A Vatican message on “Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity,” said Pope Mario Bergoglio

“Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity,” Francis said in his 2013 message for the Vatican’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees. They are people who leave their homes for a variety of reasons and who share the same desire for knowing and having but also for being more.

The pope’s father, Mario Bergoglio, was just 21 when he boarded a ship in Genoa in 1929 to cross the ocean for South America, in flight from the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy.

And the very next day, he reminded a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress that as his family had come to Argentina from Italy, today many migrants came to the U.S. through long, hard journeys up from South America, “…in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities,” said Francis. Is this what we want for our children?

In February, Pope Francis addressed a letter to the U.S. bishops about “these delicate moments that you are living”, mass deportations of migrants had begun.

He cited lives of people of the Bible who had been expelled from or fled from their lands, and said he also understood that new arrivals could disrupt the lives of those already there.

“The true common good,” Pope Francis wrote in one of his last messages, “is promoted when society and government… welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable.”

The Last Mass Francis’ Coffin Could Not Be Puttin Inside the Vatican, but Instead Put in the ‘Poor and Needy’ Dome

In an autobiographical book, published last year under the title “El Sucesor,” Francis suggested a pope should be buried “with dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.” He requested the Latin name “Franciscus” be inscribed on his tomb, which will be made with marble quarried from the northwest Italian region of Liguria, from where the grandparents of Francis – born Jorge Mario Bergoglio – had emigrated to Argentina.

Argentina’s president Javier Milei is attending the funeral mass too, as will the president and prime minister of Ireland, the presidents of Poland and Brazil, the outgoing chancellor of Germany, the King of Spain, and Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russian media reported the Kremlin saying his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would not attend. He faces arrest if he lands in Italy, thanks to a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in connection with alleged war crimes inside Ukraine.

After the mass, a representative group of what the Vatican calls the “poor and needy” will stand on the steps of Santa Maria Maggiore’s Basilica to welcome Francis’ coffin to its final resting place, reflecting Francis’ persistent focus during his pontificate on society’s most vulnerable, including migrants and refugees.

It will be the first time in over 100 years that a pontiff will not be laid to rest inside the Vatican. After three days of public viewing, tens of thousands of people lined up to pay their respects at Francis’ coffin before a small group of church officials sealed it.

Giovanni Battista Re, an Italian Cardinal, presided over the funeral mass, in Latin, but with prayers in Polish, Chinese, Arabic, and Portuguese too. As the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Re will also soon oversee the conclave of 135 cardinals that will meet to elect the next pope at some point in the second week of May.

President Trump was part of the delegation that attended the mass at the UN, as well as being with former President Joe Biden and his wife.

At 10am on Saturday, a priest led a procession into the center of the plaza which included a copy of the New Testament on Francis’ coffin. The Vatican has released the list of attendees that include heads of state from more than 120 countries, as well as political leaders.

Just six days after his death from heart failure and a stroke, the 88-year-old’s body will then be buried inside a zinc and wooden coffin in a church more than two miles away, called Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore – or St. Mary Major.