Ammon News - Throngs of mourners are gathering in Vatican City and lining the streets of Rome on Saturday to give a final send-off to Pope Francis, who will be remembered as a champion of migrants and the poor, and for his efforts to reshape the Catholic Church.

His funeral Mass is being held on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the Catholic Church’s most important sites, with more than 50 world leaders and 11 reigning monarchs in attendance.

The Vatican has prepared for as many as 250,000 people to flock to St. Peter’s Square and one million more to line the 6-kilometer (3.7 mile) procession route from Vatican City through Rome to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, in hopes of seeing the pope’s modest coffin as it travels to his final resting place.

Many more of world’s 1.4 billion Catholics will watch the funeral for the first Latin American pope on TV.

Pope Francis died at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke on Easter Monday, just one day after he appeared in the same square to offer a blessing to the faithful at the high point of the Christian calendar.

In the days that followed, about 250,000 mourners came to pay their final respects as his body lay in state inside St. Peter’s Basilica. His coffin was officially sealed on Friday night in a liturgical rite led by the Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Farrell, the acting head of the church. CNN