Sawt Falasteen - Buenos Aires farewells native pontiff with tears and calls to action

As the 88-year-old was being laid to rest an ocean away in Rome, thousands gathered in his hometown cathedral for a dawn vigil, solemn mass and procession of remembrance.

"He's here among the ragged ones, those of us living in the slums among the cardboard" said mourner Esteban Trabuco, a 27-year-old rubbish picker.

"He knew about our suffering. How could we not be here today to say goodbye".

The masses were urged to take up the activist mantle of Latin America's first pope and to carry on his work of creating an activist church that champions the poor and downtrodden.

"Let us be the outgoing Church that Francis always wanted us to be, a restless Church that mobilizes," Buenos Aires' archbishop Jorge Garcia Cuerva told them.

Braving overnight rain and the antipodean autumn chill, dozens of people set up tents in the city's famed Plaza de Mayo to stand vigil, waiting for Francis's funeral to begin in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

Images of the pope and the Virgin of Lujan were illuminated with candles, bread was broken and flags were flown.

Iara Amado, a 25-year-old social worker, said she wanted the vigil "to reclaim the pope's legacy, to transform the sadness left by his departure into a beacon of hope."

Mourners hung banners with some of the most emblematic phrases of Francis's papacy: "Make a ruckus" and "dream big."

An image of the pope with the inscription "pray for me" was projected onto a nearby obelisk.

Lucas Pedro, a 40-year-old teacher, said those gathered did so "with a deep sense of gratitude".

- 'Remember the poor' -

After mass in the cathedral where then Jorge Bergoglio was archbishop until 2013 before becoming pope, the faithful carried images of him around the square.

Some lit flares and danced, others stood in quiet reflection.

Street vendors offered images and souvenirs featuring the pope's smiling face.

Forty-six-year-old Nurse Agustina Renfiges used the occasion to call on the "Church to remember the poor".

"Here, poor people loved him. He left many things, especially the idea of serving others in what you do," she said, breaking into tears.

For many in perennially crisis-stricken Argentina, Pope Francis was not just a religious guide, but a source of national pride.

His willingness to champion the poor, challenge governments and delight in everything from dancing tango, to sipping mate, to playing football gave him popular appeal.

In his final years, Pope Francis had often tussled with political leaders, including Argentina's current libertarian president Javier Milei, who attended his funeral in Rome.

Francis never returned to his homeland after becoming pope.

The pontiff was buried in a plain wooden coffin at Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore church, where he was interred in a private ceremony.

Cardinals aged under 80 will now elect a new pope from among their number.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST