humble and modest Pope Francis was.

[08:05:09]

OK, well, it looks like they're cleaning up behind us, so maybe you won't be hearing me for a second. But yes, I mean, I think that what struck me was that he was seen as sort of, as we heard during one of the homilies, was he was a pope among the people. And I remember, Anderson, very early on in his time as pope being out in St. Peter's Square when he was driving through on the popemobile, he stopped and got out because clearly he wanted to be among the people. And I was particularly struck by the fact his bodyguards were panicking. And I think this is something that Pope Francis clearly wanted to do.

He was impatient with sort of the restrictions that are imposed upon people like him, high profile people, by the requirements of security and protocol. And nothing made him happier than to be out just talking to people, meeting people, greeting people. And I think that sort of characteristic really was something that people have absorbed over the last 12 years of his pontificate. Anderson.

COOPER: And he certainly did that to the end. Ben Wedeman, thank you.

Pope Francis -- Pope Francis' funeral was filled with a number of moving moments. Here's how the life and legacy of the Pope was honored in today's services.

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CARDINAL GIOVANI BATTISTA RE, DEAN COLLEGE OG CARDINALS (through translator): Jesus then entrusted him with the great mission. Feed my sheep, this will be the constant task of Peter and his successors. A service of love in the footsteps of Christ our Master and Lord, who despite his frailty and suffering towards the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life, giving himself without measure, especially to the marginalized.

He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone. He was also a pope attentive to the signs of the times and what was happening in society and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the church. 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Our special CNN coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis continues straight ahead.

[08:09:08]

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met ahead of the Pope's funeral as well. We'll have more on that ahead as well.

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures now from St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. The Vatican says that more than 250,000 people attended the funeral mass for the late pope there this morning. The public funeral ceremony held right there, right now, private burial service is being held for Pope Francis a few miles away at the papal Basilica of St. Mary Maggiore in Buenos Aires, where Pope Francis was born and raised, carried out most of his ministry as a priest, bishop, cardinal we've seen an outpouring of emotion. And CNN Senior Correspondent David Culver is joining us now from Buenos Aires.

David, you've been in Argentina for several days now. The people there, of course, knew then Cardinal Bergoglio very well. What have you witnessed?

[08:15:00]

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They did, Victor. In fact, I was just speaking to these two women here and they said, oh, he would even send as, pope, letters every year on certain anniversaries through fax machine. (FOREIGN LANGUAGE) And they said that he was just such a present figure.

I'm in the way here, I'm noticing that. But I want to show you we're on a bus. And this is one of many that's leaving this villa. It's a neighborhood that is incredibly simple and humble. It's the community that Pope Francis would so often speak about.

And as cardinal, when he was in that role for 15 years, he would come visit here. And they said he would baptize their kids and grandkids, he would wash feet. He was just always a figure who was not just talk, but action. And he would put that action into place in this community in particular. And they're going to be getting on these buses.

There's about seven buses altogether, and we're hoping to get one as well. So we don't want to lose our spot. But then they're going to the Plaza de Mayo, which is going to be right in front of the cathedral. And a mass is going to be underway shortly and that's going to be held to remember Pope Francis.

There's a whole day of events because after that mass, then they're going to have a pilgrimage of sorts where they're going to go to different sites throughout the city, places that then Cardinal Bergoglio would often visit. And then before that, as Father Bergoglio, and before that is just Jorge Bergoglio, his childhood home, the church where he had his first vocational calling.

All of this is incredibly meaningful for these folks. And it's interesting because I was reading through one of the documents, walk with me here. I want to give you a sense of what we're seeing. I was reading through one of the documents that's placed inside Pope Francis's coffin, and it's called the rojito. And there was a part of that, because often church language can be very formal and feel very distant.

There was a part of that spoke to this crowd and sounded almost like you would read a normal person's obituary, if you will. And this is a document that's supposed to really detail the biography and what this pope did as a world leader. And I'll read you a part of that said, quote, "He was a simple and much loved pastor in his archdiocese" where we are" which he traveled far and wide, even by subway and bus. He lived in an apartment and cooked his own dinner because he felt like one of the people. It's the reason he lived in Santa Marta as pope

He said, I want to be close to people. He loved being with others around him. He didn't want to be alone and isolated. And we're seeing this today, all these buses, you can see some of these folks, they're packed, this woman waving as they're preparing now to head to the Plaza de Mayo and be part of a joint celebration.

