Who is attending Pope Francis’s funeral?

World leaders began arriving in Rome on Friday before Pope Francis’s weekend burial, a ceremony that, although more low-key than usual, is still set to be a historic event.

Pope Francis, who died on Monday from heart failure following a stroke at the age of 88, was widely popular for what many saw as his humility and compassion for marginalised people.The passing of a pope represents a momentous shift for the Catholic Church, and burial rites and the eventual selection of a new papal leader are all usually elaborate affairs. However, the late Pope Francis had asked for a simpler funeral: His body will be buried in a simple coffin made of wood and lowered into an unmarked tomb.

Still, the funeral roll call, which features 170 foreign dignitaries, including dozens of heads of state, will make the event an extraordinary political gathering. Since not all the attendees see eye to eye, there’s also likely to be a dash of diplomatic awkwardness.

Here’s what we know about who will be attending.What time is the pope’s funeral?
The ceremony will begin at 10am CET (08:00 GMT) on Saturday, April 26. It will be held at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Popes are usually buried beneath St Peter’s Basilica, but Santa Maria Maggiore church, a short walk from the city’s Termini central train station, is the pope’s choice as his final resting place.

During his lifetime, the church was Pope Francis’s favourite, and he visited often in his final days as his health weakened. Santa Maria Maggiore is one of Rome’s major basilicas and the first to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary back in the 14th century.

Who is going to the pope’s funeral?
Several heads of state and royals have confirmed their attendance in Rome for the funeral on Saturday. Some of them have had pleasant interactions with the pope during his lifetime, but he did not always agree with others.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump
Trump said the late pope was a “very good man” who “loved the world”. The United States president ordered that flags be flown at half-mast.However, the two men did not always get on so well.

Pope Francis has criticised the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies. During Trump’s first presidency from 2017 to 2021, the pope also spoke against the US-Mexico border wall, saying a person who builds walls instead of bridges was “not Christian”.Trump snapped back at the time, saying the pope’s questioning of his faith was “disgraceful”.

The two met in 2017 when Trump visited the Vatican. He said the pope was “really good” and that they’d had a “fantastic” meeting.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer
In a statement following the pope’s death, Starmer said he was “deeply saddened” by the news. “His leadership in a complex and challenging time for the world and the church was often courageous, yet always came from a place of deep humility,” he said.

William, Prince of Wales
Kensington Palace confirmed that Prince William will represent the UK’s royal family in Rome.

In a statement, King Charles said Pope Francis would be remembered for his compassion. “Through his work and care for both people and planet, he profoundly touched the lives of so many,” he said.

Earlier in April, the King and Queen Camilla visited the pope while on a trip to Italy.Many of the children are handed over by young Vietnamese women sobbing at the prospect of relinquishing their babies to “strangers and foreigners from another country, speaking a language they could not comprehend”.

Just after 4pm, the plane departs from Tan Son Nhut airport, carrying nearly 300 people, but mere minutes after takeoff, the locks on the rear loading ramp fail, causing the cargo door to separate and the plane to decompress 7000 metres (23,000ft) in the sky. Aune barely escapes being sucked out, and later recalls seeing her colleague “hanging by his arm, the rest of his body dangling into the void”.

The flight controls have been badly damaged, and the plane begins a rapid descent. It is clear that the craft will not be able to make it back to the airport, so the pilots aim for a nearby rice paddy, throttling up to lift the nose before touchdown.When it does hit the ground, the plane skids before skipping back aloft like a stone, then smashes into a dyke and breaks into four pieces. Aune is tossed along the entire length of the compartment, sustaining a broken foot as well as other injuries.

Once she manages to make her way outside, she sees “wreckage and debris in every direction”. The flight deck is 90 metres (100 yards) away and upside down. Her dangling colleague managed to keep his grip, and he now splints his broken leg with a crutch and seatbelts before assisting with the rescue.

A human chain forms amidst the devastation to pass surviving children to rescue helicopters, and Aune helps shuttle infants to safety until she faints. Later that year, she will be the first woman to receive the Cheney Award, a US Air Force medal for valour and self-sacrifice.It was the first official flight of Operation Babylift – a US government-sanctioned effort to evacuate the orphanages of South Vietnam – and the highly publicised disaster thrust the mission into the international spotlight. In its wake, thousands of potential parents in the US and elsewhere signed up to receive adoptees, and the youngsters – some war orphans, some the abandoned offspring of American servicemen, and others given up by families fearing for their wellbeing and safety – were scattered across new homes in distant lands.

In the end, more than 3,000 children would be taken abroad over the course of three weeks. While the legacy of the operation later came into question when it was found that some of the adoptees had living parents or relatives who had not, in fact, consented to their removal, now on its 50th anniversary, one thing is undeniable – it reshaped the identities and families of those affected by it for a lifetime.