The place Trump, different world leaders have been sitting at Pope Francis’ funeral

Round 250,000 mourners flooded the streets of Rome to bid farewell to Pope Francis, broadly generally known as the “Folks’s Pope,” at his funeral in St. Peter’s Sq. on Saturday morning. Dignitaries, heads of state and reigning monarchs have been amongst these with reserved seats on the funeral Mass, together with President Trump and first woman Melania Trump.

With delegations from about 130 nations on the ceremony, the seating chart needed to be deliberate accordingly. This is the way it labored:

How Pope Francis’ funeral seating chart was organized

The official delegations have been seated in a particular part to the fitting of the altar exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Francis made historical past as the primary pontiff from South America. So it was solely becoming that Argentina — Francis’ native nation — was represented within the entrance row with Argentine President Javier Milei. Milei sat subsequent to his sister, Karina, who serves as common secretary of the presidency. Subsequent to them was Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who was seated up entrance as a result of the pope is the bishop of Rome. 

The seating preparations following Italy have been then based mostly on the French diplomatic alphabetical order. So, for instance, the US would not be “U,” it might be “E” after the French translation “États-Unis.” In keeping with Reuters, reigning monarchs got precedence over different heads of state within the order.

The place was Donald Trump sitting on the pope’s funeral?

Mr. Trump and the primary woman walked into St. Peter’s Sq. and have been directed to their entrance row seats round 4 a.m. ET, forward of the service. They have been seated subsequent to Estonian President Alar Karis, King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia of Spain. Throughout the aisle, to their proper, was Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, with whom he was seen talking initially of the ceremony. 

As many identified on-line, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy was additionally seated within the entrance row – an aisle over from Mr. Trump. Photographs from the funeral present Zelenskyy was 10 seats away from Mr. Trump. Interactions between the pair have been intently watched ever since their heated Oval Workplace trade over the struggle in Ukraine in late February. 

The White Home revealed on Monday that Mr. Trump and Zelenskyy had a non-public assembly within the Vatican earlier than they took their seats on the funeral service. The Trump administration described it as a “very productive dialogue.” Zelenskyy agreed it was a “good assembly” and stated in a assertion on social media that they “mentioned so much.”

Former President Joe Biden and former first woman Jill Biden additionally went to Rome to pay their respects to Francis. He was sitting 4 rows behind Mr. Trump, the BBC experiences.

Right here have been another notable leaders in attendance:

• Britain’s Prince William 
• U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• French President Emmanuel Macron
• Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier 
• Outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• United Nations Secretary Normal Antonio Guterres
• EU Fee chief Ursula von der Leyen
• European Council President Antonio Costa
• Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
• Honduras’ President Xiomara Castro
• Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
• India’s president Droupadi Murmu
• President of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera
• President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi
• President of Cape Verde, Jose Maria Neves

contributed to this report.