As the line of mourners moves slowly along behind him, Ciriaco Sarnelli peers at me from beneath the immaculate brim of his cap.

The military police chief looks, by any standards, magnificent – shoulders back and proudly wearing the black uniform of the Carabinieri.

“Our history goes back more than 200 years,” he says. “We remember our past, and our place. The only people with black uniforms are the priests, the judges and the Carabinieri.”

He leaves the rest unsaid – the Carabinieri sit at the heart of Italian cultural life.

Pope latest: Security ramping up ahead of funeral

Once, they defended the borders of a young nation. Now, they have a new challenge that has its own weighty burden – to keep St Peter’s Square safe during the funeral of Pope Francis.

This is no easy task. Hundreds of thousands will descend upon the Vatican for the event.

Many of the world’s best-known politicians and dignitaries will be welcomed into St Peter’s Basilica.

Inside will be Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Prince William and dozens upon dozens of other dignitaries.

Outside will be the Carabinieri.

They won’t be alone – there are thousands of other police officers due to be assigned to protect the event – but the Carabinieri are affiliated to the military; the most highly-trained officers on duty.

Read more:
How Pope Francis’s funeral will unfold
Pope’s doctor reveals pontiff’s last regret

“This is an extraordinary operation,” says Sarnelli, as we look out over the crowd. “So we have employed some special units that belong to Carabinieri – the bomb squad, a dogs unit, snipers and helicopters. We want to assure the people who are arriving here that they can take part in this event in the best way, in a secure way.”

He says they are ready for “common crimes” – like pickpockets in the crowd – but also “the biggest, terrifying events”.

He says there is “excellent coordination” with police forces from other countries.

Around him, his officers are smiling, chatting to tourists and Romans alike.

The security here is overt but friendly, even if I’m told there are also plenty of plain-clothed officers mingling within the crowd.

Guns and grins both on show.

A police helicopter circles above. In the port of Rome, a naval destroyer has been primed for action; there are fighter jets ready to take off.

You can watch full coverage of the funeral live on Sky News on Saturday

If the impression is relaxed, the reality is different. The classic swan.

All the strands are pulled together from one place and, what’s more, it offers a perfect view of Vatican City.

From where I’m standing, I can see the front of St Peter’s Basilica, the side, and the roads around it. I can see the crowds coming in, and the crowds going out.

And I can see an anxious policeman drumming his fingers.

But we are not in St Peter’s and not even in the Vatican.

This is the high-security control room on the fifth floor of Rome’s police headquarters.

And from here, you can see everything.

An array of screens are in front of us and, watching them, men and women, huddled over screens and all wearing contrasting uniforms.

Some are military, some national police, some wear the clothes of firefighters. A few are in plain clothes and there is even a man wearing the badge of the prison officers’ service.

This centre is a hub for collaboration and decision-making and it brings together every service that is involved in ensuring the safety and security of the funeral.

There is a Carabinieri officer here, as well as the Guardia di Finanza national police and the Roman force. The government’s secret intelligence service is represented here, too.

Elisabetta Accardo is from Rome’s police department. We talk against the gentle hubbub in the control room, colleagues pointing at screens and agreeing plans.

I ask when Italy last had to deal with a security operation on this scale, and she laughs. “Hundreds of years,” she says.

“It is unprecedented. The level of security is at the maximum.” She describes the plan as “structured three-dimensional security”.

It is a plan that has been long in the making, but which has been reshaped over the past few days to react to the whims of the Pope’s final wishes.

It is, after all, more than a century since a pope was buried outside the walls of the Vatican.

You get the impression that the people designing the security plan could rather have done without having to add an hour-long procession through Rome into the plan.

But so be it.

By Saturday night, it will be done. Rome can start to get back to normal; the foreign leaders will be on their way home.

And the Rome police will breathe just a little bit easier.

The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine for a car bomb that killed a Russian general near Moscow hours before Donald Trump’s envoy was due to meet Vladimir Putin in the capital.

The death of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik is the second such fatal attack on a top Russian military officer in four months.

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said he was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside the capital.

