With clear blue skies and temperatures in the high-50s, a perfect day for the world to bid farewell to Pope Francis drew estimates of 1 million people to St. Peter’s Square April 26 to witness the funeral rites for the pontiff, who died April 21 at age 88.

Catholic churches around the world have draped black bunting around their doors as a symbol of mourning the April 21 death of Pope Francis.

Pope Francis’ funeral is scheduled for April 26 at 10 a.m. Rome time (4 a.m. EDT in Baltimore) in St. Peter’s Square, with burial to follow at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major.

Pope Francis’ teachings and writings have had a major influence on several programs in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, notably its two-year Seek the City to Come initiative and its ongoing evangelization efforts.

Alejandro Cañadas, now an associate professor of economics at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, met then-Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio several times from 1991 to 1997 when he was a college student in his native Argentina.

In an era of intense conflict during the Counter-Reformation, St. Ignatius viewed the church’s role as a summons for believers to strive to be the best Christians they could be – an imperative the late Pope Francis embraced as his own, Father Stephen Spahn said.

Black bunting draped the front of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland April 21 as hundreds gathered for an evening Mass of Remembrance in honor of Pope Francis, who died earlier that morning.

Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, former archbishop of Baltimore and retired grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher based at the Vatican, remembered Pope Francis as a leader whose years in office had a major impact.

Pilgrims and tourists who had just one day earlier flocked to St. Peter’s Square awoke to the news that Pope Francis, who had greeted them there on Easter Sunday, had died. Pope Francis died at at 88, a few weeks after returning to his apartment at the Vatican following a five-week hospitalization for pneumonia.

George Matysek discusses the reasons for the change to a lower confirmation age with Stacy Golden, director of the Office of Family, Youth and Young Adult Ministry within the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Institute for Evangelization, and Kenn deMoll, director of formation and innovation at St. John in Westminster – a parish that has already implemented the lower age for confirmation as part of a pilot program.