The cardinal leading the pope’s funeral mass appeared to criticise US president Donald Trump in his homily.
“‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation [Francis] repeated many times,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, as a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people watched in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City and millions more worldwide listened.
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Mr Trump was seen seated looking solemn in the front row for the service for a pontiff, who pointedly disagreed with him on a variety of issues, mostly the pope’s compassion for migrants, whom the US president has repeatedly tried to deport.
He was among 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns – including UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and Prince William – who had travelled to Rome for the open-air funeral for the 88-year-old, who died on Easter Monday.
Cardinal Battista Re said the pope “incessantly raised his voice” for peace and urged people to “build bridges not walls”.
Giving a homily in Italian, the cardinal said of Francis: “Faced with the raging wars of recent years with their inhuman horrors and countless death and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice, imploring peace and calling for reason and calling for honest negotiation to find possible solutions.
“War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools.
“War always, this is his own expression, war always leaves the world worse than it was before. It is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone.
“‘Build bridges, not walls,’ was an exaltation he repeated many times.”
During his first term in office, Mr Trump repeatedly promised to build a “beautiful” wall between the US and Mexico to deter migrants.
A Customs and Border Protection report in 2021 found that about 458 miles of the wall had been completed under his administration, with another 280 miles unfinished.
Cardinal Re recalled a comment made in 2016 by Francis – the first Latin-American pontiff – when Mr Trump was first running for president. The pope said at the time that the then-property tycoon was “not Christian” because of his views on immigration.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” said Francis. “This is not in the gospel.”
Mr Trump responded: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
More recently, the pope had called President Trump’s immigration crackdown in his second term a “disgrace”.
Francis had been “attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the Church”, the cardinal told mourners.
