Former US President Joe Biden has arrived at the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral this morning, assisted down the steps by his wife Jill and a priest.
Biden was among the first prominent figures to arrive at St Peter’s Square, seen walking hand-in-hand with Jill Biden.
He is one of dozens of current and former world leaders attending the funeral, including presidents, prime ministers, and members of European royalty.
Biden will be joined by his former political rival Donald Trump, who arrived in Rome with his wife Melania late last night.
Joe Biden has arrived at the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral this morning, assisted down the steps by his wife Jill and a priest
REUTERS
Their attendance will mark the first time the Bidens and the Trumps have been in the same place since the January 20 inauguration.
Joe Biden- a Catholic- had originally planned to visit Rome and meet Pope Francis during the final days of his presidency, but the trip was cancelled due to the wildfires in Los Angeles.
It would have been his last overseas visit as president.
Biden later met Pope Francis in 2024 while attending the G7 summit in Italy, and previously in 2021 during the G20 summit in Rome.
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REUTERS
The Pope died on Monday, aged 88, from a stroke after he completed a short stint in hospital.
Following a number of days on display at St Peter's Basilica for public viewing, a funeral mass in St Peter's Square to honour the pontiff will be attended by leaders from across the world.
Those attending include UK PM Sir Keir Starmer, Prince William, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Argentinian President Javier Milei, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, amongst many others.
His casket will be carried through the main doors on Saturday for the outdoor funeral, which starts at 10am local time, with massed ranks of foreign dignitaries to one side of the stone colonnade, facing hundreds of red-hatted cardinals on opposite banks of seats.
Prince William arrives in Rome to honour life of late pontiffREUTERSThen in a world-first for the Vatican, His Holiness's coffin will then be processed through the streets of Rome to its final resting place at Santa Maria Maggiore.
The Vatican says some 250,000 mourners will fill St Peter's Square and main access route to the basilica to follow the ceremony, which will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.
Pope Francis's funeral is set to break from Vatican tradition in several major ways today.
While Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005 lasted three hours, the service today is set to take just 90 minutes.
The late pontiff also opted to forego a centuries-old practice of burying popes in three interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead and oak. Instead, he has been placed in a single, zinc-lined wooden coffin, which was sealed closed overnight.
Finally, he will be the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century, preferring Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major, some 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) from St. Peter's, as his final resting place.
