By plane and boat, on foot and in an electric popemobile, Pope Francis traveled year after year of his papacy, reaching dozens of countries on five continents.
His first official trip outside Rome was in 2013 to Lampedusa, a tiny Mediterranean island that had became a gateway for migrants. Not long afterward, he flew into the mountains of Bolivia and rode through the streets of Philadelphia and New York. He visited Mosul, an Iraqi city ruined by war, met with crowds in South Sudan, the world’s newest country, and crisscrossed Asia and the Pacific, with stops in Mongolia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
As his health grew frail in the months before his death, his movements grew more and more restricted to an ever-smaller circle, with his humble residence at a Vatican guesthouse at its center. After his death on April 21, Vatican officials moved to prepare his body for one last journey: a funeral procession to the church where he will be buried as the 266th pope.
Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times
For all the emphasis Francis placed on modesty, his funeral, that of a reigning pope, was much larger than that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who had resigned almost a decade before his death in 2022.
Credit…James Hill for The New York Times
Arriving dignitaries were escorted past the pope’s closed coffin before taking a seat.
Credit…Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times
As dawn broke on Saturday, thousands of people funneled into St. Peter’s Square through an elaborate crowd control system. The crowd included students and church groups.
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