And it has been just that people here, they so often talk about Pope Francis humor and they all felt it. And I was speaking to one man who was a very close friend of Pope Francis and he said he was so quick witted and it was never ever to lower somebody else. It was never to put somebody in a position of feeling lesser. It was about being self- deprecating more than anything. And he said the last time he met with Pope Francis, it was in January.

And he said Pope Francis obviously couldn't walk, but he said, I'm going to see you to the door. And he said, Jorge, because he called him Jorge, you don't need to do that. And he goes, no, I need to make sure you leave. There's always one to bring smiles and laughter. And folks here, they're in this midst of the balance of grief perhaps where sometimes they'll feel a deep sadness, but then you'll see they're laughing, smiling and seeming to celebrate his life.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And it's interesting that we heard from Cardinal Re this morning in his homily and how that degree of approachability that the pope had personally he brought to the church in which he said that this is a church capable of bending down to every person regardless of their beliefs or conditions. The church a home for all. So it's great to hear those personal stories from those from the archdiocese that knew him very well before he was elected Pope.

David Culver, thank you very much.

And of course, we saw several world leaders among the hundreds of thousands of people who attended Pope Francis funeral today in Rome. And so what you heard there were the smattering of applause when Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian president, arrived and he was shown on the jumbo screens there. He arrived just moments after President Trump.

And these are new photos we have of two leaders meeting right before the service, just one-on-one in chairs there in the basilica. Officials say the talks went for about 15 minutes. They had a, as they're described, very productive discussion. This is the first time they've met since their 10th Oval Office clash that was in February. With me now from Rome to discuss today's gathering, CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger.

[08:20:05]

David, hello to you. And I want to start here with this conversation between the two men because, of course, President Trump went as one of the duties of the office of president, but the opportunity for progress on not just the talks with Russia and Ukraine, but also probably tariffs and other leaders as well. What do you make of the decision and this remarkable photo that I'm sure we're going to be looking at for years of the two sitting down in the basilica and taking these few minutes to talk?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it was remarkable, first for the place. I mean, St. Paul's Basilica is not usually the place for diplomatic negotiations, though perhaps this pope, given his interest in the Ukraine war, would have applauded that.

The second thing that was remarkable about it is the intensity of their conversation, especially given, as you said before, Victor, what a disaster the last one was, which basically ended with Mr. Zelenskyy being escorted from the White House without the lunch they were going to do, without signing the minerals and investment agreement that they were going to sign that day. And the relationship seems since has improved slightly, but not much.

What was at issue here, we believe, although we haven't gotten many readouts on the discussion, a little more from Mr. Zelenskyy than we've gotten from the White House, is that there are two competing proposals now about how to approach the end of the war. One by the United States, which was pretty generous to the Russians, would acknowledge the land they've taken and so forth, and would have the U.S. recognizing Crimea as part of Ukraine, and one by the Ukrainians that would be quite different and would include Russian reparations to Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: Yes, David, you're right to point out the intensity of the conversation. There's another photo that was released by the Ukrainians. It appeared to be pleasantries exchanged between Trump and Zelenskyy, also Prime Minister Starmer and President Macron of France there at the basilica as well. You wrote a piece that's out this weekend about comparing essentially this papal funeral to the funeral of St. John Paul II in 2005. And three presidents, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, President Clinton attending and not seeing this now.

The significance of the difference and maybe a lost opportunity?

SANGER: Well, you know what I wrote about, I was on the 2005 trip, and what was remarkable about that was that President Bush invited President Clinton to come along with him on Air Force One. And then had his father, George H.W. Bush, come along. So we're on Air Force One with three American presidents simultaneously. Together they went to go pray before Pope John Paul II's body. And they pretty well stuck together through that time, except that President Clinton went out dining late in the evening because we ran into him one night at a restaurant.

But in this case, you saw former President Biden in the crowd, but he didn't ride Air Force One. He had to go find his own way over. And when President Trump was asked on Air Force One about President Biden coming, he seemed a little surprised he was going to be there, and then said, no, I don't think I've got time to go talk to him.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SANGER: Which may have been just as well, given what they've been saying about each other.