Follow the latest updates on the Ukraine war

Moskalik was a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.

“The Kyiv regime once again simply shows its true nature. The Kyiv regime continues to be involved in terrorist activity on the territory of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He didn’t offer any evidence.

“It shows once again that, despite the peace talks, we must be on guard and understand the nature of this regime.”

Ukraine has not responded to the killing.

Investigative committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said the explosive device was rigged with shrapnel, adding that investigators were at the scene.

Videos showed a vehicle burning in the courtyard of an apartment building and a body covered in a sheet could be seen on the pavement nearby.

It comes after Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed in December when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office.

Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov, and Ukraine’s security agency acknowledged that it was behind that attack.

Kirillov was the chief of Russia’s radiation, biological and chemical protection forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment.

His assistant also died in the attack.

Talks bring Russia and US ‘closer together’

Friday’s bombing came as Mr Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Mr Putin in Moscow to discuss a US-brokered peace plan for Ukraine.

The talks allowed Russia and the United States to “further bring their positions closer together” on “a number of international issues”, a Kremlin aide said.

The two sides discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine”, Yuri Ushakov said.

The talks in Moscow lasted for three hours and were “constructive and useful”, he added.

Speaking on a flight to Italy for the Pope’s funeral, the US president said he hadn’t been fully briefed on Mr Witkoff and Mr Putin’s meeting – but added it was a “pretty good meeting”.

The meeting was their fourth encounter since February.

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.

The full order of service for the funeral of Pope Francis has been released by the Vatican.

More than 200,000 people are expected to attend Saturday’s ceremony in St Peter’s Square, including some 130 delegations.

The service usually lasts about two-and-a-half hours and is mostly conducted in Latin.

Read more: Inside the plans for Pope Francis’s funeral

It is being led by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who will begin with a procession led by a priest carrying a cross, followed by the coffin and ordained clergy.

Francis will then be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore – or Saint Mary Major – rather than at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, like almost all his predecessors.

Watch full coverage of the Pope’s funeral live on Sky News from 8am.

Order of service

Entrance antiphon

The ceremony will begin with the entrance antiphon – one or more psalm verses or sentences from Holy Scripture which are typically sung or spoken.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Praise is due to you in Sion, O God.

To you we pay our vows in Jerusalem.

You who hear our prayer. To you all flesh will come.

Our evil deeds are too heavy for us, but only you can pardon our transgressions.

Blessed the one whom you choose and call to dwell in your courts.

We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you.

And with your spirit.

The Penitential Act

This follows the welcome and is a way for the faithful to confess their sinfulness.

Brethren, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.

Collect – opening prayer

Let us pray.

O God, immortal shepherd of souls, look on your people’s prayers and grant that our servant Pope Francis, who presided over your Church in charity, may, with the flock entrusted to his care, receive from your mercy the reward of a faithful steward.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

The Liturgy of the Word

First reading – from the Acts of the Apostles

He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

In those days: Peter opened his mouth and said:

‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ – he is Lord of all – you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

He went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and caused him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose.

Near restful waters he leads me; he revives my soul.

He guides me along the right path, for the sake of his name.

Though I should walk in the valley of the shadow of death, no evil would I fear, for you are with me.

Your crook and your staff will give me comfort.

You have prepared a table before me in the sight of my foes.

My head you have anointed with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for length of days unending.

Second Reading – from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians

He will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

Brothers and sisters, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await for, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Acclamation before the Gospel

This is the will of my Father, says the Lord, everyone who believes in the Son should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.

Glory to you, O Lord.

When Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’

He said to him: ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’

He said to him a second time: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you’.

He said to him: ‘Tend my sheep.’

He said to him the third time: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him: ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’

Jesus said to him: ‘Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go (this he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God).’

And after saying this he said to him: ‘Follow me.’

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

Universal Prayer or Prayer of the Faithful

Brothers and sisters, let us pray to God our Father, who today brings us together to commemorate the Paschal Mystery of his only-begotten Son as we celebrate the funeral of the pastor of the universal Church.

