vatican correspondent delia gallagher is in st. uneral is taking place. >> and john allen. >> delia, let's just start with you. we've been hearing prayers being recited in italian, latin, arabic, portuguese, spanish. what will be the impact of today on the international catholic community? >> reporter: well, look, this is the always way with masses from the vatican because, of course, it's a recognition these masses are broadcast throughout the world and that catholics are from different countries throughout the world so there are always prayers and readings in different languages. in the homily when pope francis spoke a few minutes ago, you'll notice the homily has some real rules to it. it needs to refer to the readings at mass. that's why we didn't hear him necessarily giving a eulogy for pope benedict. it was a reflection on the scriptures but in homage there were excerpts from pope benedict's own reflections from some of the scriptural readings. for pope benedict, the liturgy, the mass was a central part of his work, of catholi

joining us again is cnn vatican correspondent delia gallagher, who is in the square. omentous occasion to watch. and i would imagine for catholics everywhere the historical consequence and poignancy of watching a current pope preside over the funeral of a former pope is really significant. >> reporter: yes. absolutely, bianca. and you know, we have to think about pope francis in this moment. he is the one who had this unique position as pope to have another pope behind him, albeit a retired one, but always present. and in the early years certainly that was helpful for him as a confidant. they apparently had a good relationship because of course they could understand the pressures of the job, as it were. but equally it was something that led to some divisions in the catholic church, having a more conservative pope who had retired and more progressive pope francis. so one wonders if at this point it isn't also a kind of new start for pope francis. one thing to note about this mass which catholics around the world will recognize, it's mostly in latin. there will be prayer

vatican correspondent delia gallagher is in st. peter's square and joins us live. elia. you there are with some of the people standing in line. what are they telling you about why they've come? >> reporter: rosemary, some of these people have been here for about two hours now. the basilica is not yet open. i estimate about 300, 400 people are in line this morning. i had a chance to talk to some of them. many of them are theology students who say they were very influenced by the writings of the pope emeritus. obviously there are priests and nuns living in rome. these would be people already in rome, whether passing through for their vacation or people living here. with john paul ii, we saw hundreds of thousands of people in this square. you couldn't move for the people. but he had two months of being ill. so people had plenty of time to come down here. with pope benedict, obviously a different situation. many of the people this morning are people that are already living here in rome. the basilica will open in about a half hour. they will start to move through. this w

vatican correspondent delia gallagher is in st. peter's square and joins us now live. to see you, delia. you've been talking with some of the people standing in line. what are they telling you about why they've come? >> reporter: so rosemary, we had a chance earlier to speak to some of the people who are mostly people living here in rome. theology students who told me they were very influenced by pope benedict's writings. some priests and nuns. and of course, tourists who are here over the new year who wanted to also come and pay their respects. i have to say just in the last half hour, we've seen the line grow considerably. there might be about 1,000, 2,000 people now. they have to go through security first, so that holds it up a bit. it is moving, it's going all the way back across the square here. something that we kind of expected that we weren't going to see these massive crowds. this is a three-day event, so we'll probably see smaller crowds like this coming through. of course, it's just opened, the basilica, so this is probably one of the largest fluxes we're go

. >> delia gallagher is there in st. peter's square and joins us live. pope benedict had one of the shortest tenures as pope and he was the first pope to resign in 600 years. it was also over shadowed by the abuse scandals. when you are speaking to the faithful there, how are they characterizing him as a pope of his legacy? >> reporter: so, bianca, since about 7:00 this morning there are people lining up. in the last hour or so many, many more have come. probably had a couple thousand now. they're going through security first and then heading inside the basilica. we've spoke to as many of them as possible. they are theology students here living in rome, priests, nuns and tourists who just happened to be here for christmas and new year's. this is a once in a lifetime occasion for them to experience as well. you know, bianca, many of them told us they were here because pope benedict in some way had influence their lives and their studies. because of them, they were theology students or priests and nuns. they are quite devoted to him. other people know him

delia gallagher is standing by in vatican square. >> and fred pleitgen. describe the atmosphere. it was a simple service, wasn't it? but it felt very papal at the same time if that's the right way of describing it. >> reporter: yeah, i think you're absolutely right. i think it felt very papal. i think it felt very humble. the really to the occasion. exactly what pope benedict would have wanted. i think one of the things you just touched on, max, is certainly absolutely correct. we did see certainly towards the end of the service those german flags coming out, the bavarian flags coming out outnumbering the german flag. a lot of signs in german as well saying thank you to pope benedict. i really think that that shows where his main support base has always remained, which is in germany, and specifically there in bavaria where really the folks there believe that he is one of them, never stopped being one of them. they are very close to him. a lot of delegations from people in bavaria and from germany have been coming here to the vatican over the past ten year