Happening now: Pope Francis arrives on wheelchair, mourners troop out for former Catholic church leader’s funeral

Pope Francis has arrived on a wheelchair to perform the funeral service for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in front of thousands of mourners gathered in St Peter’s Square.

An estimated 100,000 devotees gathered for the two-hour ceremony delivered in Latin, English, Italian, German and Spanish, the first requiem Mass for a dead pope presided over by a living one in 200 years.

The faithful started to pour in at 3am GMT, five and a half hours before the service for the German theologian who made history by retiring.

As 12 pallbearers carried in the coffin to the sound of applause and tolling bolls, the faithful read the rosary in Latin and hymns were sung, with an estimated 100,000 expected for the ‘sober and sombre’ ceremony.

The body of the Pope Emeritus was taken from the basilica and rested before the altar in the piazza as red-robed cardinals looked on, while Benedict’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, bent down and kissed a book of the Gospels that was left open on the coffin.

The first reading from the Prophet Isaiah was in Spanish while the second from the Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians was in English.

the Pope’s coffin was carried out of the Basilica there was a round of applause which continued until the bearer party gently placed the casket on a raised platform in front of the altar.

The Rosary prayer was then recited by the huge crowd as mourners continued to gather in St Peter’s Square and the main Via della Conciliazione which stretches half a mile back to the River Tiber.

A huge white awning outside St Peter’s Basilica in the square covered the altar from where Pope Francis is leading the ceremony in Latin, Italian, English and Spanish.

The event is drawing heads of state and royalty despite Benedict’s requests for simplicity and Vatican efforts to keep the first funeral for an emeritus pope in modern times low-key.

To the left sat cardinals and archbishops in bright red robes, the colour a striking contrast to the grey mist that hung in the sky and clung to the walls of the centuries old Basilica.

On the right VIPs and other dignitaries including Queen Sofia of Spain and King Philippe of Belgium.

According to MailOnline, no UK royals were at the funeral but Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was sent as the country’s representative.
Only Italy and Germany were invited to send official delegations, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed their participation.

But other heads of state and government decided to take the Vatican up on its offer and come in their ‘private capacity’.

It is a far cry from the last papal funeral in 2005, when dozens of kings, presidents and prime ministers joined more than a million people who flooded the streets around the Vatican to pay their respects to Benedict’s charismatic predecessor, John Paul II.

The former Pope’s body – which had been lying in state for three days and had been seen by more than 200,000 people was brought outside just before 9am and placed in front of the Basilica.

Among those present were Germans in traditional Bavarian outfits carrying flags and standards of the area of Germany where Benedict was born.

Air space around the tiny Holy See has been closed off for the day and Italy has ordered that flags around the country be flown at half staff.

The funeral rite calls for Benedict’s coffin to be carried out from the basilica and placed before the altar as the faithful recite the rosary.

The ritual itself is modelled on the code used for dead popes but with some modifications given Benedict was not a reigning pope when he died.

The three-page account of his life and papacy, written in Latin, says he ‘fought with firmness’ against sexual abuse by clergy in the Church.

After the Mass, Benedict’s cypress coffin is to be placed inside a zinc one, then an outer oak casket before being entombed in the crypt in the grottos underneath the basilica that once held the tomb of St John Paul II before it was moved upstairs into the main basilica.

In his coffin is a written account of his historic papacy known as a rogito, the coins minted during his pontificate and his pallium stoles, the religious garment worn over the pope’s robes.