BLACKWELL: Yes, no love lost there. And, of course, the revocation of the security clearance for the former president.

SANGER: That's right.

BLACKWELL: I wonder what you make of the applause that we heard there at St. Peter's Square when the crowd assembled, saw President Zelenskyy there. And I was watching that live as it happened. We didn't hear the applause for other world leaders. We didn't hear it for President Trump. But of course, you know, they are in Europe.

But hearing that applause for Zelenskyy.

SANGER: Yes, you know, it's a reminder that this is the kind of applause Zelenskyy used to get in Washington. Remember when he came for the first time, addressed a joint session of Congress, the Republicans and the Democrats applauded him and talked about him as sort of a Churchill in a T shirt. He still has that image here. And even though Prime Minister Meloni of Italy is in agreement on many issues with President Trump, she is a big supporter of Ukraine and providing continued aid to them.

So it just underscored the difference between the Trump administration and the Europeans about how to go forward with this, with the Europeans saying basically Russia should not be rewarded for invading another country and President Trump approaching it as if it's a question of real estate division here now and in fact, not even acknowledging that Russia was responsible for the invasion itself.

[08:25:28]

BLACKWELL: Yes. And his patience, at least, seems to be running low.

SANGER: That's right.

BLACKWELL: David, one more here. On the Pope himself, you know, there are few events like a papal funeral that bring together monarchs and heads of state and, you know, the leaders, the political leaders that we've seen. He is not just a religious figure, but also in many ways, a political figure. What's the influence of a pope, especially this one?

SANGER: Well, popes have always been political figures. You know, back many a century, and, you know, we forget that, but he was not only a unifying one, but pope -- but had a deep sense of values about how one treats the poor, how one treats the homeless. You've been having testaments to that, and you heard them in the -- in the -- in the funeral service all morning.

And it's interesting at this particular moment in American history where the government seems to have turned on many of those values, not all of them, but some of them, or said it is not up for the government to be paying for this or solving this problem. And so it's really a moment of contrast out there.

And I think one of the -- one of the other big moments here is that because it has brought so many leaders together, there was really an opportunity for President Trump to go do some diplomacy on the side once the -- once the ceremony was over.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SANGER: Of course, as he himself noted, it wouldn't be -- wouldn't be seemly to be doing it during this. But he left right away.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SANGER: He just headed right back to his airplane.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The pope spoke often about migration, and that, of course, during the 2016 --

SANGER: Yes.

BLACKWELL: -- campaign was one of the sticking points between Pope Francis and then candidate Trump.

David Sanger of "The New York Times," always good to have you. Thank you.

SANGER: Great to be with you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. It will be weeks before that secretive conclave convenes to select the next pope. A Catholic theologian joins us next to talk about what the cardinals will be looking for in a pope who will shape the future of the church.

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[08:32:26]

BLACKWELL: Live pictures here. This is St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Crowds there emptying out. Still some people there though, after the fun Pope Francis a private burial service now being held at Santa Maria Maggorie basilica just a few miles away. As Pope Francis is laid to rest, mourners reflect on the pontiff's connection to people from all over the world and from all walks of life.

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CARDINAL GIOVANNI BATTISTA RE, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS (through translator): The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open, a church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition and healing their wounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Joining me now to discuss is Susan Reynolds. She's the interim director and assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Emory University. She's also the author of "People Get Ready: Ritual Solidarity and Lived Ecclesiology in Catholic Roxbury." Susan, thanks for coming in.

SUSAN REYNOLDS, INTERIM DIRECTOR OF CATHOLIC STUDIES, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I'm glad to be here.

BLACKWELL: So that homily from Cardinal Re, and he says that the church is a home for all, a church capable of bending down to every person. Place that philosophy of the late pope in the context of the conversation of legacy. Is that his central contribution?

REYNOLDS: I think it is. In his first major interview after he was elected in 2013, he called the church, now very famously, a field hospital. And he had this great quip. He said, if somebody is bleeding, you don't start by asking them about their cholesterol. In a sense, he was saying, this is a church that needs to put aside everything that keeps us from attending to the wounds of the people before us.

