Jo McKenna: Rome correspondent on the crowds of people who turned up to pay tribute to the Pope

There's been an outpouring of support from all over the world as thousands gathered to pay tribute to Pope Francis.

The 88-year-old pontiff has been laid to rest at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

At least 400,000 mourners, including hundreds of foreign dignitaries, paid their respects last night at Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican.

Rome correspondent Jo McKenna says she saw flags from Croatia, Latin America and Germany - to name a few.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks edb Hey and.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Joining me now is Rome correspondent Joe mckinna, who was
also in Sir Peter Square today. She joins me from
the streets of Rome. Good morning, Joe, Good morning Francesca.
A beautiful day in Rome to farewell the Pope. Was
all of Rome on the streets today.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, I was trapped in the middle of the crowds
at the Vatican, so I can't speak for the rest
of the city, but we certainly had two hundred and
fifty thousand people in the area of Saint Peters Square
and in the area surrounding it, and then on the
other side of the city where we saw Pope Francis
Coffin being transferred to the Basilica of Santa Maria Majorde.

(00:53):
Along that route there were another one hundred and fifty thousand,
so four hundred thousand people on the streets today, and
they came from all over the world. I saw flags
from Croatia, from Latin America, from Germany. They're just so
many different countries represented here today.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I know that you were queuing up since six
am your time this morning. What happened when the gates opened.
I was shocked.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I tried to get here but just a little bit
before six and they opened the gates. I don't know,
but I imagine people were queuing up even overnight, and there
was this surge of people along Via de la Concholiazzioni,
the main avenue leading into St. Peter's Square, Hundreds of
people just running in trying to get a seat inside

(01:41):
that piazza and or stand at the edge of the
piazza and try and get a prime position to see
what was going to happen on those screens, because really
we had one hundred and seventy delegations, foreign delegations, we
had fifty leaders and ten sovereigns, so for them to
actually see what was going on in the square, they

(02:03):
really needed to look at those giant TV screens.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
In Once the sort of the concert like behavior was over, Joe,
what was the atmosphere like for the rest of the ceremony.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, I think it was a mix of different things.
We had very traditional music, some of the music was
Gregorian chance through the service, and it was this mix
of traditional and modern sense that I think Pope Francis

(02:36):
really wanted to put his stamp on this service. And
in the homily, for example, the Dean of Cardinals, who
presided over the whole celebration of the funeral mass I
should say, Giovanni Battista Ray in his speech, spoke about
the need to build bridges, not walls, and that was

(02:58):
a direct reference to Pope francis Own message to President
Donald Trump when they met a couple of year back.
So we were seeing this legacy that Pope Francis wanted
to leave behind, and as part of that, we had
migrants and refugees involved in the service, and others standing

(03:19):
on the steps of that basilica where he has been buried.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Joe, you mentioned, of course the world leaders and dicuntries
who have attended the funeral. And I know that there
are plans and processes to deal with this, but how
challenging is the security around it.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
It was incredible to see the level of security in Rome.
I think it was unpredented. We had thousands of police,
we had experts. We had sharpshooters on various buildings invisible
I couldn't see them, but we had patrols on the
street with anti drone guns, and the firefighters had a

(03:58):
special unit that specialize in chemical warfare, terrorism and nuclear warfare,
and one of the firefighter public relations chaps said to
me they were going to be testing the air quality
as the service was underway, to make sure there was
no chemical warfare underway.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Right, Okay, so as you'd expect, pretty serious. Have you
seen this many kind of world leaders attend a pope
funeral before? Does this say something about Pope Francis.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I wasn't here for Pope John Paul. That was also
a huge out pouring of support from various pilgrims and
world leaders. That was back in two thousand and five.
Pope Benedict's funeral was much quieter, of course, because he
had resigned and he had been living in the Vatican

(04:54):
for some time, and we still had a sitting pope,
so that was no comparison whatsoever. But it also says
something I think about their different personalities, and Pope Francis
was someone who reached out in so many ways to
ordinary people around the world, and many Italians saw him
as a father figure, as an uncle, as a member

(05:14):
of the family. But let's go back to those world
leaders I think everyone will be just gobsmacked by that
image that we've seen flashed around the world of the
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski and President Donald Trump inside the
Basilica moments before the funeral service got underway, a very
powerful image on their own having talks hopefully about resolving

(05:38):
peace in Ukraine, and they've described those as productive discussions.
And I think, looking at Pope Francis, if he is
sitting up there thinking about his biggest legacy, he always
wanted peace in Ukraine. He wanted peace in various trouble
spots around the world, but he spoke often about Ukraine,

(05:59):
and if we moved a step closer to that today,
I think he'd be very happy with that.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Let's hope. So, Joe, thank you so much for your
time this morning.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Thanks Francesco.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
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