His main testament was: "Build bridges, not walls." The world bid farewell to Pope Francis

On April 26, the world bid farewell to Pope Francis. The farewell ceremony lasted more than 3 hours. It began in St. Peter's Square and ended in the Roman Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pope Francis brought his beliefs into its rules: simplicity, equality, and the pursuit of peace.

About 250,000 people in St. Peter's Square and the surrounding streets. More than 160 international delegations, 60 heads of state and monarchs. From Belarus, on behalf of Alexander Lukashenko, the Ambassador of Belarus to the Holy See Yuri Ambrazevich, the Chargé d'Affaires in Italy Kirill Petrovsky, and the head of the delegation, Chairman of the House of Representatives Igor Sergeyenko arrived in the Vatican to take part in the funeral ceremony. During the farewell, Trump, Macron, Duda, and von der Leyen stood at arm's length next to him.

Having chosen the aspirations for peace during his life, Francis, by his death, seems to instruct - to abandon strife, to be able, while recognizing legitimate equality, to despise the vice of superiority. The funeral mass was led by the head of the College of Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re, with the assistance of 980 church hierarchs - cardinals and bishops. The solemn liturgy in Latin is performed according to a somewhat simplified rite of burial of the Popes. It was changed last year on the initiative of Francis himself. The Pontiff was remembered for his special desire for peace and rejection of conflicts.

Giovanni Battista Re - Cardinal (Italy):

"In the face of the wars that have raged in recent years, with their inhuman horrors, numerous deaths and destruction, Pope Francis has constantly raised his voice, calling for peace and calling for reason and honest negotiations to find possible solutions. War, he said, leads to the death of people, the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it found it. It is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone. Build bridges, not walls. This is an appeal he repeated many times."

At the end of the funeral Mass - the rites of the last farewell; the Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome pronounces the Prayerful Request of the Roman Church, and the Patriarch of Antioch - of the Eastern Churches. Cardinal Re sprinkles the coffin with blessed water and censes. Having chosen his name in honor of the defender of the poor - the ascetic monk Francis of Assisi, the departed Pope saw in the church "a poor man, a man of peace." Francis, a supporter of equality, abolished the papal tradition of three coffins - cypress, zinc and wood - bequeathed to be buried in a simple wooden one. After the funeral service, the modest coffin with a laconic cross was returned to the vaults of St. Peter's Church. It went along the busy streets of Rome to the place of its final resting place.

Francis became the first Pope to be buried outside the Vatican since Leo XIII in 1903. The coffin arrived at the small Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The burial ceremony takes place in the presence of a small circle of people, including several cardinals. The immersion into the tomb is a great mystery, hidden from video cameras.

Francis' coffin was placed below floor level, he bequeathed to be buried "in the ground".

The 266th Pope will rest in peace next to the protector of Rome, next to his favorite icon of the Virgin Mary.