This is a church that needs to get its priorities straight. And I think that during his 12-year pontificate, he embodied that kind of immediacy and encounter with the people before him. We've talked so much about his legacy of going to the margins, proclaiming the centrality of the margins in the church.

And in so many ways, he lived his papacy acutely aware of the power of these deeply symbolic gestures of encounter and intimacy with the poor and marginalized.

[08:35:02]

BLACKWELL: Yes, I remember one of his early events was the washing of feet and that ritual that he has done many times since 2013. That tone of openness. Right. That he has brought to the Church. And I guess we'll find out soon enough after the election of the next Pope. But is that something that is limited to his papacy? I mean, is it, you know, akin to, and I work in politics, most often an executive order that lasts as long as the executive, or what do you expect? We'll see as that tone is tested in the conclave.

REYNOLDS: I think that during his papacy, there's been a tonal shift, for sure, but there's also been some very concrete shifts. So, one of his major legacies is actually reform of the Curia of the Vatican bureaucracy, so to speak. He was very committed to rooting out corruption and to sort of see simplifying the bureaucratic structures within the Vatican so that laypeople, including women, could be at the head of them, and also so that there was more transparency.

I think that even in a sort of governance oriented way, he tried to institute the kind of simplicity and nearness to the poor that we saw even in his pastoral gestures. So in that sense, I do think that this change, this shift will outlive him. Of course, his next, the predecessor, his predecessor is going to have a different kind of approach.

Every pope, every pastor has a different sort of approach, different kinds of strengths. Right. But in other ways, I think that some of the reforms that he has instituted will continue to live on, no matter who the next Pope is.

BLACKWELL: You're an expert on the sexual abuse in the church, and the reports of the breadth of it really broke during the papacy of St. John Paul II and of course, during Benedict XVI. How much of his handling of the sexual abuse and the scandal in the church will be part of his legacy, do you think?

REYNOLDS: I think it will be part of his legacy in ways that are both good and in ways that are worthy of critique. He's made public missteps, but importantly, he's apologized for those missteps. Very crucially, he was the first Pope to really universalize the way that the church responds to clergy sexual abuse.

During the previous papacies and in the media and popular sort of conversations, there was this idea among church leaders that clergy sexual abuse was a problem in the West. Right. It was the result of sort of liberalizing culture or an acceptance of homosexuality or things like that.

Francis in 2019 said, no, that's not the case. This is an issue everywhere. This is an issue in every institution. This is an issue for all of us to deal with. And he instituted policies and procedures that made uniform the way that the church handles cases of sexual abuse no matter where you are in the world.

BLACKWELL: All right, Susan, stay with me because after the break we're going to take a look forward at the conclave and the future of the church. Our special coverage of the funeral for Pope Francis continues after this break.

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[08:43:00]

BLACKWELL: More than a quarter million people were on hand to honor the life of Pope Francis. Here's what some of them had to say about what the pope meant to them.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we want to show our love for our pope Francis. This is the only way that we can show to him our love and our prayer in the last moment that she will be, even though she is not with us now but in heaven. He is always watching us and guiding us. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I mean, he's just different, really humble. Love the poor people. He went to the border between Africa and Europe and went to Iraq or Iran. And I think he was the best, still the best, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With me now, Susan Reynolds, interim director and assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Emory University. Let's look ahead now to the Conclave. We're just a few days away. Do you expect that this will be a reaction to or a reinforcement of some of the principles instilled by Pope Francis?

REYNOLDS: Well, that's the question, really. This is a process of discernment. We hear a lot about the secrecy of the conclave, of course, which makes for great cinematic appeals, appeal as well. But in large part that secrecy, that sort of insular nature of the Conclave, gives the cardinals a chance to really discern what the needs of the church are in this moment.

And the question that they'll be asking, among many others, will be is this is our next leader, somebody that we want to sort of continue in the reforms, the synodal reforms, the curial reforms that Pope Francis stood started with such vigor, or do we want somebody whose emphasis is on doctrinal clarity.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And so we should also note that the great majority of those cardinals who will be part of the conclave were appointed by Pope Francis.

[08:45:04]

And so aside from principals, what else are they looking for? Is relative age important here? Communication skills, disposition.

