GB News presenter Ellie Costello was left "overwhelmed" by the "beautiful and solemn" funeral of Pope Francis, as hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Vatican City for the ceremony.Around 200,000 mourners have gathered at the Vatican to bid farewell to the 266th pontiff, with around 150 world leaders - including US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00Okay, well, communion is now being handed out throughout St. Peter's Square, a remarkable
00:09thing to see on such a scale. Ellie Costello has been monitoring all of this, and I know,
00:16Ellie, this, I mean, frankly, to be there must be almost overwhelming.
00:22It truly is, Stephen. I mean, the sounds right now of the Sistine Chapel choir just ringing
00:28out across St. Peter's Square. I can't even put into words how beautiful, solemn, and
00:38poignant this moment is. And also, I wanted to touch on the level of organization as well
00:46that we are witnessing in front of us right now. I can see the priests receiving communion
00:52there, 4,000 of them in St. Peter's Square for this funeral, and many of them will then
01:00go on to give out communion to the crowds that are here. 750 bishops, you can see them there
01:09in purple, and 220 cardinals. It is the most incredible sight. And the reverence in the crowd
01:21is so striking. It's hot here today. It's, let me just take a look at how hot it is, 20 degrees
01:31already at 25 past 11 in the morning. And there are pilgrims down in St. Peter's Square now fanning
01:39themselves. They are, there's now a sea of umbrellas where the temperatures are obviously starting to
01:45soar now. And they could be forgiven perhaps for being distracted from the Requiem Mass that is taking
01:53place considering it is in Latin and it is a long service. But that is not the case. They are all
02:01facing forwards. They are focused. They are reflecting on the words that have been said by Cardinal Ray
02:11and the beautiful sounds of the Sistine Chapel choir. It truly is just the most beautiful
02:22atmosphere here. And as you were touching upon earlier, a celebration, as well as obviously
02:30marking the very sad passing of Pope Francis, it's a celebration of his memory and everything that he
02:37stood for. And we saw that in the 20 minute homily, didn't we, which we now have a translation for that
02:44that has come through on email to us from the Vatican. So I will get the English translation for us
02:55here because it really was so poignant, wasn't it, in such a broken world that we are living in at the
03:02moment. The words there of Cardinal Ray talking about the Gospel and about Pope Francis. And he concluded that
03:16sermon by talking about Pope Francis and his message to people, which was, do not forget to pray for me.
03:24It's what he always said to people when he was leaving them. We heard that from the priests that we
03:30were speaking to earlier on, on breakfast, they said the same thing as it was his message. And now,
03:37what a wonderful message to us all that we can pray to Pope Francis as well.