Pope Francis now rests in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggore, after a farewell ceremony full of genuine popular emotion, but also scenes of political marketing. Who saw who? Who exchanged handshakes? What all these chosen guests were wearing and asleep in the Vatican to give the present to an event that caught the eye of all mankind.

Politicians once again confirmed that we are now living in the era of the image, where some television shots or at least a photo are worth the bother to travel from every corner of the earth so they could say later “I was there too.” The sadness of the myrrh in contrast to the hypocrisy of the few and the “few”.

The real emotion of ordinary people, who were hundreds of thousands today in Rome, to bid farewell to a simple and modest shepherd seemed to be in complete counterpoint with the sad persons of politicians, who daily prove that they are separated by a “bridging man” “Walls” of the Vatican, as he wished. “Heaven couldn’t wait anymore,” Tageszeitung wrote about the pope of courage, consistency and humor.

Humor, black was also black, and the story he left as one of the latest images of such a full life the image of that cold meeting with the US Vice President, about 20 hours before Francis’ death, as a reminder of the bridging differences of two worlds and worldviews.

‘Flooded’ Rome

The ceremony that began at 10am local time in the church of St. Peter lasted about two hours. The simple wooden coffin was moved with “Papamobil” to its destination among an endless crowd, which had flooded the center of sunny Rome early and gave it the last warm applause. The burial became the absence of a slight delay, about four hours later, due to cosmos all the way.

As Theodoros Andreas-Sygellakis reports from the Vatican, “Cardinal Giovanni Batista, the oldest of the Cardinals in his funeral speech, reminded that at the heart of the thought and action of the Pope, the poor were the poor, Lesvos, along with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Hieronymus. Particularly moving was the moment when “Christ Risen” was heard.

It is also noteworthy that in the Church of Santa Maria Matzore, 40 immigrants, 40 homeless, formerly published women, transsexuals to leave a white flower in his grave as a reminder that the duty of the Church and not only of the Catholics, are not only at the sake of the Church, and not only the Catholic.

Encounter

If one were looking for a positive element from all this spectacle, which was stuck between a simple funeral and an informal world summit, this would be in the fact that sworn enemies were found in the same place and maybe at times they were considering because the message of peace and peace. Over 150 were foreign delegations that stayed in the Italian capital.

Some commentators remembered the term “diplomacy” and wrote that something similar had happened in 2005 at the funeral of John Paul, Polish Cars Voitila, who, however, expressed something completely different from Jorge Mario Bergolio.

At that time, the image that had made sense was the handshake of the presidents of Israel and Iran, at a time when relations between the two countries were non -existent. Now Israel has been simply represented by its ambassador, after the Netanyahu government deleted even after a few hours even the formal condolence message, which it had initially published on the X platform.

But this attitude may be even more honest than those of Javier Miley or Victor Orban, who “were there too”. The Argentinean’s president, who had once used heavy characteristics against the Pope, later “changed” and described him as the most important Argentine of history, while the Hungarian prime minister has turned his “faith” into Christianity into a flag against foreigners and aliens. Political marketing is not always in line with human decency.

With the mind in Ukraine

The interest of the media thus focused more on the presence of Trump and Zelenski, at a time when developments in Ukraine are on the razor. The US president in his message already on Friday night showed his first trip abroad since taking over the presidency as something between a pleasant excursion and a diplomatic mission.

“As soon as I landed in Rome. A good day in conversations and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. It is very close to an agreement and both sides must now have a high -level meeting to complete it, ”he wrote.

This was certainly not confirmed by either Moscow, but mainly by Kiev. Zelenski and Trump eventually had a short meeting on the sidelines of the ceremony, as it was later announced by both sides, which called it “private but constructive”.

Obviously the answer to a war that lasts for over three years could not be given in one day, albeit deeply devoted and meditation. This will be seen in the next few days.

It will take even more time to make it clear whether this change of course, but also a picture of the Catholic Church launched by Francis will continue by his successor or whether the security of introversion and formalism will return to the papal apartments.