REYNOLDS: All of those things are important. Age is interesting because there has been a hesitancy to elect someone too young. John Paul II was pope for almost 30 years, and there was a sense among many that was perhaps too long for one person setting the tone in the Catholic Church to be in that position. So there is a hesitancy about electing somebody too young.

This is somebody that needs to be a good communicator. And again, we've seen popes with different communication styles. Francis being very pastoral, he was a pastor, Benedict being a theologian, John Paul II being a philosopher, but also incredibly charismatic.

This is also somebody that needs to have an understanding of the world stage. Popes are spiritual leaders, but they're also political leaders. Think about John Paul II and the fall of communism in the Soviet Union. He played a tremendous role.

Pope Francis was helped to negotiate the reconfiguration of the relationship between the United States and Cuba during the Obama presidency. And of course, we know that he's been very outspoken on peace processes across the world, very outspoken on United States policy of mass deportation. So the question that the cardinals will be weighing among many is what sort of leader does the Church need now and what sort of leader does the world need now?

BLACKWELL: So let's talk about some of those who are being questioned to see if they are papable. This is Cardinal Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle, who's getting a lot of attention. Tell us what we need to know.

REYNOLDS: He's often called by some the "Asian Francis." He's somebody that is known for his sort of, again, this deep communion with the poor, a deep attentiveness to the margins. He's from the Philippines. He would be the first pope from Asia. He's also somebody who was seen as too young. He was somewhat in the conversation when Bergoglio was elected in 2013, but at that point that people said he's too young, he's still relatively young at age 67.

BLACKWELL: 67. Yes.

REYNOLDS: But he's somebody who's known for a kind of magnanimity. Others have questioned his managerial style, his managerial experience. Of course, the Vatican is a massive bureaucracy, so that's something else that people will be weighing.

BLACKWELL: Cardinal, the best name, PierBattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

REYNOLDS: also relatively young. He is a fascinating person. He's Italian, but he is currently head of the church in Jerusalem. So Catholics who are in Jerusalem, who are in Palestine and who are in the surrounding countries as well, are sort of under his care right now at this really crucial moment in world politics, and particularly with the Israel, Palestine situation, the war in Gaza. His name has been invoked as somebody who has a really acute understanding of how to negotiate difference and how to build, as Pope Francis often said, how to build bridges instead of walls.

BLACKWELL: And Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

REYNOLDS: That's right. Now, he's somebody who is known for his diplomatic acumen. He's currently the Secretary of State, Vatican City. He's also a name that has been in the mix as somebody who would be a little bit more, let's say, of a moderate choice than someone like Tagle, who's known for this kind of deep warmth and pastoral style that Francis was famous for.

These are just three of the many men whose names have been invoked. Bergoglio was, to many, a surprise. And because so many of these men are new, they've been created cardinals by Pope Francis, about 80 percent of them, actually. It's also a far more global group than we've ever had before. And that means that they're not exactly known entities to one another as they would have been, say, when Pope Benedict was elected. Right.

They kind of -- they understood the who's who, the lay of the land, who's in the room with us. Part of the work of these days leading up to the Conclave will be just meeting --

BLACKWELL: Getting to know each other. Yes.

REYNOLDS: Getting to know one another. Who's here and what's the kind of -- what's the new composition of this body now?

BLACKWELL: Well, we will be watching very closely, of course, then- Cardinal Bergoglio was a surprise, but his predecessor, Cardinal Ratzinger, was not, when he was elected Pope, eventually became Pope Benedict XVI. Susan Reynolds, thank you so much for being with us. REYNOLDS: Thank you for having me. It's been great.

BLACKWELL: We'll take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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[08:54:17]

BLACKWELL: This has been a remarkable and historic day for the funeral of Pope Francis. He's now reached his final resting place in Rome's Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. More than 250,000 mourners came to the funeral this morning, joining world leaders, reigning monarchs, other religious leaders. Here are some of the key moments from today.

The Pope in his will added these instructions for his burial. The tomb should be in the ground. Simple, without particular ornamentation, bearing only the inscription Franciscus, indicative of the simplicity and humbleness with which he lived his life and led the church.

Stay with CNN. We'll have special coverage all day of the funeral of Pope Francis. Smerconish is up next.

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