What I Saw — And Felt — At Pope Francis's Funeral

Three months on, Francis’s legacy is only beginning to reveal its depth — for the Church, Pope Leo, and the entire world.

Pope Francis — the 265th successor of Saint Peter — served as the universal leader of the Catholic Church from March 13, 2013, until April 21, 2025.

Dear friends and fellow travelers,

Sitting atop the colonnades of St. Peter’s Basilica on April 26, just minutes after Pope Francis’s funeral, I wrote a reflection for Newsweek about what I had seen and felt …