Funeral to begin at 10am local time in St Peter’s Square and will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re
The oldest child of Italians who migrated to Argentina, Pope Francis had, from the start, made the defence of refugees a cornerstone of his papacy, ensuring in July 2013 that his first pastoral trip outside Rome was to the remote island of Lampedusa.
The tiny rocky strip had emerged as a magnet for smuggling rings bringing people across the Mediterranean from north Africa.