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Trump and the First Lady Attend the Funeral Mass for Pope Francis, Apr. 26, 2025

April 26, 2025 · The White House · 2:17:38

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What happened

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attended the funeral Mass for Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Apr. 26, 2025, carried in full on the White House channel. The broadcast’s commentary and the service itself recounted the late pontiff’s final weeks: his 38-day hospital stay for bilateral pneumonia in February and March 2025, his final appearance on Easter Sunday, Apr. 20, 2025, when he imparted the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, and his death the following morning.

The funeral liturgy recalled Francis’s appeals for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Myanmar, his four encyclicals, and the fraternity theme that ran through his twelve-year pontificate, as the homily and commentary presented his record.

Why it matters

The Rome trip is the first papal funeral attended by a sitting U.S. President in this chronicle’s record, and the President explained the trip the day before, aboard Air Force One: he went, he said, out of respect, noting the Catholic vote he won in 2024 - “I won the Catholic vote. I got fifty-six percent of the vote,” as he stated it.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump and the First Lady Attend the Funeral Mass for the Roman Pontiff Francis” (YouTube, Apr. 26, 2025) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.