May he welcome him into his peace and bestow every blessing upon the Church and the whole world.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For the late Pope Francis, that the chief shepherd, who eternally lives to intercede for us, may welcome him into his kingdom of light and peace.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For the holy Church of God, that in fidelity to her mandate, she may be, in Christ, a leaven of renewal in our human family.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For the souls of the deceased Roman pontiffs and of all those who in the Church proclaimed the Gospel and exercised the priestly ministry, that they may come to share in the heavenly liturgy.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer.

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For all the faithful departed, that they may be granted entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For us gathered here, that having celebrated the sacred mysteries, we may one day be called by Christ to enter his glorious kingdom.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer.

God, our salvation, hear us as we make our prayer in union with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints: welcome into the assembly of your elect the soul of your servant and our Pope Francis, who put his trust in the prayer of the Church.

Through Christ our Lord.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist

Offertory Chant

The offertory chant accompanies the procession that brings the bread and wine to the altar.

Give light to my eyes lest I fall asleep in death; lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him’.

Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.

May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.

Prayer over the offerings

Look with favour, we pray, O Lord, on the peaceful offering of your people, with which we confidently commit to your mercy the soul of your servant Pope Francis, and grant, we pray, that, having been, in the midst of the human family, an instrument of your charity and peace, he may merit to delight in the same, for ever with all your Saints.

Through Christ our Lord.

Eucharistic Prayer III

Preface

The hope of resurrection in Christ

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our lord.

In him the hope of blessed resurrection has dawned, that those saddened by the certainty of dying might be consoled by the promise of immortality to come.

Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.

And so, with angels and archangels, with thrones and dominions, and with all the hosts and powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory, as without end we acclaim:

You are indeed holy, O Lord, and all you have created rightly gives you praise, for through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit, you give life to all things and make them holy, and you never cease to gather a people to yourself, so that from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name.

Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the body and blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.

For on the night he was betrayed he himself took bread, and giving you thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying:

‘Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.’

In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice, and giving you thanks, he said the blessing, and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying:

‘Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

‘Do this in memory of me.’

The mystery of faith.

We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again.

Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving passion of your Son, his wondrous resurrection and ascension into heaven, and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.

Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church and, recognising the sacrificial victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the body and blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become on body, one spirit in Christ.

May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect, especially with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her spouse, with your blessed apostles and glorious martyrs, and with all the saints, on whose constant intercession in your presence we rely for unfailing help.

May this Sacrifice of our reconciliation, we pray, O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of all the world.

Be pleased to confirm in faith and charity your pilgrim Church on Earth, with the order of bishops, all the clergy, and the entire people you have gained for your own.

Listen graciously to the prayers of this family, whom you have summoned before you: in your compassion, O merciful Father, gather to yourself all your children scattered throughout the world.

Remember your servant Pope Francis whom you have called from this world to yourself.

Grant that he who was united with your Son in a death like his, may also be one with him in his resurrection, when from the Earth he will raise up in the flesh those who have died, and transform our lowly body after the pattern of his own glorious body.

To our departed brothers and sisters, too, and to all who were pleasing to you at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to your kingdom.

There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of your glory, when you will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

For seeing you, our God, as you are we shall be like you for all the ages and praise you without end, through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.

Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, for ever and ever.

The Communion Rite

At the Saviour’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant our peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will.

Who live and reign for ever and ever.

The peace of the Lord be with you always.

And with your spirit.

Let us offer each other the sign of peace.

Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.

Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Communion Antiphon

Let perpetual light shine upon him, with your Saints for ever, for you are merciful.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

LORD, hear my voice!

O let your ears be attentive to the sound of my pleadings.

If you O LORD, should mark iniquities, LORD, who could stand?

But with you is found forgiveness, that you may be revered.

I long for you, O LORD, my soul longs for his word.

My soul awaits the LORD more than watchmen for daybreak.

More than watchmen for daybreak, let Israel hope for the LORD.

For with the LORD there is mercy, in him is plentiful redemption

It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God.

My soul is thirsting for God, the living God; when can I enter and appear before the face of God?

My tears have become my bread, by night, by day, as I hear it said all the day long: ‘Where is your God?’

