Quiet reverence and a ripple of applause for ‘the people’s pope’

The coffin of Pope Francis is carried at the end of his funeral in St Peter’s Square (Gregorio Borgia/AP) - (AP)

The strong aroma of incense heralded the emergence of Pope Francis’s coffin into the sunlight from St Peter’s Basilica.

Its scent, wafting through the air, travelled as high as the terrace overlooking St Peter’s Square onto which media were packed to cover a funeral of global proportions.