Prayer after Communion

Let us pray.

As we come to the table of your eternal banquet, we humbly beg your mercy, Lord, for the soul of your departed servant Pope Francis, that he may rejoice at last in possession of the truth in which he faithfully confirmed your people.

Through Christ our Lord.

Final commendation and farewell

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters, let us commend to God’s tender mercy the soul of Pope Francis, bishop of the Catholic

Church, who confirmed his brothers and sisters in the faith of the resurrection.

Let us pray to God our Father through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit; may he deliver him from death, welcome him to eternal peace and raise up him on the last day.

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, queen of apostles and protectress of the Roman people, may God reveal to our Pope the face of his beloved Son and console the Church with the light of the resurrection.

Prayer of the Church in Rome

Holy Mary,

Pray for him.

Holy Mother of God…

Mother of the Church…

Protectress of the Roman people…

The cardinal will then list all holy angels, patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, disciples, pontiffs and holy men and women, which he asks the congregation to pray for.

O God, faithful rewarder of souls, grant that your departed servant and our bishop, Pope Francis, whom you made successor of Peter and shepherd of your Church, may happily enjoy for ever in your presence in heaven the mysteries of your grace and compassion, which he faithfully ministered on Earth.

Through Christ our Lord.

Prayer of the Eastern Churches

God of our salvation, grant rest to the soul of your servant.

Lover of mankind, lead him, with the souls of the just, to the blessings of eternal life in your presence.

Guide the soul of your servant to the place of your rest, Lord, where your Saints repose, you who alone are immortal.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

You are our Saviour, our God, who descended into hell and freed those imprisoned there from its pains; now grant repose to the soul of your servant.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

Amen.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, most pure and immaculate, who without loss to her virginity became the Mother of God, pray for the salvation of the soul of your servant.

Have mercy on us, O God, in your great kindness; we beseech you, hear us and be merciful.

Lord, have mercy.

Again, let us pray for the repose of the soul of this departed servant of God, Francis, bishop, that he may be forgiven his every sin and failing.

Lord, have mercy.

May the Lord God lead his soul to the resting place of the righteous.

Let us ask Christ, our immortal king and God, to bestow on him the divine mercy, the kingdom of heaven, and the forgiveness of his sins.

Hear us, Lord.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

God of souls and of all flesh, who trampled death underfoot, vanquished the devil and gave life to the world, grant repose to the soul of your departed servant Francis, bishop, in a place of light and joy, a verdant place, a place of blessedness, where suffering, pain and sorrow are no more.

Forgive every sin he committed in thought, word or deed, for you are a gracious God and a friend to mankind.

No one who lives is without sin; you alone are sinless, your righteousness is eternal and your word is truth.

For you, O Christ our God, are the resurrection, the life and the repose of your servant Francis, bishop, who has fallen asleep.

We give you glory, with your eternal Father and your Holy Spirit, who is gracious and the giver of life, now and forever.

Amen.

May your remembrance be eternal, dear brother, worthy of blessedness, never to be forgotten.

Amen.

Responsory

A responsory is an anthem said or sung by a choir.

I know that my redeemer lives: on the last day I shall rise again.

And in my flesh I shall see God my saviour.

I shall see him myself, face to face and my own eyes shall behold him.

And in my flesh I shall see God my saviour.

Within my heart this hope I cherish:

That in my flesh I shall see God my saviour.

Gracious Father, we commend to your mercy our Pope Francis whom you made successor of Peter and shepherd of the Church, a fearless preacher of your word and a faithful minister of the divine mysteries.

Welcome him, we pray, into your heavenly dwelling place, to enjoy eternal glory with all your chosen ones.

We give you thanks, Lord, for all the blessings that in your goodness you bestowed upon him for the good of your people.

Grant us the comfort of faith and the strength of hope.

To you Father, source of life, through Christ, the conqueror of death, in the life-giving Spirit, be all honour and glory for ever and ever.

Antiphons

May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come and welcome you and take you to the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.

May choirs of angels welcome you and with Lazarus, who is poor no longer, may you have eternal rest.

Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 1:46-55

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring for ever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.